Help about core i3 2100..about to buy next week

[garfieldncheese]

My current rig is
E5400@3.6ghz
6770 1gb
4gb ddr2 ram
G31 mobo
New Games perform pretty well for such an ancient build, but its not as fluid and smooth as i'd want it to be. So i have decided to buy a new mobo with i3 2100. I have a strict budget to not exceed 200$. I'm impressed with the cpu and i think i'll get much stabler framerate with it. I'll be buying it on 1st march..but before that i'd like to clear a few doubts.
1) its lack of quad core.
It is a dual core cpu, so will it struggle with games requiring quad cores or will it be at par??if not atleast close?? Seeing as most games might require quad cores soon.
I've read somewhere that phenom x4 965processor being a quad core gives much smoother and fluider performance as compared to i3. They stated that i3 gives more max fps than phenom but the amd would give more stable frames on account of its quad architecture. THIS POINT IS REALLY IMPORTANT AS I ENJOY GAMES WITH FLUID AND STABLE FRAMERATE RATHER THAN FAST FRAMERATE WITH RANDOM FPS DROPS.(which is the problem of my current dual core rig)
.gta 4 on an i3 will run equal to an oc'd phenom x4 960?? Both have same price so i could opt for phenom
2)
my friend has a 5770 paired with a q6600 @stock. I really love the fluid way games run in his rig.and have seen how games utilise all of his cores to the full when playing. So will my i3 kick his butt?? Or will it be not noticeable??
Need to know soon. I hope i'm not making a mistake in going i3 instead of quad cored amd
P.s: amd processors i can afford instead of i3:
-fx4100 @3.6ghz
-phenom ii970 @3.5ghz
-phenomii960,965 quad core
-phenom ii 1088t/1075t (with 6 cores!! At similar price!! Most Interesting)
Confused confused confused... Need most stable framerate:-(

[SpicySnow]

That motherboard and i3 will most likely not be compatible with your DDR2 RAM. You'll probably have to get a new set of RAM (DDR3). 8Gb will cost you around $40


i3 dominates almost all AMDs. Recently, the AMD offerings have been pretty embarrassing when compared to intel.

I don't really understand why, but that's what a lot of benchmarks have been saying. And I've been to busy to read deeply.

I haven't heard anything about "most games will require quad core soon". Please link me some sources, I'm interested.
In my book, quad core is still only good for video rendering, useless for almost everything else.

Also. most good games nowadays are being made for consoles - XBOX, PS3. Which are not quad core... I highly doubt games in the near future will require quadcore. Games aren't even CPU intensive in the first place.

Your bottleneck for video games, if you get the i3, won't be your cpu. IT will be your ****ty graphics card. lol Your worrying about the wrong thing.

[garfieldncheese]

So i3 it is...ya i'll be buying the ram.. The graphics card is pretty decent considering its cost and i game at 1440*900 reso and i don't really see much difference with or without aa.
Will the core i3 bottleneck a gpu upgrade in the future??
And also will it outperform a core2quad?if so by how much in gaming??because i could buy a used c2q and not have to change mobo

[Pitabred]

The C2Q is much slower than the new i3. If you're CPU limited in your current games then you're definitely in for an upgrade.

As for future games, no, the i3 should not bottleneck a GPU update. It does only have 2 true cores, and 2 HT cores, so an i5 would be a little bit more future-proof if you can scrape up just a little more cash. Failing that, look to spend the $3 more on something like the 2120 because of the faster clock speed, as all new non-K Intel processors are almost impossible to overclock significantly.

The i3 is definitely NOT compatible with DDR2. It's DDR3 only. Fortunately, RAM is cheap.

As for performance, the i3 will slap it around Here's a comparison of an E6850 vs the i3-2100: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/59?vs=289

[SpicySnow]

I agree with pita.

Most games (as in all, but watching my behind) currently are only optimized for one or two cores.
Even the most recent offerings, that are cpu intensive, like Skyrim, are only optimized for two cores.

So you would not see much, if any, of a framerate increase from having a better CPU.

Now you said in the future, quad core games might come out, I don't know how true that is. But I doubt it.

In conclusion: That i3 is a great buy. It will not bottleneck you. What will bottleneck you is your video card.

Even my card, HD 5870, is showing its age and I can't play a lot of games on max, even with no AA. (5870 > 6950) btw.

[garfieldncheese]

I'll definitely buy the i3 and upgrade to quad ivy bridge next year. But only 2100 model is avalable in india. I think i must be mistaken about games because i read that games like battlefield and grandtheft auto require quad cores.anyways who cares if it spanks the c2quads.!! I think 4 gigs of ram would be sufficient for gaming.
-Is something wrong with buying an h61 mobo with 4 memory slots??

[Pitabred]

You aren't mistaken, there are a lot of games that benefit from true quad cores. But the i3 has hyperthreading, so it can still be quite good. The threads aren't all evenly loaded in those games, so you should still see a very good boost from the 2 real cores and 2 HT cores as compared to a C2D.

Nothing wrong with the H61, it just lacks some features and extra ports, only a single GPU, etc.

4GB is barely enough for gaming, especially modern games on Windows 7. When a game can take up over 2GB of RAM all by itself, then you have the OS and all the other apps included, 8GB gives you more breathing room. You can still run with 4GB, though, and it won't be bad. Just not as good as it could be I would however recommend you get a 2x2GB kit instead of a 4x1GB kit, so you can upgrade in the future without having to remove any components.

[SpicySnow]

What you guys are saying suggests I am wrong. I would like to read more into it. Please provide a source or something.

Cuz this is what I'm reading.
Benchmark Results: CPU Scaling : Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards, Benchmarked
which concludes "Processor-wise, it doesn’t really matter. I could pick an AMD FX, an Intel Core i3, or a Core i7 and get the same performance."

BTW. (quick amazon.com search)
A 2x2 DDR3 is about $25
A 2x4 DDR3 is about $35.

2x4 is better deal bang4buck.
[Edit: 4x2 to 2x4 (typo)]

[Pitabred]

What you guys are saying suggests I am wrong. I would like to read more into it. Please provide a source or something.

Cuz this is what I'm reading.
Benchmark Results: CPU Scaling : Battlefield 3 Performance: 30+ Graphics Cards, Benchmarked
which concludes "Processor-wise, it doesn’t really matter. I could pick an AMD FX, an Intel Core i3, or a Core i7 and get the same performance."

All of those processors they tested can run at least 4 threads, and they're all faster than the Core 2 Duo. Like I said, the threads aren't evenly loaded... there are one or two heavy threads, and possibly other lighter ones for stuff like sound processing. That's what HT is very good for.

[SpicySnow]

@pita

Correct me if I am wrong. I believe your saying that:
The i3 is better than his old core 2 duo. And that the i3 counts as a quad-core because it has hyper-threading.
Which satisfies the "requirement" for quad-cores in some games.

While I was working from the paradigm that quad-core (As in OP's post) meant 4-physical cores. And that we were talking about the i3 in comparison to i5/i7.

And basically, we are in agreement (to OP's post asking if i3 was enough) that the i3 is a good choice. And he will not need to splurge on a "Quad-core" i5 / i7.

@OP
To better answer your questions.
The i3 will not bottleneck any upgrade on the platform. Sandybridge i3 cpu's are LGA 1155. Next gen's Ivy Bridge i7s (minus the top i7 offerings) are said to also be lGA 1155. However, you will need to firmware update your mobo for Ivy Bridge.
The GPU will be pci-e (standard) and will be compatible, almost completely regardless of platform. (Unless you have Mac OS, than things get funky)

I'd like to add that next gen's ivy bridge don't give you much more performance per dollar in comparison to this gen. The main difference is power consumption (and heat) to performance. Which makes a performance difference if you overclock, but not in regular use.


4 memory slots on a mobo is standard. Nothing wrong with it. If you want to get an especially low end mobo, you can go for 2 slots as well.