Budget Build - Intel G3258 vs. AMD Athlon X4 860K

[Husky]

Hey Guys,

 

So I'm building a budget PC for my friend (I already made a topic about this build) but I'm stuck between 2 CPU's.

 

Intel G3258 Anniversary Edition

 

or

 

AMD Athlon X4 860K

 

I need the one with the highest performance in gaming and general use. The one problem with the AMD CPU is that there is no upgradability whereas the Intel CPU uses the LGA 1150 socket.

 

Any help is appreciated! 

[-TesseracT-]

Intel because stronger cores and upgradability. Trust me, you'll probably want to upgrade soon.

[Albatross]

Intel gets my vote!

[Luke4efc]

Go for the pentium. It is easily over-clockable. The price to performance is second to none with Intel, and as you said the Intel is upgradable because of the LGA1150. You will want to upgrade soon anyway, trust me. So it might be worth saving up a bit more and getting an i3 instead. However I've found an i5 4690k is the sweet spot for gaming right now. It bottlenecks no games with GPU's around the same price point.

[RazerZ]

What games do you play and when do you plan to upgrade? Besides having stronger single performance and a better upgrade path the dual core Pentium doesn't have many advantages.

[Husky]

Go for the pentium. It is easily over-clockable. The price to performance is second to none with Intel, and as you said the Intel is upgradable because of the LGA1150. You will want to upgrade soon anyway, trust me. So it might be worth saving up a bit more and getting an i3 instead. However I've found an i5 4690k is the sweet spot for gaming right now. It bottlenecks no games with GPU's around the same price point.

Thank you for the advice! I will use the Intel CPU.

[Dzzope]

Thank you for the advice! I will use the Intel CPU.

If at all possible, get up to an i3.. 2 cores just don't cut it these days..

 

Better still go used, you would be suprised what you can get for quite little when going used. (if there is a supply you can access, ebay and such)

[Johannes_Lazor]

If at all possible, get up to an i3.. 2 cores just don't cut it these days..

 

Better still go used, you would be suprised what you can get for quite little when going used. (if there is a supply you can access, ebay and such)

I3's are dual core, You dont gain more than 5-10% higher Gaming performance with hyperthreading.

I only recommend i3's for editing/recording gameplay or otherheavily threaded workloads.

[Dzzope]

Really depends on the usage and in most games, at 1080 on a mid level card.. i3 is enough (game dependant obviously, CPU heavy games will be worse but then i3 will always be better than pentium unless it need 1 core at lightning speeds)..

 

http://www.techspot.com/review/972-intel-core-i3-vs-i5-vs-i7/page5.html

[TheCaptain53]

I3's are dual core, You dont gain more than 5-10% higher Gaming performance with hyperthreading.

I only recommend i3's for editing/recording gameplay or otherheavily threaded workloads.

Editing and recording gameplay? Seriously?

It would be great for gaming, sure, but I think editing/recording gameplay is a bit of a stretch with only a dual core, even if it is hyperthreaded. It would be better than a Pentium for doing these tasks, but it's hardly worth a 'recommendation' (unless you have a benchmark to prove me wrong).

If you're doing that kind of workload that requires multiple threads, an i5 or i7 would be a better option.

[Johannes_Lazor]

Editing and recording gameplay? Seriously?

It would be great for gaming, sure, but I think editing/recording gameplay is a bit of a stretch with only a dual core, even if it is hyperthreaded. It would be better than a Pentium for doing these tasks, but it's hardly worth a 'recommendation' (unless you have a benchmark to prove me wrong).

If you're doing that kind of workload that requires multiple threads, an i5 or i7 would be a better option.

Thats a whole other budget, Someone who has money for a i5 should not even consider a i3 for any task. For recording gameplay and doing other heavily threaded things i recommend the FX 8350 on the AMD side and Xeon e3 1230 v3(or similarly priced Xeon) on the intel side. But the best would be one of the fancy x99 i7 processors

[Ketcchup]

Get i3, don't get the pentium at all, you will suffer from stuttering and low frames.

[Ketcchup]

I3's are dual core, You dont gain more than 5-10% higher Gaming performance with hyperthreading.

I only recommend i3's for editing/recording gameplay or otherheavily threaded workloads.

HT matters a lot, not in max fps but in stuttering and minimums where g3258 is shit.

[Johannes_Lazor]

HT matters a lot, not in max fps but in stuttering and minimums where g3258 is shit.

It depends on the game, Some games work nicely on dual core CPU's while some dont.

And i dont expect someone to stay one the G3258 for more than a year or two, I expect most people to have upgraded to an i5 by then since the socket supports it.

[michaelk12]

If you plan on playing AAA titles, and don't plan to upgrade within a year, I'd say Athlon. If you are upgrading soon, go Intel. But 2 threads is starting to not be enough for AAA games. Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition for example don't even launch on a dual core. I went with AMD in my rig at this price point because of this.

[FellTheSky]

g3258 since its very cheap, you can overclock it, and later on has a very nice upgrade path

[MEC-777]

Tomshardware comparison of the 750k (basically same as 760 and 860K -5%) vs G3258 showed the Pentium coming out on top in most of the gaming benchmarks. This was consistent for both stock clock and overclocked tests. 

 

So between these two parts, which cost relatively the same and are aimed to directly compete, I would strongly recommend the G3258 on the grounds of gaming prowess and for the upgradability. On the FM2+ socket, the 860K is as good as it will ever get. On 1150, you can upgrade to an i5 or i7 if you want. 

 

The i3 is priced quite a bit higher $100-120 and competes more directly with the FX-6300 (same price range).