Old vs New Generation Pentiums

[Ohlins]

I am currently in the market for a budget gaming build. I play WoW mostly but would definitely want to play some more demanding games mainly action/adventure genre like Mad Max, Batman Arkham Knight, GTA V etc. I plan to start with a Pentium and work my way upwards to an i5 or i7. I also want the system to be expandable(probably add 2 GTX 950's or 960's in SLI). I only have trouble picking motherboard and CPU. I was thinking of going with a Pentium K G3258, since it can be overclocked pretty easily(even with the Intel HSF), but recently I discovered that the new Skylake Pentiums have been released. So this brings me to my 3 followup questions:

1) Should I get a Haswell Pentium(and more specifically the G3258) or get a Skylake?

2) If I get the Pentium K unlocked CPU, which is the best motherboard to overclock it with 1 click like Gigabyte's Easy Tune software (e.g model Z97-P D3)?

3) Are dual core CPU's limiting in any way? I remember Far Cry 4 couldn't even start if you had less than 4 cores. Am I gonna be better off with an AMD 860K?

Thanks for the help in advance,any information that I've forgot to provide please ask me.

 

[ingtar33]

3) Are dual core CPU's limiting in any way? I remember Far Cry 4 couldn't even start if you had less than 4 cores.

This is going to be the biggest problem with going with a G3258. A lot of new games in addition to FC4 won't even boot on a dual core. Games like TW3, DAI and others won't even boot. This will become a bigger problem as time goes on.

I don't think an AMD is a good solution either, the FM2+ socket is on it's last leg, so getting an Athlon II x4 will leave you with no upgrade prospects. That's an "endgame" purchase not a "stepping stone" purchase.

I would save a little bit more $$ and skip the g3258, go straight to the quad core intel, and save yourself $$ over the long run.

 

[CTurbo]

It all depends on your overall budget. I personally don't like the Pentiums for gaming uses, but they do offer the best upgrade path. I have not looked at the Skylake Pentiums prices yet, but I'm going to assume that they are overpriced like the rest of the Skylake lineup.

 

[smorizio]

your going to pay more for the skylake cpu right now as there in short supply the g4400 should been around 60.00 retail are showing up at 100.00 now online. most e-retailers dont have them till the end of the week if there lucky.
skylake mb first rev with ddr4 that make speed is 4.1g there are ddr 3 skylake mb but they need low wattage ram. in real life you may get a little more speed out of skylake over haswell. if you can wait on your build buy the newer nvidia pascal thta be dropping after xmass. they tapped out the chip a few weeks ago and there doing final testing right now. for the same money as one 960 card you casn buy a newer pascal card that going to have more vram and be faster.

 

[Ohlins]

But in general is the G3258 good for games like WoW,Dota,Lol,Heroes of the Storm etc? If I couple that with a GTX 950 which is "optimized" for MMO and MOBA games will I get enough performance to cover me through the next expansion (Legion), let's say?

 

[CTurbo]

I would get an i3 minimum

 

[Ohlins]

I would get an i3 minimum

Wouldn't the Pentium perform better than an i3,if overclocked to 4 - 4.2GHz ? Also does hyper threading make much difference in games like WoW?

 

[CTurbo]

The i3 is by far a better choice. The Pentium would work better in some instances but it wouldn't work at all in others. The i3 is more capable.