Gaming intel 2nd gen C2D vs AMD X4 965BE

[vandemm]

Cpu is mainly for gaming,with a GTX 480/560TI. I want it to last me 2-3 years of 720p or lower res gaming on High

G860 blows x4 with at least 10-15% in FPS right now. DO you really think in the future the 4 real cores will matter? It feels unlikely for me since it's almost 2013 and no game takes advantage of it


except GTA 4 ENB which i love there is NO game out there(maybe Crysis 2) that really requires a QUAD to run. And even gta 4 wit 1.0.4.0 runs great on a x2


SINCE I'm on a budget(I have the money but don't want to spent hundreds of $ for little performance ups) I see 2 options

OPT 1 Buy G860(77usd) on H61 MB and upgrade later to I5 2400

2 Buy I5 2400/2500k sh 165-170 usd or x4 965BE at 115 USD NEW

 

[richi3d10]

I suggest the i5 2500k, especially if you plan to overclock later on.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

To my knowledge most of the big games (everything from WOW on up) are using 3 threads with some of them using 4 and only a very few using anything more than that. This doesnt mean that you must have a quad core but only that you get better performance by using one. Most of us believe that the Intel® Core™ i5-2500K or Intel Core i5-3570K are about the best gaming processors on the market right now. They provide outstanding performance at a reasonable value. If you go with the Intel Pentium® G860 and then move to Intel Core i5 processor in the future you maybe able to sell it but odds are you won't get your money out it.

 

[geofelt]

Since you do not want to spend the money, then the G860 will be fine.

Most games are more graphics limited than cpu limited.

Game developers want the largest possible market for their games.
They will not develop games that need a strong cpu with many cores to run decently.
In addition, programming for more than two tasks is difficult and more expensive.

Anything you can buy, you can sell.
If times change, you will be out less with a small investment up front.

If you want a compromise, look at the ivy bridge i3-3220. In addition to two fast cores, it also supports multithreading.

 

[vandemm]

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/404?vs=363

Pitifully for the I5 that is exactly 3X the PRICE..any game runs at over 80 FPS(except Fat Cry 2 which is a mess, and still runs over 50FPS) in 720p which is higher than i intend to play -1280/ 1366 res.

MOST IMPORTANT, I have missed all games since 2006 like AC1,2 ,Gears of War , GTA 4, Batman,Kane&Lynch etc..so it will be a very long time till i upgrade again, since EVERYTHING now runs fine even "Quad-optimised"games.

Probably in 2-3 years I'll upgrade again and then for the 150$ difference I'll buy a much much better CPU or buy the I5 for nottin..
Dissapointed that there's such a tiny difference between Quad and C2d performance..with all the Devs effort to stress our systems to death and make such terrible optimisation