i3-6100 + GTX 950 vs i5-6600/6500 and buy GPU later?

[CorgiParade]

I'm trying to decide between buying an i3-6100 + GTX 950 and buying an i5-6600/6500 and buying a GPU later. Which one would be better in the long run?

On one hand, I wouldn't have to spend all of that money on upgrading to a better processor so soon if I went for the i5.

On the other hand, I wouldn't have to wait to get anything above trivial performance if I got an i3 and the GPU first-hand.

 

[Dylan Smit]

Buy the gpu later if you want to game, most AAA games require at least 4 cores

 

[geofelt]

It depends on the type of games you will play.
sims, mmo, and strategy games depend on a fast single master thread. The 6100 is good there.
OTOH, if your games are multiplayer, then more cores is helpful.

Few single player games can effectively use more than 2-3 threads.
The i3 hyperthreads give you 4 threads.(two fast, two slow)



The skylake HD530 graphics is quite good so why not start with just that on either chip and later decide how strong of a discrete card will be appropriate.

If your games are single person shooters, then the graphics card will be most important.

The key decision for you will be whether or not to buy a Z170 based motherboard up front.
That will permit you a future upgrade to a "K" cpu or even kaby lake.

 

[CorgiParade]

It depends on the type of games you will play.
sims, mmo, and strategy games depend on a fast single master thread. The 6100 is good there.
OTOH, if your games are multiplayer, then more cores is helpful.

Few single player games can effectively use more than 2-3 threads.
The i3 hyperthreads give you 4 threads.(two fast, two slow)



The skylake HD530 graphics is quite good so why not start with just that on either chip and later decide how strong of a discrete card will be appropriate.

If your games are single person shooters, then the graphics card will be most important.

The key decision for you will be whether or not to buy a Z170 based motherboard up front.
That will permit you a future upgrade to a "K" cpu or even kaby lake.

I'm going to buy the $50 Gigabyte GA-H110M-A at first, as I don't need any extra features, so I'm just going to go with that and upgrade when I need to upgrade my CPU. I'm a bit short on money though, so I'm planning on having my PC last me a few years.