Soldato
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Core i5 or i7 for gaming?
- Thread starter Wilks
- Start date
Yet another area I know nothing of! All I know is that my laptops are wireless capable and I've had no trouble connecting to my wireless modem with them.
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I'd say i5 paired with a decent gpu would be best.
Soldato
id say with the future change in intel chipset and socket type then the best bet now would be an 800 series amd mobo and a 955, therefore in the future you will be able to do minor upgrades, rather than having to replace the whole unit.
I play , bfbc2, lfd 2, orange box, just cause 2, mafia 2, borderlands, metro 2033 etc on my system with either max or close to max settings, except for metro and crysis, all with no problems at all.
I play , bfbc2, lfd 2, orange box, just cause 2, mafia 2, borderlands, metro 2033 etc on my system with either max or close to max settings, except for metro and crysis, all with no problems at all.
Soldato
To be honest, the AMD 800 series chipset has a similar future outlook to the Intel S1366. Both are going to be supported for a while and hex core upgrades are available for a drop-in upgrade (however the AMD is much cheap for this).
However, it has now been confirmed that future AMD Bulldozer CPUs will not work with AM3 boards, new AM3+ boards are required for these snazzy new chips.
However, for a gaming system a board using an AMD 790GX or 890GX chipset + Phenom II X4 (or X6) processor is probably the best bang-for-buck available right now. It is more than powerful enough, and the money saved (compared to Intel i7/X58) can be spend on graphics, an SSD or better monitor.
However, it has now been confirmed that future AMD Bulldozer CPUs will not work with AM3 boards, new AM3+ boards are required for these snazzy new chips.
However, for a gaming system a board using an AMD 790GX or 890GX chipset + Phenom II X4 (or X6) processor is probably the best bang-for-buck available right now. It is more than powerful enough, and the money saved (compared to Intel i7/X58) can be spend on graphics, an SSD or better monitor.
How much of a saving are you looking at buying a top-line AMD board, compared to the i5-750/760?
Soldato
As always the top-end commands a premium - for AM3 the best chipset is currently the 890FX. These boards start at £135.
However, it really depends whether you need these features (PCIe x16x16), the cheaper 790X and 890GX boards (PCIe x8x8) start at £79 and £99 respectively.
If you don't plan on multi-gpu then you can happily get away with a much cheaper AM3 board with a single PCIe slot.
Also considering great AM3 gaming CPUs like the Phenom II X4 955BE have unlocked multiplier, then the motherboard is much less of a limiting factor in terms of overclocking.
The CPU price is also a solid saving - at £117.49 it is a fair bit cheaper than an i5 and powers through games very well.
So you save a few squid then. Is the i5 comparatively faster though?
Soldato
In CPU limited applications the i5 is faster.
In games, so long as you aren't running £500 worth of graphics cards the two are basically just as fast (as game performance is limited by the graphics card, not CPU).
The Phenom II X4 955BE is now on weekly offer on OCUK - so it costs £106 this week.
In games, so long as you aren't running £500 worth of graphics cards the two are basically just as fast (as game performance is limited by the graphics card, not CPU).
The Phenom II X4 955BE is now on weekly offer on OCUK - so it costs £106 this week.
Soldato
i5 is a fair bit faster at stock clocks and will also overclock a good bit more than the AMD - approx 40-50% extra for i5 and approx 20-25% extra for 955. As andi says this doesn't really show in a lot of current games as both CPUs are more than fast enough to make GPU the bottleneck. i5 will show it's muscle more in demanding games now/in the future though. If you choose the 965BE in andi's bench link above, you can see some game tests, but not many. i5 well worth the extra money imho as long as you dont get a lesser GPU to offset the difference in price if the budget isn't flexible.
More great info - cheers fellas.
Soldato
Its not as black and white as that.
Not really, the main advantage to i7 other than hyperthreading a Six core is the X58 chipset.
Very good post, I agree with everything above.
For real value you cannot beat the AMD Phenom X4 as they work out nealry £100 cheaper than a i5 setup up.
Soldato
How do you come to that conclusion? CPU difference is £35 today (a difference commensurate with the performance difference imho), same RAM, and mobos are swings and roundabouts - there's a pretty similar range of prices you can choose to pay with both platforms.
Out of interest, when you say the real advantage of i7 is the x58 chipset itself, what are you referring to? Bearing in mind we're talking specifically about gaming. Tripple channel RAM and 16x/16x SLI are well known to offer almost immeasurable benefits and the same can be said of hyperthreading currently (and it'll only ever offer around 25% CPU gain at best, most likely less). Is there something I'm missing? For gamers, i7/x58 is a premium platform with almost completely diminished returns, imho.
Soldato
its simple really, my set up runs everything i play on mostly the highest settings, regardless of i5 or 955be that wont change, save the extra cash and get a better gpu, thats the only bottleneck in my system (and my mechanical hdd).
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The only real benefits I can think of, are the fact x58 seems to support higher overclocks a bit better. You see quite a few people with i7's at 4.2 with air cooling. Not that an extra 200mhz is going to do much for gaming performance.
I suppose there's also a possiblity somebody might release a gpu within the lifetime of the mobo which is powerful enough to benefit from the extra pci-e bandwidth.
