CPU Comparison - i3 2130 SB vs AMD FX 6100 BE vs Phenom II X4 965 BE

[Crazzed]

Hi everyone,

I've been following Tom's Hardware for a reasonable amount of time now (though I've never been to the forums, at least not intentionally), always using it to help me in my hardware choices and such, but recently it arrived the day the articles alone and even the web couldn't help me anymore (well, or at least in this particular case ), so I set course to the forums, in hopes of finding great and wise advise.

Anyway, I finally decided to upgrade my old, old CPU, but when the time came to make a choice I simply couldn't decide. After some research I choose three candidates: the Intel Core i3 2130 Sandy Bridge; the AMD FX 6100 Black Edition and the AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE.

I was initially settled for the i3 but after taking a look at cpubenchmark.net's charts and such, I begun to have doubts.
The reason I specifically choose those three is because they're all around the same value:

- Intel Core i3 2130 Sandy Bridge: 139,90€ (yes, I'm European, use a damn converter eheh)
- AMD FX 6100 Black Edition: 125,90€
- AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE: 152,38€

In one hand, I'd prefer to buy the i3, not only because I've always heard Intel's hardware had better quality, but also because it allows me to upgrade to the i5 or i7 in the future. On the other hand, well, I do want the very best possibly.

So, after all the rambling, anyone got some advise and opinions to share (preferentially well constructed)?

Cheers.

Edit: Ok, to prevent future posts, it will be for gaming and I know I need corresponding motherboards (come on -.-'), I will be buy one as well.

 

[rocknrollz]

Stating the obvious, you do know that you need an 1155 socket motherboard for the i3 and AM3+ socket motherboard for the FX 6100 and AM3 or AM3+ for the Phenom x4?

 

[Crazzed]

from the prices you listed, the intel CPU would be the best choice for bang for your buck, upgrade path, and as a gaming CPU.

in the real world the Phenom II would offer similar performance in optimized games but has no real upgrade path for gaming and costs more for you.

Hi, thanks for replying.

Yeah actually I wasn't really considering the Phenom II that much anyway, given it's significant age and the FX series, which is the main reason for my doubts and indecision.
Any opinion on the FX 6100?

 

[Crazzed]

Stating the obvious, you do know that you need an 1155 socket motherboard for the i3 and AM3+ socket motherboard for the FX 6100 and AM3 or AM3+ for the Phenom x4?

Yes, obviously, but yeah, I forgot to had to the post that I'm also buying a motherboard, though I don't need help with that (hence the omission).

Thanks anyway.

 

[wr6133]

The Phenom II is better than the FX6100 BUT at those prices the i3 is probably best plus the upgradeability on the 1155 socket.

That price on the 965 seems nuts here they are £88 so under 100 Euro at that price its good bang to buck.

 

[Crazzed]

The Phenom II is better than the FX6100 BUT at those prices the i3 is probably best plus the upgradeability on the 1155 socket.

That price on the 965 seems nuts here they are £88 so under 100 Euro at that price its good bang to buck.

Cool, thanks. Do you think I'll have too much issues with the i3 not being a true 4 core CPU? Or will it hang on for a while on the gaming scene (I know it's obviously dependent on the remaining set-up, but still...)?

By the way, given that so far everyone has pretty much ruled out the AMD ones, what do you think about the FX 6200 Black Edition? Is it worth adding to the list in the main post?
It's at 159,90€, so it's a bit more expensive than the i3 and I would definitely only pay the extra "buck" if it was considerably better.

Cheers.

 

[cmi86]

Cool, thanks. Do you think I'll have too much issues with the i3 not being a true 4 core CPU? Or will it hang on for a while on the gaming scene (I know it's obviously dependent on the remaining set-up, but still...)?

By the way, given that so far everyone has pretty much ruled out the AMD ones, what do you think about the FX 6200 Black Edition? Is it worth adding to the list in the main post?
It's at 159,90€, so it's a bit more expensive than the i3 and I would definitely only pay the extra "buck" if it was considerably better.

Cheers.

Yes you will most definitely notice the lack of 2 physical cores when it comes to large online multi player game modes. You will also notice a difference in most everything this isn't single player gaming. I'm not a fan of the i3, i think investing in a dual core right now is a TOTAL waste of money as the software market is moving past dual cores to quad cores. My advice is to just save up the extra $$ and get a nice intel quad. The AMD's are good but they are not as fast as the intel quads and the future of the AM3+ socket is not very promising right now. If it comes down to a cost thing I would take a Phenom II quad over an i3 any day of the week.

 

[cmi86]

do you have any proof of that inaccurate statement or are you just stating mindless trash in order to defend your fan boy purchase?

i3 has identical results as the phenom II x4 in star wars the old republic

http://media.bestofmicro.com/6/U/317766/original/CPU Core.png

for battlefield 3? pretty much the same

For the most part Battlefield 3 doesn’t appear to be all that CPU demanding, at least this is what we can tell from testing the multiplayer portion

http://static.techspot.com/articles-info/448/bench/CPU_02.png

GAMES GAMES GAMES !!!!! THERE IS MORE TO THE WORLD THAN JUST GAMING AND ONLY GAMING EVER. Good god, u ever try building a well rounded system ?

 

[nekulturny]

do you have any proof of that inaccurate statement or are you just stating mindless trash in order to defend your fan boy purchase?

i3 has identical results as the phenom II x4 in star wars the old republic

Interesting. Something I hadn't seen before. But, this begs the question, what happens when a game really is as CPU demanding as was initially thought when BF3 came out? Now, I know I'm talking hypothetically, but even so, I think its worth considering. Also, your post was very rude and condescending especially considering CMI86 suggested an Intel chip, the only one playing fanboy games here is YOU.

Now the OP seems to only be interested in a gaming system, and he already favors Intel.

@Crazzed

In one hand, I'd prefer to buy the i3, not only because I've always heard Intel's hardware had better quality, but also because it allows me to upgrade to the i5 or i7 in the future. On the other hand, well, I do want the very best possibly.

It is my opinion that buying an i3 now with the intent to upgrade to an i5/i7 later is a foolish idea. Lets say you spend whatever it costs for an i3 today, and then 6 months down the road, you decide the i3 isn't doing it for you so you buy an i5, well, that money you paid on the i3 is a complete waste. You're better off saving til you have more money to get what you want today. It will save you money in the long run.

 

[diec4st]

If you can strech a few bucks more, your best bet would be an i5-2320 or i5-2400 as they're usually about 50$ more expensive than i3's and will last you a long long time.

 

[nekulturny]

Just as a friendly response.
No one has actually moaned here about the performance of an i3 with BF3.
There is also nothing the i3 cannot do as well as the phenom in scenarios outside of gaming.

Actually, I have also seen people complain that the i3 isn't up to snuff for BF in multiplayer. Now I do not own this game, nor do I own an i3, so I will not say that for sure it can't. And for the sake of not involving other members in their past posts, and for the sake of my own not having to dig thru old posts, but I can indeed say that I have seen posts on this forum about it being an issue.

 

[Proximon]

AMD vs Intel threads are just extremely inflammatory. This will only go downhill from this point. You got good answers.

 

[cmi86]

Just as a friendly response.
No one has actually moaned here about the performance of an i3 with BF3.
There is also nothing the i3 cannot do as well as the phenom in scenarios outside of gaming.

Really ?? Take a look at this bud.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/362?vs=289

Synthetic benchmarks VERY SLIGHTLY favor the intel, who cares synthetic doesn't mean anything.

Games favor the i3 as they are all single player modes, thats fine I know the i3 is a better gamer in single player modes.

Basically everything else in this review favors the Phenom II's higher clock and 2 addition REAL cores.

 

[nekulturny]

Id also add that dirty didn't read the fine print of the article he picked from for a reference point:

From the Conslusion page:

On the CPU side of things, we found that Battlefield 3 is not nearly as CPU demanding as many have made it out to be. Previously tested games, such as Hard Reset, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Witcher 2 and Crysis 2, saw a massive difference in performance between dual and quad-core processors. For example, in Deus Ex dual-cores were 43% slower than their quad-core counterparts. Battlefield 3 on the other hand delivered similar frame rates with a decent dual-core as it did with a quad.

Having that said, we prefer the peace of mind of the quad-core as the game will max out a Phenom II X2. According to our tests a Phenom II X4, FX-4000 series CPU and even the Athlon II X4 will provide very similar performance with the same level of CPU utilization.

 

[Proximon]

GAMES GAMES GAMES !!!!! THERE IS MORE TO THE WORLD THAN JUST GAMING AND ONLY GAMING EVER.

There are some valid points that you might have made in this post. Unfortunately they are not well developed and you chose to attack other posters rather than develop the ideas fully.

 

[nekulturny]

I was talking about general multi-tasking ect.
You are correct about 4 real cores however.

I am leaving now before i get drawn down with this thread.

This is the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

 

[nekulturny]

Hey recon, I'm a Gemini, I can't go out and check my mail without trying to be the "class clown".

 

[Proximon]

No, this topic is done.

 

[Proximon]

Best answer selected by Proximon.