X4 860K vs G3258

[MoonlightSylv]

Ok so if I get the Pentium I'll probably upgrade to an i3 or i5 later but how powerful is the 860K? Because if it is as powerful as an i3 or older i5 I might just get that. Also at what point will the X4 start bottlenecking graphics cards? It will mainly be used for gaming and general use. Also I probably will overclock either one.

 

Thanks.

[Morgan MLGman]

If upgrading soon the pentium is better. if not the 860k

[themaniac]

Ok so if I get the Pentium I'll probably upgrade to an i3 or i5 later but how powerful is the 860K? Because if it is as powerful as an i3 or older i5 I might just get that. Also at what point will the X4 start bottlenecking graphics cards? It will mainly be used for gaming and general use. Also I probably will overclock either one.

 

Thanks.

the i3 is more powerful then the 860k, and probably after the 380

[ANewFace]

G3258

Here's a vid comparing the 2

 

[jimakos234]

The pentium has far better single core performance, and comes in handy if you want to upgrade to an i3-i5 later on

But if you need 4 cores, while having the pentium, you are screwed, and this is where the athlon 860k is better.

[s3ns3]

no its not better than an i3.also on am2+ platform you are stuck forever with weak athlons

[Prysin]

860k is more stable (less laggy) then the pentium. But in terms of performance, stock vs stock. A 860k is about 10-15% slower then a i3 4160/4360.

You CAN OVERCLOCK the Athlon 860k to MATCH the i3. BUT NOT BEAT IT!!!

 

 

ATM, as prices currently are, you should look for a FX 6300. HIGHLY DEPENDING ON THE GAME!!, the FX will either be equal to or better then a i3. In some games where only ONE core is used, the FX will be slightly worse.

 

Bear in mind, FX can be overclocked, and it is VERY easy.

 

In terms of best and worst case performance of a FX;

Either it will be slightly slower then a i3 or it will be nearly equal to an i5 4460. It DOES depend on the game though.

 

YOU WONT HAVE A UPGRADE PATH THOUGHT!

[Hiebly]

The relationship between the Athlon 860K and Pentium G3258 is a bit weird. It's not like comparing the Athlon to an i5 where the i5 is always better... this is apples to oranges rather than red delicious apples to gala apples (gala apples are best apples ok? ok.)

 

The Athlon 860K suffers from the same problem that the rest of AMD's CPUs suffer from, or that old Intel CPUs (like a Core 2 Quad, for instance) suffer from... it's slow. You can almost think of the Athlon 860K kind of like an i5 that was clocked at ~2.4GHz. It's a quad core (more or less, missing some things like individual L2 cache and floating point unit for each core, but it's basically a quad core), just a slow quad core by comparison to other modern quad cores.

 

The Pentium G3258 on the other hand suffers from having only two threads... most games releasing now are made with quad core CPUs in mind. As games have become more robust, they've become too demanding to be run off of a single core. So software has improved/evolved a bit and is becoming more multi-threaded so that more can be done at once... more advanced lighting, physics, AI, etc. However, some games now are basically made exclusively for 4+ thread CPUs. Some examples of this are Watch Dogs, GTA V, Dragon Age Inquisition.

 

So unlike most AMD vs Intel debates where Intel wins because games really thrive off of high IPC (single-threaded performance), there's more to it here...

 

Both CPUs have significant weaknesses in the face of modern games. Games do need high single-threaded performance. But these days many of them also need four threads or more. So the Athlon 860K suffers from low IPC, so the render thread gets maxed out easily so it bottlenecks easily... and the Pentium suffers from having two threads and not being able to schedule everything efficiently.

 

In games that can work with two thread CPUs just fine, such as mobas, source games, or some MMOs... the G3258 will perform MUCH better than the Athlon 860K. It's capable of providing better average framerates because it has very high single-threaded performance (especially when overclocked), so you don't need to worry about bottlenecking... however on the flipside, in any game that is designed around four or more threads the Pentium basically makes the game unplayable because the game will have stutters and massive framerate drops because the CPU can't process all the threads at once.

 

The Athlon 860K will at least run pretty much every game without any issues... performance wise won't always be phenomenal, but every game should be playable. The G3258 while technically a stronger CPU for gaming will simply make it impossible to play some games... so it really depends if you can upgrade to something like an i5 within a reasonable timeframe. if so, then definitely get the G3258 since the i5 will be leaps and bounds better than either processor. However if you need the system to last as-is for an extended period of time, the Athlon 860K will be more reliable but won't be capable of the same framerates in any game that the G3258 could run smoothly.

 

Long story short is G3258 has better average gaming performance, but is 100% unplayable in some games... while the 860K is always playable, but has lower average performance.

 

TL:DR:

My personal opinion is that the Intel i3 is the minimum that you should be buying for a gaming rig... it has high single-threaded performance and can schedule efficiently in modern games, so it will provide consistently solid performance.

 

If the Athlon 860K and G3258 are your only options within budget, then it depends how long you plan to make the hardware last. If you think you'll be able to upgrade within a few months, then get the G3258, since you can keep your motherboard and get a much better CPU... but if you're not gonna upgrade and want the system to last, the Athlon 860K is probably a better buy. The Athlon will get lower average framerates than the G3258, however you know that a game will at least be playable on it... the 860K won't suffer the same stuttering and freezing that the G3258 does on demanding titles such as GTA V.

[Prysin]

The relationship between the Athlon 860K and Pentium G3258 is a bit weird. It's not like comparing the Athlon to an i5 where the i5 is always better... this is apples to oranges rather than red delicious apples to gala apples (gala apples are best apples ok? ok.)

 

The Athlon 860K suffers from the same problem that the rest of AMD's CPUs suffer from, or that old Intel CPUs (like a Core 2 Quad, for instance) suffer from... it's slow. You can almost think of the Athlon 860K kind of like an i5 that was clocked at ~2.4GHz. It's a quad core (more or less, missing some things like individual L2 cache and floating point unit for each core, but it's basically a quad core), just a slow quad core by comparison to other modern quad cores.

 

The Pentium G3258 on the other hand suffers from having only two threads... most games releasing now are made with quad core CPUs in mind. As games have become more robust, they've become too demanding to be run off of a single core. So software has improved/evolved a bit and is becoming more multi-threaded so that more can be done at once... more advanced lighting, physics, AI, etc. However, some games now are basically made exclusively for 4+ thread CPUs. Some examples of this are Watch Dogs, GTA V, Dragon Age Inquisition.

 

So unlike most AMD vs Intel debates where Intel wins because games really thrive off of high IPC (single-threaded performance), there's more to it here...

 

Both CPUs have significant weaknesses in the face of modern games. Games do need high single-threaded performance. But these days many of them also need four threads or more. So the Athlon 860K suffers from low IPC, so the render thread gets maxed out easily so it bottlenecks easily... and the Pentium suffers from having two threads and not being able to schedule everything efficiently.

 

In games that can work with two thread CPUs just fine, such as mobas, source games, or some MMOs... the G3258 will perform MUCH better than the Athlon 860K. It's capable of providing better average framerates because it has very high single-threaded performance (especially when overclocked), so you don't need to worry about bottlenecking... however on the flipside, in any game that is designed around four or more threads the Pentium basically makes the game unplayable because the game will have stutters and massive framerate drops because the CPU can't process all the threads at once.

 

The Athlon 860K will at least run pretty much every game without any issues... performance wise won't always be phenomenal, but every game should be playable. The G3258 while technically a stronger CPU for gaming will simply make it impossible to play some games... so it really depends if you can upgrade to something like an i5 within a reasonable timeframe. if so, then definitely get the G3258 since the i5 will be leaps and bounds better than either processor. However if you need the system to last as-is for an extended period of time, the Athlon 860K will be more reliable but won't be capable of the same framerates in any game that the G3258 could run smoothly.

 

Long story short is G3258 has better average gaming performance, but is 100% unplayable in some games... while the 860K is always playable, but has lower average performance.

 

TL:DR:

My personal opinion is that the Intel i3 is the minimum that you should be buying for a gaming rig... it has high single-threaded performance and can schedule efficiently in modern games, so it will provide consistently solid performance.

 

If the Athlon 860K and G3258 are your only options within budget, then it depends how long you plan to make the hardware last. If you think you'll be able to upgrade within a few months, then get the G3258, since you can keep your motherboard and get a much better CPU... but if you're not gonna upgrade and want the system to last, the Athlon 860K is probably a better buy. The Athlon will get lower average framerates than the G3258, however you know that a game will at least be playable on it... the 860K won't suffer the same stuttering and freezing that the G3258 does on demanding titles such as GTA V.

Great post mate.

 

you pretty much nailed it

+1

[Nena Trinity]

860K is the best of the two... (but Pentium has a upgrade path but I feel that Pentium and i3 is not worth it...)