Athlon X4 860k vs Pentium 3258

[Mattsoup]

I'm building a budget rig and I keep seeing articles that vary on which is better. Has a definitive answer been found on the forum?

[007agentHP]

if your playing game slike fallout 4 or GTA 5 which use 4 cores, the 860k

if not the g3258 later replaced by a i3/i5

[don_svetlio]

You want to upgrade this year to an i5 4460? Pentium

You want to upgrade in 2-3 years? Athlon

Simple really.

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

I mean 860k because more cores 

 

Intel because more upgrade path

[Suika]

G3258 has an upgrade path, but does not play some triple-A titles, at least without a workaround.

 

860k can play triple-A titles fine, but does not have a suitable upgrade path.

 

What's more important now?

[flibberdipper]

You want to upgrade this year to an i5 4460? Pentium

You want to upgrade in 2-3 years? Athlon

Simple really.

Basically this (coming from a G3258 owner even).

[PricelessNight]

Yeah I recently built a build for my brother with the Pentium G3258 mainly for the upgrade path. So I would recommend going with the Pentium that way down the line you can get an i5 or i7 if you want too.

[don_svetlio]

Yeah I recently built a build for my brother with the Pentium G3258 mainly for the upgrade path. So I would recommend going with the Pentium that way down the line you can get an i5 or i7 if you want too.

Only if upgrading soon though. Most recent games stutter a lot on the Pentium

[LokiFire]

Athlon 860k if you are going to be settled with it for a longer period of time, Pentium if upgrading on a short term basis.

 

Some games really need 3-4 cores now.

[Mattsoup]

I think I'm going with the 860k. I'm going for performance now.

[Charlie27364]

Pentium has an awesome upgrade path, but it has only 2 cores and all Triple A games with butcher the Pentium because it only has two cores.

 

X4 860K on the other hand has 4 cores, so it can run Triple A games but it has practically no upgrade path.

 

You decide, and you going to trash this computer in 2-3 years and build a better one, or are you going to keep your computer and upgrade it.

[Nena Trinity]

860K if you plan to not upgrade in a while but Pentium gives you upgrade path to i5 or i7!

[Mattsoup]

Pentium has an awesome upgrade path, but it has only 2 cores and all Triple A games with butcher the Pentium because it only has two cores.

X4 860K on the other hand has 4 cores, so it can run Triple A games but it has practically no upgrade path.

You decide, and you going to trash this computer in 2-3 years and build a better one, or are you going to keep your computer and upgrade it.

I will be rebuilding it next year with a custom case made from an imac g3. I'll upgrade some stuff then. For now I want the best budget performance

[Charlie27364]

I will be rebuilding it next year with a custom case made from an imac g3. I'll upgrade some stuff then. For now I want the best budget performance

Than defiantly X4 860k. 

[Morgan MLGman]

Than defiantly X4 860k. 

It's just a better choice overall and should handle any game you throw at it. At least fine. And it doesn't bottleneck GPUs up to the R9 380/380X level so you're probably fine if you pick a GPU up to that point

[a3venom]

I wouldnt get the Pentium over the x4 860k since some games are unplayable on a 2 thread CPU.

an i3 would however give you a great gaming experience but much more expensive.

[Mattsoup]

It's just a better choice overall and should handle any game you throw at it. At least fine. And it doesn't bottleneck GPUs up to the R9 380/380X level so you're probably fine if you pick a GPU up to that point

I'm looking at an r9 290 so that's good news

[Morgan MLGman]

I'm looking at an r9 290 so that's good news

R9 290 is faster than a 380X, but the bottleneck shouldn't be that terrible, it would definitely be more significant with the G3258. Keep in mind that you have to overclock the CPU so it's not utter crap. 4,5ghz mark is recommended, anything above advised.