Have i3's become irrelevant?

[MRC380]

Lately I haven't seen i3's pop up in budget build recommendations anymore. Is the g3258 the new budget solution king?

I've never had a dual core so I have no idea what the experience is like, however I have heard the pentium k lags in anything other than gaming.

Is this true? How big of a difference is hyperthreading on i3s as opposed to a haswell dual core overclocked? Just curious as to what you guys have to say, my dad needs a budget gaming PC for when he's off school ☺

Oh and then there's the 760k from amd, but I only hear negative things about it...not sure if there's an Intel reign over these forums or if there's just been a bad amd track record lately... curious, I am.

[Godlygamer23]

Moved to CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory.

[BigDay]

get your dad a 4590 or at least a 4460

 

if you can't afford a 4460, get the i3-4170 instead or the 4370

[MRC380]

Moved to CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory.

Sorry!

[DarkBlade2117]

i3 is hyper-threaded. Makes big difference.

[MRC380]

get your dad a 4590 or at least a 4460

I don't really see how that statement has anything to do with the topic

i3 is hyper-threaded. Makes big difference.

...yes I think I established this in my post when I said i3s are hyperthreadeded...

[thekeemo]

Almost dual cores are definitely on the way out

[Fate]

The G3258 was the budget "king" for about a month after release until people realized an i3 is quite a bit better. No, i3's are not irrelevant at all, but it's a good idea to save up another ~$50-60 to get a locked i5 instead (if you plan on getting a higher end GPU). 

[Octavialicious]

Not at all, they are definitely a very good option depending on the budget

[GrobfootGaming]

well the Pentium I feel like is a better deal price-to-performance.  Its about 50 bucks cheaper depending on where you look and it is a good bang for buck in a budget build.  I feel like it would be a better choice just to get an older gen locked i5 than an i3.

[DaltonM]

You could build a steam box with it.

 

An i3 meets the minimum streaming requirements for steam and xbox one most of the time

[KemoKa]

For entry-level PCs, i3s are terrific. They're souped-up dual-cores. My only wish would be that they made unlocked i3s. But, then again, they'd never sell i5s.

[BigDay]

I don't really see how that statement has anything to do with the topic

 

you asked for a budget cpu

 

i gave you options

 

4 core for gaming minimum. anything else is garbage

[Cory_plays_games]

No just pentuims are ballin right now. But I still like i3s and look at theese ones on pc part picker many still use them http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/#c=31,57,148,29,177,114,110,7,135,43,105,248,46,174,141,212,269,21,70,204,198,201,239,142,193

[byalexandr]

Hell no, I have one for a reason. Of course they are relevant.

[MRC380]

well the Pentium I feel like is a better deal price-to-performance. Its about 50 bucks cheaper depending on where you look and it is a good bang for buck in a budget build. I feel like it would be a better choice just to get an older gen locked i5 than an i3.

Yeah I was always told to spend most of the budget on the gpu...a locked i5 is about 230 bucks cad which is pretty expensive IMHO...it just seems to me that there's no REAL budget solution...you either spend a little and get garbage or spend a lot and get mid tier or even more money and get high end...ya feel?

you asked for a budget cpu

 

i gave you options

 

4 core for gaming minimum. anything else is garbage

actually no I did not ask for a budget cpu...I was asking for feed back on specific CPUs that are typically used in budget rigs...and you provided no reasoning as to why anything less than a i5 is "garbage"

Not at all, they are definitely a very good option depending on the budget

I hear a lot of talk of games using more cores...and while that may be somewhat true, I still see the vast majority of games using few cores. If gaming is the focus, an i3 shall suffice correct? But what about regular day to day tasks?

[NuclearPeace]

you asked for a budget cpu

 

i gave you options

 

4 core for gaming minimum. anything else is garbage

 

Which is faster in not only gaming, but virtually everything else too? A FX 4100 or an i3 4150?

[MRC380]

Hell no, I have one for a reason. Of course they are relevant.

as someone who has an i3, do you ever feel limited in terms of what you can do with it? Does it perform well enough for gaming? And what about non gaming related tasks?

Which is faster in not only gaming, but virtually everything else too? A FX 4100 or an i3 4150?

stay away from any cpu that ends in 41xx 61xx or 81xx...they use the older Zambezi archetecture and perform far worse than the fx 43xx 63xx and 83xx CPUs.

[QueenDemetria]

If anything I've seen G3258's die off and i3's become more popular.

[bitzorbites]

If going for i34150, new egg price is 121.
Go for i3 4170, which new egg price is 114!
Cheaper and better performance.
Link for proof:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117543&Tpk=i3%204170

 

 

If anything I've seen G3258's die off and i3's become more popular.

I second this opinion.

[Opeth747]

i3's have their place.  No, they're not irrelevant. 

[MRC380]

If going for i34150, new egg price is 121.
Go for i3 4170, which new egg price is 114!
Cheaper and better performance.
Link for proof:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117543&Tpk=i3%204170

one word. Canada, mate.

 

What is a respectable gpu that you could typically pair up with an i3?

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

It used to be if you are overclocking go with the g3258 over the i3 but now some games don't even run at all with 2 cores so I wouldn't suggest it over the i3 even though it is still considered a dual core the hyperthreads will help.

 

I would pair it with a 280x

[BigDay]

[runit3]

Nothing is irrelevant to the person who has a real use for it. I've known plenty of people who were perfectly happy with a core 2 duo for 5 years, it did what they needed and they never needed more. I use an i3-2100 at work every day, and it's all I need (it did need an SSD and 8GB RAM upgrade). Would I be happier with an i5? Sure, in isolated software suites, but the margin of performance isn't worth the $100+ to pick up a used one and slap it in. My uses at work are entirely dependent on 4 software packages up and running with around 12 tabs of Firefox. Core count does nothing for the programs as they're all network and access time (see SSD) bottlenecked. Scaling over 2c/4t is abysmal with all the programs (they're relatively ancient), core speed could make a decent impact if I had it in a board capable of OCing and it wasn't an i3, neither of which are choices I can make at work.

 

The main point of contention with "budget" CPU decisions, specifically with gaming, is that there is no magic bullet processor capable of filling every budget build. An i3 is perfectly happy pushing a GTX 980 at 1440p 60Hz but if you asked it to do 1080p 144Hz it would shit the bed. I've built out a couple decent G3258 (pentium) builds but I could never recommend them to anyone unless all they plan on playing is DOTA 2, LOL, or Smite -and the person knows how to OC the piss out of a chip.

 

You need to define your dad's specific uses before anyone can throw out anything more than an i5 is optimal and an i7 is the best choice -which are safe generalizations about any machine. Is he playing the latest AAA titles? What resolution and refresh? Does it need to do more besides gaming that have core dependencies (VM's, video editing, etc.)?

 

If I had to build a budget ($500-700) system tomorrow that would be capable of any game medium settings for 1080p at 60Hz it would be an i3-6xxx/4xxx or an 860K with an R9-280X or any other used GPU equivalent I could snag online. The caveat being the rig would only be used for light gaming and daily use. Anything more and you're going to want to up the budget to include an i5, preferably with the ability to OC and stretch out the life of the machine.

 

TL;DR - i3's aren't irrelevant as long as you're using them in their best use scenario -light gaming and basic office/daily tasks.