Is it worth upgrading my CPU from an i3 3240 to an i5 3470 for just £30?

Krelm11

Krelm11

Krelm11

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Basically my local CEX have an i5 3470 in stock for £30. Would you say this is a low enough price to pay for the increase in performance i would get. It would be primarily for gaming. I have a GTX 750Ti 2GB and currently 4GB Ram but i will be buying 8GB along with the CPU.

Would appreciate any thoughts/advice.
 
What games do you play?

If you play an assortment of games the i5 will definetly improve performance of those that utilise more than 1 core, which will be most if you play a lot of games (i3 dual core i5 quad core). That coupled with the much needed extra memory you're getting it will be a nice little upgrade for your £30.
 
Yeah i don't really play recent games until the price drops. Most of the games i play are usually at least a year old or more. The main game i play most is FF14 which runs great but takes FPS hits in crowded areas. Anyway, thank you for the reply. I will deffinitely get this now, and well even if its only a small boost in performance, its not exactly costing a lot of money.
 
Hi, welcome. Another FFXIV player here :) can't wait for shadowbringers to finally launch!

With respect to FFXIV, it's surprisingly reasonably multithreaded. The i5 is definitely the optimal minimum I would aim for.
However the i7 3770 is the better chip as it also has hyperthreading. But depending on the cost of it over the i5 you're getting, it may or may not be worth the extra outlay.
FFXIV is also reasonably ram friendly, but you'll definitely see less stuttering and less frame drops going from 4gb to 8gb

As an aside, you haven't told us what mother board you have, please check if all the stuff you're buying is compatible and doesn't need a bios update.
 
Hi, nice to see a fellow FF14 player :) I am only about halfway through base Stormblood expansion so i literally know nothing regarding the expansion due to spoilers, except the obvious big selling point that we become Warriors of Darkness or something. They have no i7's in stock otherwise i would consider getting one. In regards to my motherboard, i am not currently home so i cannot check, however it was bought second hand and i was going to attempt to update the bios when my PC was finally ready to use - it's an old motherboard and the last bios update was several years ago. Upon checking with CPU-Z and in the bios itself, whoever previously owned this motherboard has updated the bios to the last bios update that came out for this motherboard, so i would assume there wont be any issues and the manual clearly states it supports all 3rd generation Intel chips.

Its nice to hear FF14 has multithread support. Perhaps i can now play it with a near constant 60FPS :)

Appreciate the advice guys, thank you.
 
Krelm11 said:
In regards to my motherboard, i am not currently home so i cannot check
Click to expand...
i'm assuming this is a custom computer, rather than a prebuilt from dell/hp/lenovo etc.
the only reason i ask is that some dell/etc prebuillts have locked down bios, limiting upgrade options.
 
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