i3 and Games

[Smiler]

Are either the i3-2100 or i3-2120 reasonable peformers with games? Just thinking of using one in a media centre and thought that if it could play games too I could get rid of the games console whilst I'm at it.

Cheers,

Smiler.

 

[beejjacobs]

They are good CPUs for gaming yes, but the integrated graphics is only really good for media playback I think.

 

[Smiler]

Intergrated graphics? Do these cpus mean you don't have to use a graphics card then?

Sorry, still learning.

 

[RJC]

Yep, when used with a Z68 or H series motherboard.

 

[jamiehavok]

Intergrated graphics? Do these cpus mean you don't have to use a graphics card then?

Sorry, still learning.

no you dont need a gfx card to display an image or to watch video but if you want to game then you will need a gfx card - unles all your gonna play is stuff like angry birds!

 

[TallPaul_S]

Yeah, they're fine for gaming, I currently have an i3 2100 with a 6870 and it plays BF3 on med/high (depending on the map) at 1920x1080 at a solid 50-60fps

 

[Smiler]

This has got me thinking. I take it that playback of HD films isn't very labour intensive for a chip like this. So I could in effect run the media side to the telly from the motherboard connection and have a graphics card fitted to power the monitor. Or is that a load of cobblers?

 

[TallPaul_S]

This has got me thinking. I take it that playback of HD films isn't very labour intensive for a chip like this. So I could in effect run the media side to the telly from the motherboard connection and have a graphics card fitted to power the monitor. Or is that a load of cobblers?

The latter pretty sure then when you insert a graphics card the onboard display output is disabled. Just run both monitors from the gpu, it's the same. I'm outputting to 2x dell 2312hm monitors in eyefinity and to a 42" Panny plasma with my 6870, obviously (most) nvidia cards would limited to 2x displays.

 

[Appleby]

if you had a Z68 chipset you can use Lucid Virtue, it will use the GPU for graphics intensive workloads and will use the CPU on board graphics for non intensive workloads. How well it works? I've never tried it but its worth investigating if you are interested!