What CPU to take?

[Japster]

Hi, one of my mates is looking at upgrading his pc, for general usage and some gaming, (Dota2, but nothing like BF4), I would like to hear your guys suggestions on CPU's, and only the CPU part. The GPU is covered and not that much of an issue as he wont be playing games that is too graphic intensive.

The lower end CPU's he is looking at are: AMD Richland A8-6600K, 3.9GHz vs Intel Core i3-3250, 3.5GHz,

The other option he is looking at is: AMD Kaveri A10-7700K, 3.4GHz vs Intel Core i5-3340, 3.1GHz,

Now I know the Intel is 3rd gen, but he already has an mobo with the right socket. For now, cost must not be the deciding factor between the CPU's but purely best performance. Since he will have a dedicated GPU, the AMD's should not be considered on the better onboard GPU they have.

So what CPU's would you take in the two different classes?

 

[ponder]

i5-3340

 

[Japster]

I also suggested the i5 in the second group, but what about the first group the AMD Richland A8-6600K, 3.9GHz vs Intel Core i3-3250, 3.5GHz?

 

[Nameite]

i3 is slightly faster, uses less power...but slightly more expensive.

The A8-6600k is faster if overclocked and cheaper, slightly faster integrated GPU (if he doesnt have a GPU...) and supports higher clocked ram (no point if performance is worse though.)


I would choose the i3...

 

[Electric]

i5 all day

 

[CataclysmZA]

I also suggested the i5 in the second group, but what about the first group the AMD Richland A8-6600K, 3.9GHz vs Intel Core i3-3250, 3.5GHz?

Only Kaveri chips come properly close to the raw power of a quad-core i5 chip, a Richland APU would have to be clocked up to 4.5GHz to see some parity. Even if he did go the A8-6600K route, he'd still have to move to a decent FM2+ motherboard, as they typically unlock slightly higher overclocking headroom than most FM2 motherboards.

I'd also go with the i5. It has a larger cache size, four physical cores and will have a slight advantage in the few games that don't play well with hyper-threaded cores. The resale value is also slightly better and if you plop it onto a Z77 motherboard, there's the benefit of manipulating Turbo Boost to overclock it slightly.

 

[EmileS]

No idea why the A8 and A10 CPU's are in the mix and not the FX CPUs. If he already has the 1155 socket, then i3 and i5 is the way to go, the performance of the i5 is very good value for money.

 

[FuLL_MeT4L]

Get the i5.

 

[Japster]

I have also advised him to take an Intel chip, either the i3 or the i5, but he is actually a AMD fanboy and that is the reason why I wanted to know the difference between the relative Intel CPU compared to an AMD CPU of similar price.

 

[CataclysmZA]

I have also advised him to take an Intel chip, either the i3 or the i5, but he is actually a AMD fanboy and that is the reason why I wanted to know the difference between the relative Intel CPU compared to an AMD CPU of similar price.

In that case, a decent socket AM3+ motherboard and a FX-6300 would come closest to what he wants, or would be looking for in terms of speed and power. However, there's a very real benefit to sticking with Intel and LGA1155 because he doesn't have to change the motherboard, only the processor.

I'm also an AMD fanboy and I recognise that Intel chips are simply superior for gaming scenarios if you want predictable performance. Kaveri comes close but the platform is too expensive locally to make any dents and socket FM2+ lacks any larger APUs that might have been able to swap out some of the IGP hardware for more cores.