Will a i3 processor hold its own for another 6years ?

[spiketide]

Hello,
Hi I am planning to build a medium level gaming rig that can play atleast Crysis 1/Assasin's Creed Brotherhood (You get the idea), on a very tight budget.

After much research based on performance and cost (mainly cost), I have rounded upon
CPU : i3 - 3220 3.3 Ghz
Mobo : DH61ZE / DH61BL (Please say which combo will be better)

I already have a 9500 GT graphics card.

So how does this config sound?

Also, how long do you think that the i3 processors will take to get outdated?

Thanks in advance your inputs.

 

[rgd1101]

if you don't buy any new games. It will be fine.

 

[alvine]

you get what you pay for
you will be able to play crysis on minimum settings, i dont know how assasin's creed performance is

 

[wr6133]

Your graphics card is going to hobble you badly

As to the CPU being relevent for 6 years? I'm not a fortune teller but I doubt it. For gaming I severely doubt it.

 

[BuddiLuva]

1. You need a better graphics card

2. Will an i3 processor hold its own for 6 years?
No, no processor will hold its own for 6 years.

 

[sarinaide]

The i3 should be alright for a decent period of time, probably 2-3 years before being really outdated.

The 9500 GT is not a good option, it is very old and very low end.

 

[dscudella]

The Dual Core i3's already showing it's age in newer games. As more games move toward utilizing 4 cores it will really start to be inadequate for gaming. For word processing, web browsing, photo editing (not video) & other daily uses it's fine. 6 years is a lot to ask for a CPU now though.

An i5 would last longer but who knows. Haswell is only a few months out. Don't know how evolutionary it will be.

 

[richardgal]

If you already have at least a dual core (Pentium E2200,Athlon 64 X2 etc) I would get a new graphics card first.
With the 9500GT Crysis will still run as shitty as it does right now, doesn't matter if you get an i3. Grab at least an HD 7750 and you'll be all good for 720p. (1280x720, it will run Crysis at it's max details)

My advice would be to lower down your thoughts to a G20/G30 dualcore with an H61board and 4 gigs of ram, and then squeeze the HD 7750 in your budget, assuming you already have at least a 300Watt power supply.

DO NOT KEEP THE 9500GT! The processor doesn't matter as long as you keep that piece of s*it around!

 

[Star72]

Would a Trinity APU be a reasonable option for him if he's on a very tight budget?

 

[InvalidError]

2. Will an i3 processor hold its own for 6 years?
No, no processor will hold its own for 6 years.

Depends on what the computer gets used for. I had a P3 acting as a guest PC until last week, that's 12 years of service.

My main PC (until last week) was a Core2Duo E8400 which I ended up replacing because 8GB RAM was becoming unbearable. I would probably have stretched my C2D for another 2-3 years (7 years total) if upgrading it to 16GB had been cost-effective. Still ran games like WoW and D3 well enough for me, just not enough RAM to keep all my frequently used programs loaded at the same time. The C2D-8xxx may be old but it still holds its own against i3 in many gaming benchmarks.

Mainstream applications are running out of uses for more processing power and "elderly CPUs" are remaining viable for increasingly long times for mainstream games and applications.

 

[davidgermain]

Try AMD as they are generally cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Depends on what the computer gets used for. I had a P3 acting as a guest PC until last week, that's 12 years of service.

My main PC (until last week) was a Core2Duo E8400 which I ended up replacing because 8GB RAM was becoming unbearable. I would probably have stretched my C2D for another 2-3 years (7 years total) if upgrading it to 16GB had been cost-effective. Still ran games like WoW and D3 well enough for me, just not enough RAM to keep all my frequently used programs loaded at the same time. The C2D-8xxx may be old but it still holds its own against i3 in many gaming benchmarks.

Mainstream applications are running out of uses for more processing power and "elderly CPUs" are remaining viable for increasingly long times for mainstream games and applications.

I have the same exact CPU in my 2nd system. Since 2009. And it runs WoW, D3, LoL, Skyrim, Portal 1 & 2, Team Fortress and Arkham City at great fps for me at 1440x900.

Again I probably cant go out and run the new Medal of Honor at Ultra, but that's just common sense. And with my chip overclocked to 3.8GHz it still eats up and chews threw games and apps that I use.

To ask if something will be relevant in 6 years is a lot to ask all but the most expensive chips out now. Even then it depends on what YOU will use the chip and computer for, and the direction that developers go with their games and apps. In 6 years games may require 4+ cores to even run (you get the idea), so you never know. But if you don't plan on playing the latest generation of games that i3 will suit you well.

 

[nekulturny]

If you continue to play the same games you're playing now and are happy with how they play, then yes, your system will likely "hold its own" forever.. But if you're constantly buying new games that come out, you're dreaming if you think that system will continue to play them at the same settings and detail that you play your games at now for 6 years.

 

[InvalidError]

Most of the games with higher than average system requirements are FPS and I don't play FPS... the last FPS I played for any significant amount of time was HL2 only because my Radeon X700 happened to have a free activation included with the card, my next FPS before that was DOOM2. I gave Crysis a shot but gave up on it 10mins into the demo, just not type of game at all.

Most games/demos I have run on my old E8400 (including Crysis) were still running well enough for my taste, albeit not at Ultra settings... but I do not really care about that since even in games I can actually run at (close to) Ultra, I often dial them down just to remove clutter and distractions that annoy me anyhow.

 

[GoldenI]

Not at all...

 

[jaguarskx]

My Core 2 Duo E6600 is 6 years old now. It is old enough to bottleneck current games two or three years ago.

 

[dscudella]

If you wanted to be picky, the SB i3's are almost 2 years old as it is. The 2100 & 2120 were released in Feb 2011. The i3-3220 was released Sep 2012. Asking the SB's to go another 6 years would put them at an 8 year life cycle. That's a lot to ask.

 

[Heironious]

my roomate's mother-in-law makes $89 an hour on the computer. She has been fired from work for eight months but last month her pay check was $17840 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more http://bit.ly/Yqz9w4

Anyone stupid enough to click on that link deserves whatever they get coming. Too good to be true then it prob is. They feed off of peoples greed / lust.

 

[InvalidError]

If you wanted to be picky, the SB i3's are almost 2 years old as it is. The 2100 & 2120 were released in Feb 2011. The i3-3220 was released Sep 2012. Asking the SB's to go another 6 years would put them at an 8 year life cycle. That's a lot to ask.

There is only a 5-7% performance difference between same-clocked SB i3/5/7 and their equivalent IB counterparts. This hardly makes or breaks the older-generation stuff, which is why you see people still recommending the old 2500k for overclocking. Even first-gen i5/i7 aren't that far behind today's CPU clock-for-clock and we're comparing 4+ years old CPUs at this point. At only ~20% improvement between architectural generations (tick+tock, 2-2.5 years), there really isn't much really worth upgrading to within a four years window unless you grossly under-build a new system.

 

[guanyu210379]

Consider getting i5 3450 or higher and also upgrade your GPU.
It is better to invest a bit more.

My Q6600 hit me hard on the pocket 6 years ago but hey...I do not really in great urgent to upgrade my rig, I can still play the newest game without having big problems...
I rum Skyrim, ME3, BF3, Torchlicht 2, Tropico 4, etc.
I am still planning to upgrade my rig next year tho'..
I know I have added new stuffs such as SSD and replaced my HD3850 with HD6850, BR-Drive, replaced my 500GB HDD, upgraded PSU from 450W, adding 2GB extra RAM (from 4GB) and OC the proc to 3GHz...but the rest are still the same as 6 years ago.