How many cores do i need?

[compnewb_12]

Hi I am building a computer for 500 and I am wondering how many cores do I need realistically for moderate (med graphics) gaming (planetside 2 would be my most demanding game). I might go for an i3 3220 dual core, or should I get a quad. If so, do I get an older intel quad or a newer amd quad.

FYI: I am taking into consideration the upgrade path (ex i3 lga1155 socket to an i5 lga1155 socket etc)

I do not know my specs of my comp as it is not built yet. It would look something like this though:
500-550w psu
either a 7770 ghz ed or gtx 650 gpu
case for about $50 with a fan or more if can get more
8 gig of ram
500 gb hdd or 1 tb if it is cheap enough
a dvd reader writer
cpu of choice
mobo to match

Any input is great thanks.

 

[compnewb_12]

thee are two ways of looking into this scenario. do note that OP says that he plans to get an i3 but could save up for an i5 if its helps his save money in the long run. that is certainly a very good idea. am totally with you guys on him saving up ang getting an i5.
however he also mentions that he is planning either a gtx 650 or a 7770 which are just lower end cards. so he could get an i3 and save up that extra money for a better gpu like a 7850 or gtx 660 which will have much more impact on performance than switching from i3 to i5.
this is because even if he does get i5 and 3570 the 7770 will reach its bottleneck much before the advantage from going from i3 to i5 shows up so he ends up getting the same performance with both i3 and i5 as the gpu still would be a bottleneck.
this is why i suggest OP get an i3-3220 and save up money for a much better gpu like 660 or 7850 and dont worry i3 will not bottleneck these cards at all

Ive been reading some threads and doing research, and I am still going with an i5 but if I stretch my gpu budget about $10-$20 (which I can now afford, and could not before I started this thread) I can still get a 7850 which will give me much better performance compared to a gtx650 ti or 7770. Also now that I think about, 4 cores should help me as I usually have other programs running as well as a game. Nonetheless, I never thought about saving up for a better gpu and then getting an i3.

 

[InvalidError]

Having a quad core to play games does not hurt though since background process can use the 3rd/4th core if necessary.

For the software I am looking at, background stuff accounts for about 15% of CPU usage which should be well within what HT could cover. When software starts giving a Pentium's two cores a workout, the i3 pulls away because the two extra hardware threads take care of background stuff by keeping otherwise under-used execution resources busy. Much fewer preemptive context swaps also enables everything to get done more efficiently.

HT's negative impact on i7 gaming is more about the i7 having too many grossly under-used resources in typical modern games to forgive overstepping or shoulder-bumping between any two threads on a given core... it is simply too powerful to handle (relatively) lightly threaded code as efficiently as the i5 does.

If we could ditch the x86 legacy (lots of logic and power is spent maintaining backward compatibility and messy original instruction set) and finely thread software efficiently to leverage SMT (tons of logic and power spent on single-threaded ILP), we could cram more than 3X the performance in the same power and die area budget as current desktop x86 CPUs. (Ex.: Xeon Phi.)

It would be interesting if Intel decided to make a desktop version of Xeon Phi with 8C32T@3GHz... but I'm guessing Phi cores lack much of the stuff required to boot standard desktop OSes and run standard applications to conserve die space and power.

 

[InvalidError]

Ive been reading some threads and doing research, and I am still going with an i5 but if I stretch my gpu budget about $10-$20 (which I can now afford, and could not before I started this thread) I can still get a 7850 which will give me much better performance compared to a gtx650 ti or 7770.

Worst case, another possibility would be to initially forgo the GPU and use the i5's IGP (all except the i5-3330P have it) until you can afford whichever GPU you want. I would personally much prefer this option over buying a CPU I might regret just due to being a little short on change.

This way, you get a CPU you won't second-guess and plenty of time to make up your mind about the GPU with a working system under your desk in the meantime.

There are many ways to stretch a budget.