AMD vs Intel CPU For Budget Gaming PC

yankees7781

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Jan 9, 2015
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I know this is a big debate on which CPU is best for gaming, I am looking into building a $500 gaming PC and have been looking around for a while, trying to find out which CPU would be the best for a $500 gaming PC build. I would like to be able to play some newer games, like Battlefield 4, Far Cry 4, Crysis 3, Metro Last Light, and some older games like Skyrim. Now I know that most of the newer games need more than 2 cores to play, but I also know that Intel's cores are stronger than AMD's. I was originally thinking of getting an Intel Core i3-4xxx, but some people said that the AMD FX 6300 is better, and some said it wasn't as good. Researching all of this for a few hours gave me a headache, so I've decided to come here for answers. So, what CPU do you guys think I should get, and Intel i3 or and AMD? Remember, my build is going to be around $500, so it has to be under $130. All of the other parts I will figure out later. Thanks to anyone that can help me out!
 
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As a rule, you should budget about 2x the cpu cost for your graphics card.
It is that important.
Your budget is a low one.
I suggest you build based on tom's recent $500 budget gaming build:
It is based on a tuned $70 G3258 cpu.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4021.html

What I like is that you have an upgrade path to a i3. i5, or even i7 cpu.
With the FX-6300 you mentioned, you can only add more cores which are not all that useful.
As a rule, you should budget about 2x the cpu cost for your graphics card.
It is that important.
Your budget is a low one.
I suggest you build based on tom's recent $500 budget gaming build:
It is based on a tuned $70 G3258 cpu.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4021.html

What I like is that you have an upgrade path to a i3. i5, or even i7 cpu.
With the FX-6300 you mentioned, you can only add more cores which are not all that useful.
 
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Kiloton-phreak

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Jan 9, 2015
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With and AMD CPU, you will generally get more bang for your buck. I personally use an AMD FX9370, but I wish I had Intel.

On your budget, I would definitely go for AMD. Intel is in general more expensive, but I find that for gaming they are a good buy, as they have the great single-core performance that is required in most gaming whereas AMD is better for multi- threaded tasks.

Like I said though, with a $500 budget I would definitely go AMD.
 
So you just want a price on an i3 CPU under $130,you can do a goggle search.
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i3-4330-Processor-BX80646I34330/dp/B00EUUN76U/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1420850856&sr=1-1&keywords=i3-4330

And of course for the AMD FX-6300
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009O7YORK/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=4161683120&ref=pd_sl_5q8nlhvhnr_e

What VGA card are you planing on getting with a $370 budget for the rest of your parts? Do you have anything from an older system you can use? Do you need an O/S?
 
Just to get the ball rolling...

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2L8Fpg
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2L8Fpg/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Directron)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 1GB Video Card ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VO545A1N2U ATX Mid Tower Case w/450W Power Supply ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $498.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-09 20:19 EST-0500
 
+1 to geofelt.
Check http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-budget-gaming-pc,4021.html.
I've many times written, and Tom's benchmarks have confirmed that Intel Pentiums are not that bad as some people think.
They are like half Core I5. This is for the Ivy Bridge and Haswell based Pentiums of course, J2900 is very week as it is based on atom cores.
Starting with G3258 you have a very easy upgrade path that will increase the CPU power ~250% (2x cores + more GHZ).
Sell the Pentium throw in an I5 - ready.
With the FX upgrade to 8 core will increase the performance ~130-140%.