Integrated vs Dedicated

[overreded1123]

I need to desperately upgrade my CPU and Motherboard.

Looking at some deals, I found that I could purchase a cheap mobo and Pentium G3450 for under $100. This would increase my performance by a ton but I would have no graphics card to speak of.

I have a powerful power supply (550w) and 4 GBs of gaming RAM (DDR3).

My question is this: Should I purchase a much cheaper processor and tack on a graphics card or just go with a more powerful processor?

I play strategy games mostly, like Rome Total War 2, Europa Universalis 4, etc. and need good FPS.

I DO have a mobo currently, but its old and only accepts FM1 socket currently.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

I would upgrade to an intel 1150 board and CPU , then save cash for a GPU.

 

[overreded1123]

I would upgrade to an intel 1150 board and CPU , then save cash for a GPU.

Do you believe I would be able to play Rome 2 and games like it with the CPU I picked out? I never usually buy Intel so I am guessing on all of this.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/total-war-rome-ii/11671/?p=r

 

[overreded1123]

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/total-war-rome-ii/11671/?p=r

Thank you.

The game says you need a second generation I5 or better to play. I am looking at the Pentium G3258 which is not quad-core. However, when I do CPUBoss comparisons, the G3258 is much higher. Hell, its on par with the highest I5 available from the second generation. I am assuming that that means the G3258 is best for me?

Also, if I am only gaming and doing nothing else while doing so, is it better to have a dual core processor? Quad core means more applications can be done at the same time, correct?

 

[synphul]

I don't know what cpu boss bench's or comparisons showed the g3258 better than the i5 - that's not true except maybe in price to performance only because the pentium is a lot cheaper. It's also not as fast as the i5 4690k core for core, overall, doesn't have quite as capable of onboard graphics, has half as many cores - either way, core for core or overall the i5 beats the pentium and it should at around double the price.