AM3 or i5 for Gaming?

J

JSki

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Oct 19, 2009
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Hey all,

My old single core 939 system has been getting on the slow side for a while and I'm sure is a serious bottleneck for my GTX260 at this point... And with Win7 out I figure it's time to upgrade the CPU / MoBo / RAM and go for a Win7 system. I'm sure anything would be an upgrade at this point, but want to spend as little as I can to get a good gaming system for the next 4 or so years. (I do upgrade my graphics card every 1-2 years).

I have a GTX260, 1tb HDD and a 700w SilverStone PSU so I'm good with all the extra stuff I'll need besides MoBo, CPU and RAM.

I am planning on OCing the system and will be using it for standard computer stuff like surfing the web as well as a fair bit of gaming at 1680x1050 resolution. I mainly play RTS and RPG's / MMO's. Not much in the way of a FPS gamer.


An i5 system is looking to run me about $400.

While an AM3 system with a Athlon2 x4, 790x MoBo and the same RAM will only set me back about $250. Or $300 if I go with a Phenom2 instead.

Will the Intel system give me a $100 - $150 better gaming experience? (That's about a year of MMO playing, a few brand new games or a whole bunch of older releases) Or will I be better served by saving money now and then getting a AM3+ / AM4 cpu when they come out in the future if I need a speed boost for my gaming.

My gut tells me to stick with AMD, save the money and upgrade the cpu in the future if I need to. But I want to see what other people think on the issue.

Thanks! :D
 
Hello,


Just buy the best you need/can now (i5 is iffy, though, as it isn't really... on any Intel roadmap), and worry about upgrades later.

Buying a 'low end' to compromise, while always waiting for better CPU will just keep you waiting indefinately, with a low end CPU.
 
To be honest, I'm posting more because I'm not 100% sure of what I really do need to run a halfway decent gaming computer for the next number of years.

I guess I just want to make sure that saving some $ isn't going to be a bad decision a year down the road or something.

I know that the GPU is more the factor than the CPU, but you still need a good CPU backing up the card. Which I know from experience in getting my GTX260 ;)


As for Fry's or Microcenter... I've never heard of either. The only thing left in my area is BestBuy. The CompUSA (Which actually sold a lot of hardware and modding stuff) closed years ago and that was about the only place to get anything. So I order everything online usually from the Egg or ZZF.
 
What city do you live in? Frys or microcenter could save you some $$
 
gwarren007 said:
What city do you live in? Frys or microcenter could save you some $$
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Buffalo, NY. I just did a search and Frys is only out west. And the closest Microcenter is a 3+ hour drive. Doubt I'd save enough for a 6hr round trip to be worth it.
 
To answer your question simply. i5 beats AM3 in performance today. But it will cost you more. Is it $150 better? Tough question. It all depends on what you want. But if you don't want to upgrade again in a while, it's probably worth it to go i5 to get your fastest performance you can get for your dollar now. Lets say you want to upgrade your AM3 chip down the road to make it on par with an i5. That's still going to cost you another $150 for a better chip right? So it ends up being equal, except with the i5 you would get the better performance now, but have to shell out more now. If you can afford it, I think it's better to get the faster system.
 
I really don't see anything compelling in the AM3 platform.
I might build an HTPC rig with it but that's about it.

It may cost more but value isn't always about what's cheapest.

I think the I5 will satisfy your gaming needs long after the AM3 is a memory. I think you'll have a better upgrade path too. AMD seems to have this bad habit of claiming upgradability but down the road you find out that, yeah the cpu fits in the socket but because my chipset is old it borks the performance potential of the processor.

I point to the HT link differences between the AM2 and AM2+ as an example. Stick an AM2+ CPU on an AM2 board and you end up with less performance than you paid for.

When I buy pc components I always keep in mind resale when I'm done with them.
I turn over pc's about every 2 to 3 years so I make sure I can make at least some of my money back when I go to sell the old parts.

I recently (6+ mo. ago) got rid of an AMD 6000+ based game rig and when I compared what I got for it compared to the P4 extreme systems I had I made more money off the P4's.
 
I just went from a X2 550 BE to a i5 750 and the difference is amazing. My x2 was running at 3.6GHz on stock voltage too. My FPS are significantly higher and the multitasking is much improved. I would definitely go with the i5 if you can afford it.
 
Pros: For its price point you get the Lynnfield's On-Die PCI Express, runs on average 5 degrees cooler than my core 2 cpu at the same speeds. Got it to OC to a 3.4 with minor tweaks. Noticed more pep in my VM PCs running on my rig using VMServer.

Cons: Noticed a 5-10 FPS more per game using gtx 260 in sli. Had to buy New MODO and 6 gigs of ddr3 ram for about 4 $$ beans. 5-10 fps more when your all ready getting 90-250 fps in games is not a huge leap.

Other Thoughts: If you have a Core 2 running at clocks speeds above 3GHz I see no need to buy. I feel like i wasted 6$$ beans for maybe a 5-7% gain in performance.
 
that was a costumer replying from newegg...


go with the AMD ... the i5 and i7 is good if all you do is bench to show off on hardocp and xtremesystems... but for a gamer and a person that uses their system for daily usage, these i5 and i7 is too much...
 
Thanks Vict0r, that helps. The i5 would definately be better, but if it's only like 5% more than a C2D which is only about 5% faster than an AM3... That's nothing too huge.

Now I'm sure if I was doing things like encoding a lot of video or the like, the gains would certainly be there, but since I don't it really does seem like AM3 is the way to go for low cost.
 
vict0r said:
that was a costumer replying from newegg...


go with the AMD ... the i5 and i7 is good if all you do is bench to show off on hardocp and xtremesystems... but for a gamer and a person that uses their system for daily usage, these i5 and i7 is too much...
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That's a very oft perspective. We're at [H]ard|Forum. :p ... but I agree. For only gaming at the avg res (1680x1050), Core i5 doesn't really show much of an improvement, at least not enough to warrant its price premium, over Phenom2, in GPU limited games (most games). However, keep in mind that Phenom2 performs on par with Core2, which came out in Q3'06. While its much cheaper these days, such performance is getting old, and many people don't like to spend a lot of money on older tech.
 
It comes down to either better performance(i5) or better price(AM3). I prefer AMD because they are priced well, and tend to have long life cycles for their sockets.
 
I'd say it comes down to what you're budget is. There's really no question that Core i5 is more powerful, but you've got to be willing to spend $200 on the CPU and $150+ on the motherboard to get to it (unless of course you can take advantage of the Microcenter deal. Core 2 still performs well in the sub $200 range, but it there's no path for upgrades since LGA775 is dead. So if you're looking to spend less than $200 on a CPU, I'd stick with AMD.

One thing I'd definitely recommend if you plan on doing CPU and/or motherboard upgrades in the future is spring for a retail copy of Win7, since you could find an OEM copy tied to your motherboard. There are some ways around it, but personally I'd rather not have my upgrade path dependent on the helpfulness of Microsoft support.
 
Thanks all for the help, decided that I can deal with a bit slower cpu. I'm not an "extreme" gamer and can deal with a bit less overall performance.

Itchyeyes said:
One thing I'd definitely recommend if you plan on doing CPU and/or motherboard upgrades in the future is spring for a retail copy of Win7, since you could find an OEM copy tied to your motherboard. There are some ways around it, but personally I'd rather not have my upgrade path dependent on the helpfulness of Microsoft support.
Click to expand...

I actually have a copy through the MSDN so if worst comes to worst and I have to buy a new copy at some point, I got the first one for free at least.
 
I dunno, I would still upgrade b/c a single core 939 is already bottlenecking you by its low IPC and being only one core. I couldn't see the difference between my 8800GT vs. 7800GT until I upgraded from a Opty146 to an e8400. Considering that you have a GTX260, I think you stand to gain a lot.
 
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