Posted August 9, 2015 Hello there.I'm looking for a CPU for my budget gaming PC. Although it would be a nice feature, this rig isn't built to be extremely upgradable in the near future; dead platforms aren't desirable, but when I eventually upgrade, I may have the choice of a new board.So far, I've come upon a number of options.1) The Pentium G3258With a B85/H81 board and the stock heatsink, I should be able to get this to about 4.2 GHZ and include a GTX 960 in the budget, but the purchase of an aftermarket heatsink and Z97 board for better overclocks require me to cut back significantly on the GPU, probably as far as an R9 270x. However, I did come upon this benchmark video which seriously impressed me- If this configuration doesn't bottleneck a setup on the most demanding game of the year, I doubt it's a bad choice.2) The AMD Athlon X4 860kSince I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon, going with a more future-proof quad-core chip rather than the Pentium seemed like a good choice. However, I'll have to purchase an aftermarket heatsink anyway if I want to overclock at all, as the stock heatsink on this one is absolute garbage. However, that'll probably leave me at the R9 270x again unless I chance upon more funds soon.3) The Core i3 4160 This chip is a cross between the aforementioned two, and has the best performance out of all three, with the same powerful, Haswell cores as the Pentium and the same amount of threads as the Athlon via hyperthreading. However, even with the stock heatsink (which this locked chip will be fine with), I'm already paying upwards of $110, which forces me to cut back to the R9 270x.In summation, my options are-Pentium G3258+stock heatsink+GTX960Athlon X4 860k+Hyper T4+R9 270xCore i3+stock heatsink+R9 270xWhich of these do you think will be- The best bang for the buck The most future-proof platform The best configuration for gaming (CPU/GPU balance) Please remember to factor in platform cost. Also, if you know of cheaper, more powerful configurations, please let me know.Thank you for your consideration.Regards,Aereldor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 I would go Z97 because then you have the chance to upgrade to more powerful CPU's later on. The 270x is a good GPU for medium-high gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 i3 + 270x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 -snip- Aereldor I3 all the way <p>Wish I could have this already!! : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qTLRjX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 I would do the i3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Athlon. I am gonna get lots of people disagreeing with me here, but you simply cannot beat 4 cores today. Some games NEED them to even run (and afaik the hyper threaded cores of the i3 doesn't count), and they are so useful for multitasks g. I have an I3, exactly 100mhz slower than the one you mentioned. It lags if I try to run a YouTube video and play a (non demanding) game of Minecraft at the same time. Note RAM is fine, CPU is sitting at 75-95% while RAM is at 50%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 i3 + 270x I would do the i3. I3 all the way I have an I3; trust me, they are not as good as people say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 I have an I3; trust me, they are not as good as people say. Better than my G3258 and I love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 I have an I3; trust me, they are not as good as people say. well you dont have the athlon and the i3 IS better than it <p>Wish I could have this already!! : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qTLRjX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 I would go for an I3 with the Z97 board as you can always upgrade to an i5 later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Author I have an I3; trust me, they are not as good as people say. In that case, do you have an alternative that you'd like to recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Better than my G3258 and I love it. well you dont have the athlon and the i3 IS better than it Four cores has to be better. My I3 can do jack shit. I don't give a damn how much less ipc the Athlon has, 4 cores IS better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 In that case, do you have an alternative that you'd like to recommend? The post above the one you quoted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 i3 would be the best of those. 2 thread cpu's are basically obsolete for game at this point. even if a devil's canyon pentium with some fairly aggressive aio watercooled overclock does more average, it stutters a lot in a lot of games and that is hard to see in most youtube videos, but could be a dealbreaker for people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Author i3 would be the best of those. 2 thread cpu's are basically obsolete for game at this point. even if a devil's canyon pentium with some fairly aggressive aio watercooled overclock does more average, it stutters a lot in a lot of games and that is hard to see in most youtube videos, but could be a dealbreaker for people. Would you say the importance these days is on four threads rather than four physical cores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Four cores has to be better. My I3 can do jack shit. I don't give a damn how much less ipc the Athlon has, 4 cores IS better. What absolute fucking shit logic. More cores = better, yeah no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 What absolute fucking shit logic. More cores = better, yeah no. For multitasking, yes. Obviously not like an i7 and an 8350, but 2v4 will make so much difference. 2 cores is not enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Four cores has to be better. My I3 can do jack shit. I don't give a damn how much less ipc the Athlon has, 4 cores IS better. if it was an older i3, people would recommend the athlon, but the haswell refresh a little bit better in most benchmarks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 For multitasking, yes. Obviously not like an i7 and an 8350, but 2v4 will make so much difference. 2 cores is not enough. Except for the fact that the i3 has hyperthreading, making it logically have 4 cores. I know they aren't as strong as normal cores, but for multitasking they're fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 if it was an older i3, people would recommend the athlon, but the haswell refresh a little bit better in most benchmarks Benchmarks don't test multitasking. I'd would prefer to get like 5 fps less in games in exchange for the ability to actually have 2 programs open at the same time without lagging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Stock cooler on a 860K and a 280/285. http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/451339-help-me-find-him/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Four cores has to be better. My I3 can do jack shit. I don't give a damn how much less ipc the Athlon has, 4 cores IS better. Four less useful cores and a dead platform SetupCPU: i3 4160|Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE|RAM: Kingston HyperX Blue 8GB(2x4GB)|GPU: Sapphire Nitro R9 380 4GB|PSU: Seasonic M12II EVO 620W Modular|Storage: 1TB WD Blue|Case: NZXT S340 Black|PCIe devices: TP-Link WDN4800| Montior: ASUS VE247H| Others: PS3/PS4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Except for the fact that the i3 has hyperthreading, making it logically have 4 cores. I know they aren't as strong as normal cores, but for multitasking they're fine. They're fine but they cannot run a YouTube video (read my earlier post). Ok. Cannot have a game, Skype, and a YouTube video open at the same time, even a very basic game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 They're fine but they cannot run a YouTube video (read my earlier post). Ok. Cannot have a game, Skype, and a YouTube video open at the same time, even a very basic game. First of all, lol Skype. Second of all, on my G3258 I could browse the web in Firefox, be in Skype (when I was a poor peasant using Skype for CSGO callouts) and play CSGO with no problems. I once watched a video in 1080p when I was dead in CSGO with the Skype call open and it was fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 9, 2015 Would you say the importance these days is on four threads rather than four physical cores? that really depends on what architectures we are talking about. the definitions of "core" isn't even universal. for example amd's bulldozer cores would not count as whole cores in intel's definition of core, cause it doesn't include the float point unit. similar thing is with manufacture process size, intel's 14nm would not necessarily be 14nm in IBM's definition, more like 16nm It really comes down to a case by case basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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