what is the lowest end intel cpu you can game with?

[p1que]

i am looking to save all the money i can as im going into college, but i want a new computer to go with my garbage laptop. I want this computer to play some games and to use internet and youtube and maybe record some videos and edit them. I was wondering if i can use an intel celeron g1850 or if i need something higher. I know im getting a gtx 950 or a 750 ti for sure. For reference the games i'm playing will be league of legends, cs go, gta v and older gtas. I might do some other less demanding steam games but can i run these games at playable framerates? i don't really care about what setting of graphics quality i have to use as long as its at 1080p but i can stand low settings.

 

[advancedmixedgaming]

Pentium G2358 would be a good choice with your 750ti, and I am 90% sure it will handle CSGO and LoL fine. If not, get an AMD CPU/APU (FX 6300/X4860K?).

 

[Mac070]

Intel offers great processors. But looking at the Celeron side is where your going wrong . The Celeron you suggested will not run the games you suggested . The case is to turn to AMD for the Athlon X4 860K. As this being cheap the quad core will help newer triple a titles . But the lowest I'd go for Intel is the G3258

 

[boosted1g]

G3258 is the absolute lowest to go with for usable frame rates.

If it all possible though you should pay the $30-35 more for an i3 as that will give you 2 more thread which will be good for gaming, but even more useful for video editing.

The AMD APU cpu's are pretty decent for the low cost, but the bad thing about them is you have no upgrade path. These chips MAX OUT at bellow a core i3 performance level, and then you will require new board, o.s., etc (the preverbal "cheap is not always the least expensive").

Also, just FYI; some members on this forums "drink the Kool-Aid" on the g3258 and because of 1 variable benchmarks believe it is equal to an i7. In real world the i3 is going to be better then the G3258.

 

[MrPwnda]

i5s are the lowest you can go for next gen games like rise of the tomb raider and fallout 4, if your looking towards games like CSGO then go for something a lil bit less but my i5 cant even run some older games on max settings (because of poor optimization) so look out for that

 

[teknobug]

Don't go with the Pentiums since they're a one trick pony, you'll hit a wall pretty quick down the road with it (and apparently the G3258 suffers very bad framerate drop spikes in games like GTA 5). i3 6100 is the lowest capable of all and get the GTX950, no sense in getting the GTX750Ti now with DX12 coming around.

 

[itsVance]

You can run games on any machine, it just depends on what games you want to play. Here is a guide that will let you check the system requirements of different games.