I3 2100 vs 960T vs FX4100

Lycan_89

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2010
21
0
18,520
Hy there guys,


I'm going to build myself a new rig so I'll need your help with choosing from these 3 budget CPUs: i3 2100 or 960T or FX4100 :eek: . My choice is limited to these 3 CPUs.


The target is a Diablo 3/DoTa 2/Darksiders 2/Warcraft 3 and some other old games mainstream gaming rig/internet browsing PC.

I don't really know how to OC but I will learn quickly if I feel the need to get some more juice out of those AMD CPUs. I know that the i3 CPU will not be able to get OCed.

I want my build to last for at least 5 years. I'm going to play ONLY the games mentioned above about 5-6 hrs a week (not really a gamer)

The display will be a BENQ 22" FullHD LED monitor.




The store is www.emag.ro and my build so far looks like this:

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4433/123tov.jpg



PS: now I work and play on an ASUS notebok:

Intel Core i5 2430M 2.40GHz, 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz, WD 750GB SATA2 HDD, nVidia GeForce GT 520MX 1GB
 

Robi_g

Distinguished
Jan 28, 2012
510
0
19,010
But at the moment it (the i3) beats the FX4100 in heavily threaded apps because it's architecture is so much better. (not sure about the 960t though).
Your build looks very similar to one I'm planning, make sure you get a compatible motherboard if getting the intel as the list you've posted is for AMD.
In 5 years whatever you buy will be out of date so buy a motherboard that will allow easy upgrading, I didn't and I'm stuck with a processor that's never run flat out ever and doesn't need changing but can't support new graphics cards and has a max RAM capacity of 2GB.
Hope this is helpful
 

Lycan_89

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2010
21
0
18,520
I will not be upgrading anytime soon. I know that with the motherboard I have chosen the asrock 970 extreme3 I can unlock all six cores of the 960T (it's a big chance)
Also, it can OC like crazy the 960T...

PS: BigMack70 you do have a point there :)
 

ali2837

Distinguished
Jan 5, 2012
69
0
18,640
ivy bridge will be compatible with sandy bridge, so you can easliy upgrade in say 4 years, get intel
also if you can just upgrade to i3 2120 from 2100, you gain 200mhz for ~£15
 
The 960t is probably the better option given its 4 default core which work much better than hyperthreading. The i3 is about 30% faster per core but the 960t can be OC'ed so it will still match up decently. You don't really need to unlock the 6 cores.

D3 and Dota2 will both use more than 2 cores from the betas so I would say get the 960t. It can be OC'ed to 4ghz and thus is pretty effective even if the games are only using 2 cores. Hyperthreading just does not work well in games and decreases performance in multithreaded games more than it helps, its probably 50/50 if you get less more more fps depending on the game with it enabled.

the i3's advantage however is better power consumption and a better upgrade path if you get more money in the future since you can just put in an i5 or i7. the 960t is about as good as it gets for AMD right now unless games can use 8 cores which they probably won't be using at least for another 3-4 years given how long it took to get games to work with more than 2.
 
You could save 25+% and get a SandyBridge Pentium. Just as good as the AMD quads and almost as good as the i3. You can put the extra cash toward an i5 down the road.

Wouldn't go with AMD unless you have some insider information on Piledriver... FX was just a huge letdown.
 

4eyed

Distinguished
Dec 16, 2011
161
0
18,710
According to maaaany benchmarks, i3 2100 has a slight ( 5fps ) advantage over a non-overclocked 960t. 5 fps is not very much, and the 960t can easily be overclocked and you can also unlock 2 extra cores. I chose it for my new PC, i am very happy with it. Paired up with a gtx 560 ti, it handles everything, including new games ( skyrim, batman AC, BF3 ) with ease. And those 2 ( 4 if you unlock ) extra cores may prove useful in the future.
 
GameBench-1.jpg


If you just OC the 960t it will be better than the i3.
 

That article has a very small sample of games and did not test many games which will use more cores. The 960t will offer more performance in games that uses 4 cores and both Diablo 3 and Dota 2 betas were using 4 cores on my system. Thus I would say for future games, the phenom II will offer more performance given an OC.

The stock 960t will trade blows with the i3 if more multithreaded games were tested.
 
you will be very unlikely to be able do any OC with the fsb, less than 100mhz.

As for the heatsink, given the price of the i3 2120 and the 960t + heatsink, both will be performing about the same with 4 cores > 2 with multithreading in general use and games which use more than 2 cores. The 960t is also enough for anything that uses 2 cores so I see no need to get more single threaded performance.
 

Gamer Dude

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2012
226
0
18,690

Considering the fact that Dual Core is being phased out you might want to go back to Pentium4 with HT with your rational but industry is moving toward with quadcore and beyond.
 

stanistheman

Distinguished
Feb 8, 2012
300
0
18,790
I personally would go 4100 its a quad core compared to the i3 its a bit slower yes although that is true. as more applications use more cores the quad core will be better. and games that will use more cores too so i would recommend you go with 4100 Goodluck!
 

scaling is no linear...
can you post benches where the i3 is 50% faster than the p840 given the price?

as for gaming if you check the chart I posted, the 3.5 ghz phenom II is already on par with the i3, the 960t can be clocked higher.

The upgrade path is another story.
 

Gamer Dude

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2012
226
0
18,690

dual cores are cheaper that's why you see them in budget laptops plus they are throw away the future is going to be more cores this is a proven trend and fact LOL. PS your propaganda and rhetoric will not fool me prey.
 

Gamer Dude

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2012
226
0
18,690

With your logic or lack thereof consoles would have more performance than a decent PC and really dude market share is not the point here cause most people just use a PC or laptop for Facebook, Porn, and Email.
 

Gamer Dude

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2012
226
0
18,690

So instead of understanding the facts that people present you with you call down people whom are learning English as a second language very smart of you and mature. PS if a dual core i3 is so much better than a quad core Phenom II x4 then why does TH put the overclocked 960T equivalent a whole tier above the i3 2100 LOL.
 


You have no clue on what you're talking about. Cores aren't everything. Just because the Bulldozer is a "quad core" ( I wouldn't even call it that) that doesn't mean anything. It's all about archit of the chip. The Sandy Bridge processor has a faster archit then the Bulldozer so even a dual core I3can beat out a quad and six core Bulldozer. Clock for clock the Bulldozer can't compete with Sandy Bridges it's a piss poor performer.
 

Gamer Dude

Distinguished
Feb 10, 2012
226
0
18,690

We are not talking about that the topic at hand is core i3 vs 960T and TH facts state that the OCed equivalent of the 960T is one full tier above the i3 2100 you are way off base and stop harassing me please I am human to bro.