Intel i3 4170 vs AMD A8-7600 vs AMD A8-7650K

[jk441]

Alright guys, so me and a couple of friends are planning to gather up some cash and build one of our mates a budget gaming PC build.

Initially we thought of just getting an i3-4170, since the system is going to take my spare 660Ti, but one of my friend said that we should give AMD CPUs a chance so we might be able to lower our bugdet.

 

Based on the budget we have I think the 3 CPUs listed on the title topic will be the final contendors so if you guys were going for a budget gaming PC with a GTX 660Ti what CPU would you pair it from those 3?

 

 

[Suffokation]

i3. The other processors have no upgrade path.

If you give him an i3 with an 1150 motherboard he can go from an i3 to an i5 or an i7.

[david cassar]

The i3 is much much better with a dedicated gpu. It's more powerful, is more efficient and also has a much better upgrade path.

[Dzzope]

Go for a used i5? You could pick-up some mid range i5 pre-built system, add an ssd, PSU your GPU and be done.. nice and cheap and better than any of the processors your looking at.

[Jlryan]

Definitely the i3, it's faster, cheaper, cooler, more efficient, provides an upgrade path to the i5 and i7 in the future.

[Catman007]

Well if you all chip in maybe some extra memory too or old case, mouse and keybourd or just buy used you can save a lot of money to invest into more important components but consider to stick with intel i3 or used i5.

[kipper]

Save some cash and find a 2500k and z68 board on Ebay.

[harrynowl]

Well if you already have a GPU then the APUs don't make sense, perhaps a 860K but I'd just stick with your original plan of i3. Perhaps an i3 4150? Should be cheaper and there isn't really a difference.

[jk441]

Thanks a lot on the advise guys, and yea I'm also going through some second hand stuff too so fingers crossed for a good system.

[Nena Trinity]

Why not Athlon X4 860K?

[Delusional Phil]

Why not Athlon X4 860K?

It's a bit under the i3 but it should works ... But I would take the i3 because it's the newer product ...

[Nena Trinity]

It's a bit under the i3 but it should works ... But I would take the i3 because it's the newer product ...

Athlon X4 860K is not very old infact it came in 2014.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Athlon X4 860K is not very old infact it came in 2014.

You should know by now that with AMD nothing is really ''new'' at launch...they love to recycle old tech.

[Nena Trinity]

You should know by now that with AMD nothing is really ''new'' at launch...they love to recycle old tech.

Steamroller is not old...

[escape093]

Go for a used i5? You could pick-up some mid range i5 pre-built system, add an ssd, PSU your GPU and be done.. nice and cheap and better than any of the processors your looking at.

 

The used i5s I've been able to find are all the same price as an FX-8320 or higher.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Steamroller is not old...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamroller_%28microarchitecture%29

 

Steamroller is a microarchitecture developed by AMD, which succeeded Piledriver in the beginning of 2014.^[3] Steamroller APUs continue to use two-core modules as their predecessors, while aiming at achieving greater levels of parallelism.

Microarchitecture

Steamroller still features two-core modules found in Bulldozer and Piledriver designs called clustered multi-thread (CMT), meaning that one module is equal to a dual-core processor.^[4] The focus of Steamroller is for greater parallelism.^[5] Improvements center on independent instruction decoders for each core within a module, 25% more of the maximum width dispatches per thread, better instruction schedulers, improved perceptron branch predictor, larger and smarter caches, up to 30% fewer instruction cache misses, branch misprediction rate reduced by 20%, dynamically resizable L2 cache, micro-operations queue,^[6] more internal register resources and improved memory controller.

AMD estimated that these improvements will increase instructions per cycle (IPC) up to 30% compared to the first-generation Bulldozer core while maintaining Piledriver's high clock rates with decreased power consumption.^[4] The final result was a 9% single-threaded IPC improvement, and 18% multi-threaded IPC improvement over Piledriver.^[7]

Steamroller, the microarchitecture for CPUs, as well as Graphics Core Next, the microarchitecture for GPUs, are paired together in certain product lines, and both support certain features specified in Heterogeneous System Architecture in hardware.

History

In 2011, AMD announced a third-generation Bulldozer-based line of processors for 2013,^[8] with Next Generation Bulldozer as the working title, using the 28 nm manufacturing process.^[9]

On 21 September 2011, leaked AMD slides indicated that this third generation of Bulldozer core was codenamed Steamroller.^[10][11]

In January 2014, Kaveri APUs became available.^[12]

[Dzzope]

The used i5s I've been able to find are all the same price as an FX-8320 or higher.

Even something like an old dell or such (as in a pre build machine)? Don't look for k series cpu's. They hold their value ridiculously well

[Prysin]

The i3 is much much better with a dedicated gpu. It's more powerful, is more efficient and also has a much better upgrade path.

Actually, if you read the reviews on the A10 7850k posted at Anandtech, you will see that up until R9 285/GTX 960 the i3 and A10 7850k (Athlon X64 860k, its the same CPU), performs within 3% of the I3.

 

The real "bonus" of the i3 is that it can handle GPUs up to a 290, maybe even 290X in some titles. While the A10 7850k/Athlon X64 860k is going to bottleneck anything over a stock HD7970 GHz Edt. or R9 280X (OC HD 7970 GHz Edt. or R9 280X will be a waste).

 

So there is that.

 

Other then that. Yes the i3 has a CURRENT upgrade path. However with skylake, intel will switch over to a new socket and chipset. Thus LGA 1155 will slowly be phased out. retail stores and online stores will try to sell out their remaining LGA 1155 stock seeing as both Intel and AMD is going to swap to DDR4. Thus all former processors wont work with the new systems.

In short, intel HAD a proper upgrade path, but given the very near future, the LGA 1155 platform will be dead within 3 years (anything left of the LGA 1155 socket by then will be second hand or overpriced stuff from the backroom of the retailer)

 

 

If OP want proper advice - whatever you buy, it is a dead end. DDR4 will be the new standard in late 2015, thus it will just be a matter of time before you will have to do a total system upgrade (RAM, mobo, CPU and most likely GPU). Personally i predict that you will have to cash out that amount of money within 3 years time.

So unless you can be sure to have the money for such an upgrade within 3 years, then just buy cheap. save money, wait for Intels Skylake or AMDs ZEN cpus instead.

[Nena Trinity]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamroller_%28microarchitecture%29

 

Steamroller is a microarchitecture developed by AMD, which succeeded Piledriver in the beginning of 2014.^[3] Steamroller APUs continue to use two-core modules as their predecessors, while aiming at achieving greater levels of parallelism.

Microarchitecture

Steamroller still features two-core modules found in Bulldozer and Piledriver designs called clustered multi-thread (CMT), meaning that one module is equal to a dual-core processor.^[4] The focus of Steamroller is for greater parallelism.^[5] Improvements center on independent instruction decoders for each core within a module, 25% more of the maximum width dispatches per thread, better instruction schedulers, improved perceptron branch predictor, larger and smarter caches, up to 30% fewer instruction cache misses, branch misprediction rate reduced by 20%, dynamically resizable L2 cache, micro-operations queue,^[6] more internal register resources and improved memory controller.

AMD estimated that these improvements will increase instructions per cycle (IPC) up to 30% compared to the first-generation Bulldozer core while maintaining Piledriver's high clock rates with decreased power consumption.^[4] The final result was a 9% single-threaded IPC improvement, and 18% multi-threaded IPC improvement over Piledriver.^[7]

Steamroller, the microarchitecture for CPUs, as well as Graphics Core Next, the microarchitecture for GPUs, are paired together in certain product lines, and both support certain features specified in Heterogeneous System Architecture in hardware.

History

In 2011, AMD announced a third-generation Bulldozer-based line of processors for 2013,^[8] with Next Generation Bulldozer as the working title, using the 28 nm manufacturing process.^[9]

On 21 September 2011, leaked AMD slides indicated that this third generation of Bulldozer core was codenamed Steamroller.^[10][11]

In January 2014, Kaveri APUs became available.^[12]

Piledriver 20% over Bulldozer and Steamroller 10% better than Piledriver.

See? Totally not same!  (also NM is better)

[i_build_nanosuits]

Piledriver 20% over Bulldozer and Steamroller 10% better than Piledriver.

See? Totally not same!

yeah...those numbers would be nice...but they gimped the chips and gave them slow as hell cache and not enough and no L3 cache...results...the 860K is slower than the FX-4300. Also last time i checked piledrvier was more around 12% better than bulldozer...not 20%.

[Nena Trinity]

yeah...those numbers would be nice...but they gimped the chips and gave them slow as hell cache and not enough and no L3 cache...results...the 860K is slower than the FX-4300.

But everyone say it is better! Is this forum lying to me?

 

Edit:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2362&cmp[]=1814

Everyone I know keeps using this page as test but yeah it looks sketchy...

 

Passmark Score:

AMD Athlon X4 860K Quad Core

5,642

AMD FX-4300 Quad-Core

4,650

[david cassar]

snip

*socket 1150

Secondly, the a10 7850k is the highest end cpu on the fm2 + socket and it still loses to an i3 in terms of performance. Even though socket 1150 is a dead socket after broadwell it is still miles better in terms of option than the fm2+. On intel from an i3 you can upgrade to an i7 while on the fm2+ you can't upgrade to anything at all.

[Nena Trinity]

*socket 1150

Secondly, the a10 7850k is the highest end cpu on the fm2 + socket and it still loses to an i3 in terms of performance. Even though socket 1150 is a dead socket after broadwell it is still miles better in terms of option than the fm2+. On intel from an i3 you can upgrade to an i7 while on the fm2+ you can't upgrade to anything at all.

A10-7870K is on top but its just clocked higher refresh!

[FuzzyYellow]

*socket 1150

Secondly, the a10 7850k is the highest end cpu on the fm2 + socket and it still loses to an i3 in terms of performance. Even though socket 1150 is a dead socket after broadwell it is still miles better in terms of option than the fm2+. On intel from an i3 you can upgrade to an i7 while on the fm2+ you can't upgrade to anything at all.

actually, the highest end is the A10-7870K.

 

Edit: Ninja'd

[david cassar]

A10-7870K is on top but its just clocked higher refresh!

touche  but you get my point haha