Will the i3 4130 be good for gaming?

[bayonet14]

Hello. I'm on a budget, so I narrowed down my choice to an Intel i3 4130.
My gpu is Radeon R7 260X, 8GB ram (4gb each), monitor is 20 inch LG 20EN43@1600x900 resolution. OS is Windows 8.1
The mobo I'll be purchasing is GIGABYTE GA-H81M-DS2, and I have a generic 600watt psu.
The type of games I'll be playing are mostly first person shooters like call of duty ghosts, battlefield 4 (I have that one right now), assassins creed 4, watch dogs..and other next gen games.
Will my cpu bottleneck my gpu?Is the i3 4130 future proof for upcoming games? I don't have enough money for the i5, although I'll be saving for one in the future if the Haswell generation is still kicking. I'll be going to the store tomorrow so I need to make sure before I regret any decisions.

 

[satyamdubey]

Dear bayonet,

The i3's HT would help you in games compared to the dual core options. However, you may want to take a look at FX6300. you will have no problem feeding your card with either of these cpus.

The FX would also offer the incentive of overclocking when you may need it in the future. Get a good motherboard with it and you can later buy a good aftermarket cooling solution for OC'ing.

Good luck
-Satyam

 

[bayonet14]

Dear bayonet,

The i3's HT would help you in games compared to the dual core options. However, you may want to take a look at FX6300. you will have no problem feeding your card with either of these cpus.

The FX would also offer the incentive of overclocking when you may need it in the future. Get a good motherboard with it and you can later buy a good aftermarket cooling solution for OC'ing.

Good luck
-Satyam

Hi, thanks for the reply. I dont overclock, I dont know how and I think it's too risky considering my generic psu. FX 6300 is very good but its not in the market in my city (I'm not from the US). All AMD processors being sold here are APU's.

 

[satyamdubey]

Well in that case it is best to go with the 4130. It will work fine for the games that are available in the market. It may pose some issues in streaming games and mmos but as that is not your primary goal, the i3 would make for a great cpu choice.

 

[bayonet14]

Well in that case it is best to go with the 4130. It will work fine for the games that are available in the market. It may pose some issues in streaming games and mmos but as that is not your primary goal, the i3 would make for a great cpu choice.

Actually my PC is for gaming, that includes all sorts of games. What do you recommend, a quad core cpu or the i3 which has hyperthreading?

 

[satyamdubey]

a true quad is always better than a dual core with HT. Can you not locate an older sandy bridge i5 like the 2400/2130 within your budget? I assume you may want to try out mmos eventually and a quad core would then be better.

 

[bayonet14]

a true quad is always better than a dual core with HT. Can you not locate an older sandy bridge i5 like the 2400/2130 within your budget? I assume you may want to try out mmos eventually and a quad core would then be better.

How can a 2nd generation cpu be better? Let's say I found an i5 2400/2130, will it be future proof and will it give better performance?

 

[satyamdubey]

I agree and even advocate sticking to newer architecture however, There are two things you can consider with a buy like a second gen i5.

1. The performance of the two architectures would be very similar in most applications. the i3 would infact run cooler, draw less power and actually be marginally better in single threaded operations. However, in multi threaded workloads, the extra cores of the i5 would give a lot of advantage.

2. You can open up the possibility of upgrading that i5 (LGA1155) to a 3rd gen cpu (also LGA1155). The upgrade bit is obviously tru for switching from a gen4 i3 to a gen 4 i5 or a better cpu with LGA1150 but the cost for performance gain would be of a better value in the Sandy to Ivy switch.

you can see some of the links below:

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/407/Intel_Core_i3_i3-4130_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-2310.html

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/407/Intel_Core_i3_i3-4130_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-2400.html

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/363?vs=677

The anandtech one is from a comparison between 3rd gen i3 and a 2nd gen i5 as they still have not put a link to a benched 4130. Still I thought it would make a good read.

I hope this helps you in making a decision.

-Satyam

 

[logainofhades]

I would take an i5 2400 over a haswell i3 any day.