How much better is i3 IB

[Pedrovsky]

I'm looking into building a gaming machine with low power draw, excelent performance at 1366x768 in a good looking mATX/mITX case that would last me lets say 2/3 years. I'm not in a rush though, so, I was thinking how much better would a IB i3 be against a SB i3 or even a SB i5 since a top of the line IB i3 is expected to cost the same as i5 2400 by the time they come into the market. i'd like to stick to a budget of no more then 600$ and i don't need a HDD my old seagate barracuda 320gb sata II will do for the time being. It should be doable.

In some early post related with this issue someone very wisely said that gaming performance actually tends to be more cpu bound as you lower the resolution. Having that in mind what do you think would be your recomendation...?
To wait... or get a i3/i5 right now? oh and btw you guys think a 7850 would be a good enough card to stack with those processors for 2/3 years from now?

I havent excluded the possibility of getting the top of the line trinity APU but it just seems very unlikely it will be powerfull enough to suit my needs, yet if it turns out to be it would make it a worth considering option since it would drastically lower the budget.

 

[WR2]

IB looks to be about a 5-15% improvement over SB, depending on the application used.
Ivy Bridge gets early benchmark; graphics gains look good

You might end up waiting longer for an i3 than you would for an i5/i7.

 

[WR2]

THG article: Intel Presentation Confirms Ivy Bridge Specifications

Ivy Bridge announcement on April 23; AMD Trinity to launch on May 15 (or maybe June?)
A10-5800K 3.8GHz / Radeon HD 7660D graphics will the the top Trinity APU.

 

[cumi2k4]

well, if you're using additional video card, then there's no need to consider AMD's apu at all. From the news, it looks like IB will lower the power consumption, not sure if the price difference with SB will offset the electric bill, though...

 

[Guest]

"They are scheduled to launch in Q3 2012 but we don’t have an exact date yet. "
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26545-five-desktop-core-i3-ivy-bridge-in-q2

 

[Pedrovsky]

well, if you're using additional video card, then there's no need to consider AMD's apu at all. From the news, it looks like IB will lower the power consumption, not sure if the price difference with SB will offset the electric bill, though...

It isn't a absolute must, just if the 7660D + that good looking 3.8 is able to cut it...realy hoping that Piledrive fixes the issues with BD.

Anyway it would seem that getting getting a i3 right now + a good gpu would still be much better then the trinity apu route...

But what I really want to know is, should i buy an SB i3 a SB i5 or go for the IB alternatives when they come out because i dont have very demanding needs.

1366x768 30 fps in most games maxed out for 3 years... Don't need a HDD so it should be doable for around 500$ to 600$. That would be 150/200 for cpu 80/100 MB 50$ RAM around 180 for the GPU (7850 should be around that price by the time I do the build) and the rest for the case PSU and Optical Drive

 

[Guest]

there really is no reason to wait for an ivy i3; the 2120s is a great bang for the buck.

they are about $128 on new egg right now then match that up with a asrock Z68 pro3-m for $110 and your at $239 of your 230/300 budget for both components.

i was looking at the asus z68 pro-m $125 but they are out of stock

the only reason to wait for ivy is the 50% performance increase with quick sync.

 

[Pedrovsky]

Thanks looniam,

Do you think a i5 would drastically increase the life spam of the build and the gaming performance at that res?

 

[marshal11]

"They are scheduled to launch in Q3 2012 but we don’t have an exact date yet. "
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/26545-five-desktop-core-i3-ivy-bridge-in-q2

i5/i7 coming out at the end of april, core i3 and power saving i7S/i5S coming out in june because they didnt sell as many 2nd i3s as they thought.

 

[amuffin]

If you are just gaming, it doesn't really matter that much whether you buy a sandybridge or ivybridge cpu. All of the work will be put into the gpu, not the cpu.

 

[Guest]

Thanks looniam,

Do you think a i5 would drastically increase the life spam of the build and the gaming performance at that res?

if you can afford to go with an i5 its not a bad idea. but "drastically"? it will be "noticeable"

 

[Pedrovsky]

well i really meant drastically as in like lets say 20%...my problem is not right now...my problem is future I expect to be playing everything on high 2 years from now. I believe the i5 is the route to take.

I believe the only reason why dual core is still so good is because most stuff is still optimized for 2 cores only since they kind of dominate the laptop segment...

I really would like to be able to predict for how long will the dual core still be able perform so good, that would answer all my questions.

 

[amuffin]

i3-2100, heck even games barely use more than 2 cores. You have the largest upgrade path with the i3-2100 than anything else. You can get an sandybridge i5 or i7 or even an ivybridge i5 or i7 later on.

 

[Guest]

as quad cores become more common place then the development for them will be; that is a given.

though in the last 5 years, when the Q6600 came out in 07, people have been saying that more and more software and games will take advantage of the 4 cores. productivity and video encoding software has taken advantage but not as much in gaming.

dual cores will always have a share in the market but its difficult to predict what developers will do.

 

[jaguarskx]

Developing programs and game that are highly multi-threaded is easier said than done. For the near future most programs and games will still be using two cores. Perhaps in about 10 years from now highly multi-threaded programs will be more common place.