Gateway DX4870 i3 2120: Should I Upgrade to i3 3220 or i5 2400/2500?

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

Hello guys! I own a Gateway DX4870 with a i3 2120 processor, 14GB ram, HD6750 video card, and Windows 8.1. I am trying to upgrade the CPU for gaming. I was thinking about upgrading to i3 3220 (3.4GHz HT Dual Core), i5 2400 (3.1GHz Quad Core) or i5 2500 (3.3GHz Quad Core). There is a big difference in price between i3 3220 and the i5 2400/2500. However, I was reading a couple threads in other websites and they say that there is not much difference graphic wise between the i3 3220 and the i5 2400 (or i5 2500). There is a big difference in the benchmark values: i3 3220 = 4209; i5 2400 = 5810; i5 2500 = 6208. Also, the i3 3220 uses the HD2500 integrated graphic while the i5 2400/2500 uses HD2000. I am a little confused on which of these processor would give me the best value for gaming.

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Upgrading the CPU to use integrated graphics is almost useless. If you don't have a GPU, then that should be the first step. Adding a GPU like the GTX 750 Ti or the R7 260X would provide a far greater improvement than a faster CPU and no GPU.

sammy sung · Jan 28, 2015

The 2500 would be the most proficient in games requiring more than 2 cores as it has four physical threads as opposed to two physical and two logical via hyperthreading. It's performance per core is also a bit better than the 3rd gen i3.

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

I actually have a AMD Radeon HD6750 video card.

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Reaccion :

I missed the HD 6750, but for gaming even an entry level GPU like an R7 260X would be a significant improvement. A faster GPU would be even better. Unless your CPU is the bottleneck (easy to determine), a better GPU would be a better investment for most games that are not CPU intensive.

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

sammy sung :

So do you think that the difference in money wise between the i3 3220 and the i5 2500 is worth to pay?? I read in a couple websites that says: "No winner declared,Too close to call".

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

Reaccion :

I missed the HD 6750, but for gaming even an entry level GPU like an R7 260X would be a significant improvement. A faster GPU would be even better. Unless your CPU is the bottleneck (easy to determine), a better GPU would be a better investment for most games that are not CPU intensive.

I see. I am into emulating games.

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Do you realize that your GPU is slower than an HD 5770 that definitely is not appropriate for current games? Your FPS won't improve much unless you also get a new GPU. Going from an HD 5770 to a GTX 660 Ti was a massive improvement on an old system with an i3-550 overclocked to 3.86 GHz.

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

An emulator may require a better CPU, but how busy is the CPU while you play games and you play at what resolution?

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

I also own a HP Envy with a i7 3770 and a factory AMD 7570 2GB video card. The games run fine in this computer.

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

I use the screen to "Auto (Windows Size)". The sound is cutting off on the Gateway i3 2120

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Then the emulated games are very CPU intensive and the GPU isn't important (unlike normal games where the GPU is far more important).

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

I think so. That is why I am a little confused on which of these processor would give me the best value for gaming: i3 3220 and the i5 2400 (or i5 2500)

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Reaccion :

THat may be normal if the emulator requires a more powerful CPU. In your original post you referred to the HD2500 integrated graphics which is not relevant with a GPU and you didn't mention that you play emulated games and not the usual PC games. What emulator are you using? Auto resolution means nothing as we don't know if it's 640x480 or 1080p.

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

GhislainG :

Reaccion :

THat may be normal if the emulator requires a more powerful CPU. In your original post you referred to the HD2500 integrated graphics which is not relevant with a GPU and you didn't mention that you play emulated games and not the usual PC games. What emulator are you using? Auto resolution means nothing as we don't know if it's 640x480 or 1080p.

Okay, so the integrated graphic in the processor is not relevant. I am using Dolphin 4.02 emulator. My screen resolution is 1080p.

Reaccion · Jan 28, 2015

The price of the i5 2500 doubles the i3 3220 price. Is it worthy the investment??

GhislainG · Jan 28, 2015

Now I understand why you have performance issues. That emulator requires a lot of processing power and a DirectX 11 GPU. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_%28emulator%29 Read the system requirements section and get a new CPU; an i7 3770 would be even better than an i5 2500.

Reaccion · Jan 29, 2015

GhislainG :

I already own the i7 3770 in one computer. I just want to upgrade the i3 2120. The price of the i7 3770 is way off my budget to upgrade. This is why I want to make sure that the i5 2500 and i3 3220 price difference is worth to pay.

GhislainG · Jan 29, 2015

Upgrading from an i3-2120 to an i3-3220 is a total loss of money; the performance improvement will be a few FPS at most. The recommended minimum is the i5-2500K; therefore buying anything less than the i5-2500 is useless to run that emulator. As can be read on the Wikipedia page, support for the original version in 2003 was dropped because of poor performance. If you have enough CPU power, then it apparently runs well. Why don't you use the system with the i7-3770 to play?

Reaccion · Jan 29, 2015

GhislainG :

I run games myself when I am not doing something important on the i7 3770. The i3 2120 is my daughter's computer. She uses the computer for homework but mostly for playing games. The i5 2500 has a benchmark of 6208 while the i5 2500k has a 6481 value. I will rather go for the i5 2500 which is some what cheaper than the i5 2500k. You GhislainG helped me to make up my mind about the processor. I really appreciate it! Thanks.

GhislainG · Jan 29, 2015

Unfortunately non-optimized emulators require a lot of CPU resources.

Reaccion · Jan 29, 2015

GhislainG :

Yes, you are right.

Gateway DX4870 i3 2120: Should I Upgrade to i3 3220 or i5 2400/2500?

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