are i3s good for gaming?

[Phoenix70]

So yeah, what I said. They have the same architecture as i5s (which are the best for gaming) but they are 2 cores 4 threads only + locked. also, if I remember correctly they do not have turbo so they suffer at stock clock speed all the time. Amd has offerings (for cheaper) like the athlons (steamroller athlons seem very attractive btw) the fx 6300 and now with the price drop even the fx 8320..

[KamiKatze]

For First Person Shooters they are very good. For heavy RTS games you might want some more cores. If you want to stream or render content, you're better off with more cores too. Other than that they work great for gaming.

[Phllips]

the pentium g3258 is what you should go for when going budget gaming, paired with a 212 evo you can overclock it and get amazing price to performance. also look up which really cheap mobo's you can OC with 

[kristaps552]

I3's are really not a bad budget option, I still have a i3 2100 paired with 660ti, and I could run bf3 maxed out at 1080p, and fps would only sometimes drop to 40ish fps. 
 

[Phoenix70]

the g3258 is still 2 cores guys, in games like bf4 or some other heavily multi core games they fall flat but at the same time the architecture is 10x better than amd's

[harrynowl]

for a lot of games it will beat an amd equivalent because of the much better per core performance.

[Phoenix70]

for a lot of games it will beat an amd equivalent because of the much better per core performance.

ill take that bet, fx 8320 vs i3 4350 in bf4 multiplayer 64 players

[harrynowl]

ill take that bet, fx 8320 vs i3 4350 in bf4 multiplayer 64 players

that's 1 game. I said a lot of games.

 

either way.

[brownninja97]

i use a i3 2120 with my 7870xt at the moment, it certainly could be better but its not horrible.

[Guest]

i use a i3 2120 with my 7870xt at the moment, it certainly could be better but its not horrible.

i3 2120 Mustard Race.

[Phoenix70]

that's 1 game. I said a lot of games.

crysis 3?

[harrynowl]

crysis 3?

now that's 2. and do people really play crysis 3? I don't see many people play it.

 

the similarly priced a10 6800k/fx6300 gets beat in pretty much every test.

 

[Phoenix70]

now that's 2. and do people really play crysis 3? I don't see many people play it.

 

the similarly priced a10 6800k/fx6300 gets beat in pretty much every test.

 

you are dead right it seems

[harrynowl]

you are dead right it seems

unfortunately amd chips get harder and harder to recommend by the day

 

i buy them because 32nm soi clocks better than 22nm finfet

[nokturrduk84]

i3s are mid-end budget CPUs. Not great, but still better, than any AMD cpu.

[ICanBeADuck1]

go with the i3

[i_build_nanosuits]

if you could stretch it to the i5-4430 or 4440 (which ever is the cheapest) along with the cheapest H81 motherboard you could find you would be golden!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Asus H81M-D PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $224.98

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-05 11:36 EDT-0400