I need an answer, this is stressing me out.

[Guest]

Hello,

I'm looking to upgrade my PC, at the moment I have an Intel E8400, but I've been looking at the i3, now as you know they're both Dual-Core cpu's. If I keep the same graphics card as I have right now, which is an ATI 4870 512MB, am I going to notice any substantial performance increase? I only ask because I'm not an expert, and I see they're both Dual Core. Thanks.

P.S. For what it's worth, I have 4GB of OCZ DDR2 at the moment, I don't know what speed they're running at, (1333mhz) I presume, but I'm going to be upgrading to Corsair XMS3 1600MHz, will that also give me a performance boost?

 

[BreadWhistle]

What will you be using your computer for?

 

[amuffin]

You will see increases with the i3 and faster DDR3 memory.

 

[socialfox]

You will notice faster computer speeds in terms of gaming for sure, extracting/compressing and load times for a variety of things. In general the i3 will give you a substantial increase, cores are not really important as there are some intel dual cores that are equivalent to AMD quad cores. Its more of the cpu architecture that matters more than cores and clock speeds.

Edit: haha three posts in a minute separated by only a few seconds

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys, I will only be using my PC for browsing, casual gaming, movies, things like that. I don't need to play games at 1920x1080 with everything cranked up to the max it can go. So, the i3 would be a pretty substantial upgrade then, yeah?

 

[socialfox]

Yes definitely a good upgrade, well worth the money.

 

[Guest]

Okay thanks a lot Socialfox. One thing though, to ease my mind, it will still be a very good upgrade even for gaming if I keep the same graphics card? because I know certain games are more dependent on the GPU rather than the CPU?

Sorry for all the questions, I just get very stressed out when it comes to buying PC parts, lol.

 

[BreadWhistle]

What graphics card is it? If it's pretty old (Sub 9800GT) I'd maybe replace it or just use the integrated graphics on the i3 3220.

 

[Guest]

It's an ATI 4870

 

[socialfox]

Correct the video card will still be of great use even with the change, though it is a bit old in terms of technology. You may want to upgrade soon to a HD 7770 at least for gaming at high resolutions when the HD 4870 serves its time. Technically, the lower your resolution the more dependent it becomes on the cpu and the higher it is the more gpu dependent is becomes.

Also, there were others that contributed as well so the thanks shouldn't be to me only.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I gave some thumbs up now Anyway, the native resolution of my monitor (Well, it's actually a TV lol) is 1360x768... I assume that's not a very high resolution, so it's more of a CPU based thing when it comes to gaming in my case?

 

[socialfox]

I would say that it leans more towards CPU, your Gpu is good enough for that resolution. Or maybe even balanced, I notice at 1600x900 it starts to favor grahpics card more.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Socialfox, I think I'm just going to spend an extra £50 and get the i5 2500k

 

[socialfox]

No problem, drop a private message if you need any other help. If your question is satisfied then you should pick a best answer.

 

[mohit9206]

instead of i5 i would rather get an i3 and a better gpu like 7850. its twice as powerful as 4870.