AMD gaming pc

[newpcinc]

Currently I have AMD Athlon 5600, ATI HD 3850, 4GB of Ram, so I think it's time to change my old pc. What I want is a new processor, motherboard and a graphic card.I think the RAM memory should be enough. I want to buy AMD because I feel that overall it's more value for money, and I don't have a high budget.

So far, I made this PC:
AMD FX 4170 (the numbers on this one seems impresive)
MSI R6850 Cyclone 1GB 256bit
ASRock 970EXTREME3 (Crossfire supported)

All I want is a pc for casual gaming, with 50-60fps performance on medium-high preferably, on a max res of 1440x900.

So here comes the questions:
1.Is the FX 4170 better than I3?
2.What would you change from the current spec?("All" is a valid answer as long as you can suggest something in a similar range of price).

Thank you for the help

 

[WR2]

What price are you seeing on the FX-4170 compared to Phenom II X4 965 or 960T?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[newpcinc]

Sorry for wrong posting, I was in a hurry when writing.

The Phenom II X4 965 is about 12 euro cheaper on the store I might buy.

 

[nekulturny]

Questions.

1. Better at what? For single player games both will get the job done. Do you want to overclock? The i3 cant do that, the 4170 can, but either way, I'd take a Phenom II 965 over both of them. The FX-4170 is not a true quad core, much like the i3 its a dual core that can "pretend" to have 4. Intel's hyperthreading is quite efficient, moreso than AMD's Bulldozer cores, even so neither are as good as a true core.

Phenom IIs are both true quads and are overclockable. But again, its not like the FX-4170 cant get the job done for you.

This can be particularly useful specifically for Battlefield 3 multiplayer which is as of today pretty much the only game on the market that can make use of a quad (and even hexacores). My advice is to go with a quad as more games may come out in the future that utilize quad cores. Also, a true quad is better suited for multitasking.

2. One change I would make would be to spend a little bit more (20-30 bucks) ona 6870 instead of the 6850.

 

[newpcinc]

Thank you for the advice. I'll consider that, and I think I'll go with the Phenom then. It's even cheaper.

 

[nekulturny]

No problem. In my opinion the only Bulldozer FX CPU worth considering is the 8120 8 core (since its a quad core that "pretends" to have 8) Initially they were way too expensive to match their stock performance, but now they're a lot cheaper. But if they're too expensive for you, as long as Phenom IIs are still available, I'll always recommend them over Bulldozer FX-4's and FX-6s and i3s.

Your mileage may vary, not everybody agrees with me.