Best "bang for buck" CPU at the moment?

[Gimpymoo]

Not talking about RAW power or the cheapest but best value performance per buck while still being a jack of all trades.

Thanks.

 

[Gimpymoo]

i would say if you mean bang for buck then often the higher end cpus end up being the best.why because they often last quite a bit longer and you get a better experience overall.

i7 will often last you maybe a year longer maybe more than a i5.games like bf1 have finally brough home cpu power is needed.

I have had a 4770K for a while, recently invested in some good cooling.

Now running at 4.4Ghz without trying and I see no reason to upgrade that rig in the forseeable future.

I find the current CPU tech rather stagnant.

I want more cores and faster cores but we seem to at a ceiling and are currently eeking out the last few drops.

The thing is, my 4770K was £250, a current top level i7 is WAY beyond that and I feel is not as much value compared to what the 4770K was and cannot justify a top end i7 for a "secondary" rig.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Is an i3 6100 a good shout?

A good fast clock.

Majority of games are still single threaded (I know not all but I expect most games played on this rig will be older ones anyway).

If needed in 2017, I can sell the i3 and get a 6600k if needed while still being on a modern platform.

 

[Gimpymoo]

I believe in answer to this thread, the winner is:

i3 6100

Too much value

 

[Gimpymoo]

I discounted the i3's since OP said "Jack of all trades".

An i3 will get demolished in any kind of adobe suite work, or similar.

If "Jack of all trades" wasn't specified, then I agree.

Also the base clocks don't really mean anything these days, they'll all sit at their boost clocks comfortably if you ask a lot from them. And indeed if you're doing light work, they'll all sit well below their base clocks.

Turbo frequency only applies to single core though right?

I found an i5 6400 bundle with Z170 board and RAM for £250 (b grade). Even at that price, I was not tempted. Games will max out single core before the benefit of the other cores will noticeable.

The i3 6100 gives 2 cores / 4 threads at 3.7Ghz, that is good IMO. Better than 1 core at 3.2 with others at 2.7 with only really the first 2 cores at max being pushed.

We are nowhere near saturation point for games being consistently multi threaded.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Different number of Turbo bins depending on how many cores are loaded
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000005647.html

e.g.

                 Processor	i5-6400-2.7 GHz	1 Bin = 100 MHz
           Processor Cores	Quad-core
              Active Cores	4C	3C	2C	1C
Max Turbo Boost Bin Upside	4	5	6	6
 Max Turbo Boost Frequency	3.1	3.2	3.3	3.3

* Although some motherboards have a setting to "force" maximum Turbo mode for all cores regardless as I understand it.

Good info, thanks.

So effectively, if kept cool, the chip would run games at 3.3Ghz, assuming game runs no more than 2 cores? Which at present, is not many anyway and is not intended for "uber" gaming anyway.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Thanks.

The i3 6100 is exactly what I am after. Surprised it was not mentioned. Maybe the "jack of all trades" threw people off the scent.

Even then though, 3.7Ghz / 4 threads is still excellent bang for buck in my opinion.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Yep, and even with 4 cores loaded, as long as power and thermal headroom is available, potentially it could run at 3.1Ghz on all 4 cores

In my mind, current or older games, the extra 600Mhz clock from the 6100 will make a huge different in frame rate compared to the 6400.

We are a long way off multi core/threaded game being the norm. We are still heavily dependent on single core clock speed.

So, if you are doing a single task at a time, the i3 6100 will trump those tasks owing to a much higher clock.

I am even certain it will run Arma 3 better than most CPUs owing to the game being very heavily single threaded and loves clock.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Thanks for all the help.

I was all set to get an i3 6100, it made sense.

I then got a 6600K and RX 470 bundle second hand, almost new for £300. Seemed a steal so went with it.

Still tempted to build another rig with an i3, they seem an interesting chip for the price.