The Core i3 best budget cpu?

[Usacomputer]

Ok everyone I found something that might break the interwebs

http://www.techspot.com/review/972-intel-core-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7/page6.html

So according to this article on tech spot and a few others that I don't really need to link because the outcome is mostly similar if not the same

And these show that for even the high end cards like the gtx 980

The core i3 holds it own at 100 dollars less than an i5

So I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about this

Also fell free to argue this should be fun

But what my general idea I want it to revolve around is that the core i3 is perfect for the gtx 960 and r9 280x platforms and maybe even the 290- anyone agree?

NOTE these tests were done at 1080p so for 1080p it's a good bargain

 

[hardplayer98]

i am with the one of the first good i3 CPUs - i3-2100 , im with it from 2011 and i am going to upgrade my gpu to r9 280x dual-x , when i get the card (if i get it) i will tell you if my i3 bottleneck the card then you can make take your notes .

cheers

 

[Dunlop0078]

If i wanted a budget cpu i would get the Pentium G3258 cheap, great overclocker, and has a good amount of power for what it is, its pretty much the same as an i3 but no hyper threading. Yah a modern i3 would be decent for for most games with the 960 or 280x but it will bottleneck in cpu intensive games. I wouldn't really pair an i3 with a 290 it would be fine in a lot of games but same as the 960 and 280x, it will bottleneck in cpu intensive games.

 

[Usacomputer]

i am with the one of the first good i3 CPUs - i3-2100 , im with it from 2011 and i am going to upgrade ti r9 280x dual-x , when i get the card (if i get it) i will tell you if my i3 bottleneck the card then you can make take your notes .

cheers

Well these tests were done with Haswell based chips so your mileage may vary with sandy bridge i3's

 

[the great randini]

Tom's did recommend the I-3 4160 in the latest Best Cpu's for the Money for under $120

 

[Usacomputer]

If i wanted a budget cpu i would get the Pentium G3258 cheap, great overclocker, and has a good amount of power for what it is, its pretty much the same as an i3 but no hyper threading. Yah a modern i3 would be decent for for most games with the 960 or 280x but it will bottleneck in cpu intensive games. I wouldn't really pair an i3 with a 290 it would be fine in a lot of games but same as the 960 and 280x, it will bottleneck in cpu intensive games.

Actually if you look at the article

http://www.techspot.com/review/972-intel-core-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7/page6.html


The i3 even holds up very well with the 980 at 1080p

I wouldn't recommend a 980 for 1080p but still at 1080p the i5 and i3 only have a 20 for difference, yes that's alot and its a freakimg 980

But for the lower tier cards at 1080 such as the 960 and 280x and even the 290 at 1080p would be a difference of like 3 fpa

On the 290 maybe more but still the i3 holds up well and yes the pentium anniversary is good but YOU HAVE TO OVERCLOCK it to actually call it good enough for these cards and that typically means you need a good mono and honestly your better off with an i3 and something like a 70-80 dollar mbo

 

[spentshells]

I'm impressed with all the i3 love lately. BUT, despite this, my ivy i3 (sold it 3.3Ghz) had a higher frame variance than my true quad Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz. Yes it put up more frames as a maximum but it had bigger performance drops in heavy situations.

I tested with a gtx 570 and a AMD 7850... just to be sure it wasn't a driver issue with one of the cards. The frame variance was about the same with each card AMD having a slightly bigger issue.

Borderlands 2 maxed out at 1080 P
Tomb raider maxed out at 1080P
Bioshock infinite maxed 1080P
Crysis 2 maxed out 1080P

Was a fun couple of days.

 

[Usacomputer]

I'm impressed with all the i3 love lately. BUT, despite this, my ivy i3 (sold it 3.3Ghz) had a higher frame variance than my true quad Q6600 @ 3.6Ghz. Yes it put up more frames as a maximum but it had bigger performance drops in heavy situations.

I tested with a gtx 570 and a AMD 7850... just to be sure it wasn't a driver issue with one of the cards. The frame variance was about the same with each card AMD having a slightly bigger issue.

Borderlands 2 maxed out at 1080 P
Tomb raider maxed out at 1080P
Bioshock infinite maxed 1080P
Crysis 2 maxed out 1080P

Was a fun couple of days.

Yeah man seriesly in every post where someone is asking if an I3 will bottle neck (insert card here) I just link them to the tech spot article

The i3 is put just "not bad" for a budget gamer who doesn't want to over clock it's pretty much a dream come true (for budget over clockers either go with the pentium g anniversary or the fx 6300) even then tho the i3 slightly beats the fx 6300 in most tests

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

I3 is by no means bad but newer game titles will require a real quad core, at has actually already started as of last year with a title that everyone wanted to play but the people with dual core chips couldn't. So with that said it should be an easy choice, if you will be playing a lot of old titles but not newer ones i3 is the best pick. I think that would make the best argumentt.

The lower end FX has got 4 real cores already but it obviously can't even compete with the i5. For pure gaming this is true but if we talk rendering or other multithreaded apps the i3 actually don't stand a chance comparing it to the 6300, which in my opinion is a fair comparison regardless which has more cores.

 

[Usacomputer]

I3 is by no means bad but newer game titles will require a real quad core, at has actually already started as of last year with a title that everyone wanted to play but the people with dual core chips couldn't. So with that said it should be an easy choice, if you will be playing a lot of old titles but not newer ones i3 is the best pick. I think that would make the best argumentt.

The lower end FX has got 4 real cores already but it obviously can't even compete with the i5. For pure gaming this is true but if we talk rendering or other multithreaded apps the i3 actually don't stand a chance comparing it to the 6300, which in my opinion is a fair comparison regardless which has more cores.

Ok first of sir

Your wrong about games needed for cores, a lot of new games can still take advantage of the i3's dual core "quad thread" and when you using a low end graphics card to Even a mid range enthusiast like the 970 the core i3 does very well

Even in some cpu Intensive games like metro

Im going to use you as an example sorry but it's not true when people say a game needs 4 cores, a dual i3 can hold its own very very well when used with a sub 300 dollar card and only in cpu intensive games where the cpu Is used more than the average game, the i3 is more than enough for those games and I would only really suggest an i5 if your going with with like a 980 or higher because a an i3 and a 970 would do very very well together albeit not in metro last light but in most games. And most games aren't heavily dependent on the cpu anyway, you'll see that the i3 is amazing for 100 bucks