i3 6100 with gtx 960 or i5 6400 with gtx 950

[miniSobreira]

I am going to be building a PC soon, and I have squared it down to either an i3 6100 with a GTX 960 2GB or an i5 with a GTX 950.
I ONLY will play Counter Strike Global Offensive, League of Legends, Rocket League and maybe some off gta5 (but i dont mind to lower setting if need)

 

[davidarad02]

I think that the i3 6100 is more than enough for your main games (and the exrta performance over the 950 is always nice), but if you want to dabble with the higher end ones, I would go for the i5, just because of it being a quad-core.

 

[zeke15]

If you are gaming, your best option is the i3 + GTX 960. Getting the i5 + GTX 950 build will function better at resolutions like 1600x900 or for rendering/editing work. The i3 + GTX 960 will work better on higher resolutions and for gaming and other GPU intensive tasks. Most games only utilize 2 cores + hyperthreading, so you won't see any issues with an i3 instead.

 

[superninja12]

i5 6400 with the gtx 950.

the difference between the 960 and 950 is minimal.
but the difference between an intel dual core and quad core will be very noticeable.
also the i3 will hold back high end cards, the i5 wont hold back any gpu cards and im sure not the future not yest released pascal/polaris gpu cards.

 

[zeke15]

i5 6400 with the gtx 950.

the difference between the 960 and 950 is minimal.
but the difference between an intel dual core and quad core will be very noticeable.
also the i3 will hold back high end cards, the i5 wont hold back any gpu cards and im sure not the future not yest released pascal/polaris gpu cards.

The i3-6100 won't hold anything back up to a GTX 980. The i5-6400 won't hold back anything up to a 980ti. Unless the OP plans on getting a 980ti in the near future, bottlenecking is irrelevant. Bottlenecking source:
http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2729891/bottlenecking-guide-chart-2015.html

As for the difference between the two graphics cards and the two processors, take a look at userbenchmark.com
They show that the i5-6400 only has around an 11% gain over the i3-6100 (source). When comparing the GTX 960 and GTX 950, it shows that there is around a 17% boost I speed between the 960 and the 950 (source). If you take into account that games are more GPU dependent than CPU dependent, the difference in GPU performance becomes much greater. In terms of 1080p gaming, this can be the difference between medium and high settings, and an extra 15 fps.

 

[superninja12]

dont ever use those websites, theyre not accurate.
the quad core will be visible way earlier, because it got 4 real cores.
so better streaming/multitasking/gaming since games can and will utizile 4 real cores.
with other words/ the 950 with an i5 will give u the same gaming results , with better background tasking.

 

[miniSobreira]

But i i can upgrade the cpu right? Because, I wont need "more GPU" but i will need a very good cpu when i get to university so i think that i will buy i3 and in the next 2 years i can buy an I7.. and then i have an 960 instead of a 950.
What do u Think?

 

[superninja12]

But i i can upgrade the cpu right? Because, I wont need "more GPU" but i will need a very good cpu when i get to university so i think that i will buy i3 and in the next 2 years i can buy an I7.. and then i have an 960 instead of a 950.
What do u Think?

the i5 wont bottleneck ANY graphics card, u dont get more fps with an i7(ye 3-5).
the main difference between teh i5 and i7 is hyperthreading, this will only benefit livestreaming triple a games and video rendering.

so up to you.

 

[zeke15]

dont ever use those websites, theyre not accurate.
the quad core will be visible way earlier, because it got 4 real cores.
so better streaming/multitasking/gaming since games can and will utizile 4 real cores.
with other words/ the 950 with an i5 will give u the same gaming results , with better background tasking.

More accurately, don't trust CPU boss. Userbenchmark takes benchmarks form actual people in the world. You download a program and it runs various benchmarks on your system which are then uploaded to their site. It is completely trustworthy because the data comes from real world conditions on consumer PC's, not lab PC's build and made for the benchmark.

If you actually look into the comparison, it shows that the i5-6400 has a 24% better quad core speed, but the i3-6100 beats it in single core speed by about 11%. For gaming, more games utilize single or dual core, giving the better performance to the i3-6100, especially paired with a stronger GPU like the GTX 960.

I am not arguing that the i3-6100 is better than the i5-6400. The point is that it is better to have a GTX 960 paired with an i3-6100 than an i5-6400 paired with a GTX 950. While you will notice better background tasking with the i5-6400, the GTX 950 paired with it will only be able to play games on around medium settings at 35-45 fps. The GTX 960 however will be able to play on high with that 40-50 fps. So in other words, when viewed as a pair with the respective graphics card, the i3-6100 and GTX 960 will provide much better gameplay with worse background taksing. The i5-6400 and GTX 950 will provide poorer gameplay, but with better background tasking. If the purpose of the PC is to play games, then the i3-6100 and GTX 960 is easily the best choice.

 

[zeke15]

But i i can upgrade the cpu right? Because, I wont need "more GPU" but i will need a very good cpu when i get to university so i think that i will buy i3 and in the next 2 years i can buy an I7.. and then i have an 960 instead of a 950.
What do u Think?

That would probably be your best option. I don't know what your major will be, but anything in the field of video editing, 3D modeling, rendering, or Autocad will definitely need a beefy CPU like an i7. The GTX 960 will be absolutely fine for the next couple years, and as new games come out, you may have to cranks settings down to medium (not a hugely drastic difference from high on most games). The i3-6100 will work great for now, and when you upgrade your CPU later on, you will be set for 5-6 years in terms of your processor. By that poiunt in time, you will have less time for games, and a powerful GPU won't be as much of an issue. At that point, newer graphics cards will have come out and you can upgrade if you need to.

Most importantly, for right now, and then next year or two, the i3-6100 and GTX 960 will perform better in the games you want to play.

 

[miniSobreira]

But i i can upgrade the cpu right? Because, I wont need "more GPU" but i will need a very good cpu when i get to university so i think that i will buy i3 and in the next 2 years i can buy an I7.. and then i have an 960 instead of a 950.
What do u Think?

That would probably be your best option. I don't know what your major will be, but anything in the field of video editing, 3D modeling, rendering, or Autocad will definitely need a beefy CPU like an i7. The GTX 960 will be absolutely fine for the next couple years, and as new games come out, you may have to cranks settings down to medium (not a hugely drastic difference from high on most games). The i3-6100 will work great for now, and when you upgrade your CPU later on, you will be set for 5-6 years in terms of your processor. By that poiunt in time, you will have less time for games, and a powerful GPU won't be as much of an issue. At that point, newer graphics cards will have come out and you can upgrade if you need to.

Most importantly, for right now, and then next year or two, the i3-6100 and GTX 960 will perform better in the games you want to play.

Thanks, i will choose i3 with 960