is the difference between i3 4160 and i5 4460 significant?

[Ryan Anderson]

i want to build a nice gaming PC and i want to cut the price down will it be a major change between the 4160 and 4460? I inted to mostly for entertainment and for school.

the other parts if you want to know will be:
-GPU: Evga GTX750 Ti 2GB
-HHD: Western DIgital Caviar blue 500GB
-MoBo: Asus H81M-K
-RAM: 4GB G,Skill Aegis 1600Mhz
-PSU: SeaSonic 500W SS-500ET
-CPU Fan: Arctic Freezer 11 LP

 

[Alan Caldwell]

Better an i5 if for gaming. It's currently better and will be future-proof a bit as it has 4 cores opposed to 2 cores.
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/418/Intel_Core_i3_i3-4160_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-4460.html

 

[synphul]

It depends on the game, but if more and more games are going to multi thread (4 core) then you'll be better off with an i5. The i3 will still process 4 threads despite having 2 cores but hyperthreading isn't the same as 4 true cores. It's maybe a 15-20% performance boost compared to 2 cores/2 threads. Unless of course it's going to be a more temporary setup, you might go with the cheaper i3 and save up for a better i5 that's unlocked and a z97 motherboard (or by then broadwell/skylake might be out). Hard to suggest sinking a ton of money into an i5 and stuffing it onto an h81 chipset. That's a fair chunk of money for essentially crippled hardware compared to what it could be.

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

When you say that you want to use the PC for entertainment, are we assuming that will involve playing AAA games? If so, then the i5 is the processor to buy. As synphul said, processor cores and processor threads aren't the same, and software utilises them differently, if at all. A B95 motherboard will also be a better buy if you don't want to overclock, as not only do you have PCIe 3.0 and faster RAM speeds, you also have the option to upgrade to Skylake and Broadwell processors.

Of course, if you aren't gaming, or are only a casual gamer (WoW, Minecraft, etc.) then the i3 will suit you fine. It will still play recent AAA titles, but you'll probably find that it will run out of steam soon.

 

[LucoTF]

I agree, i5 if gaming and i3 if not