I3 vs amd quad core

[FrozenC0re]

I'm planning on building a gaming pc in about a month or so, and i'm wondering which would be better for current performance, i could care less that the i3's socket allows for a upgrade without a new mobo to an i5/i7, i'm wondering which is the best for performance now, rather than in the future with an upgrade. My budget is set at 500-600 and i'm looking at an i3 dual core for around $130 (i3 560, or 2100) and an amd quad core for around $130 (AMD FX 4170, or phenom II X4 965 black). So, which would be the best for performance right now?

 

[montosaurous]

Go for the FX 4300. It is around the same price as the others and offers better performance, though you might save money on the intel if you got a cheap board.

 

[clutchc]

If this is strictly a gaming PC, the i3 will probably be a better choice due to its greater IPC and Hyper Threaded cores. Paired with a fast graphic card, the i3s usually out-bench the PhII X4s. But if your PhII X4 965BE is O/C'd to around 4GHZ and you have apps that require 4 real cores, the Phenom II would be the better choice and would be about equal in gaming then to the i3s..
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

 

[montosaurous]

The FX 4300 and i3 3220 are neck and neck in most apps.

 

[excella1221]

^+1.
I believe the 4300 actually would be a better choice right now. It performs right on par with the i3 on games, and has 2 modules/4 cores which would be better for multithreaded apps.

In this benchmark, it even outperforms the i3 on Skyrim and Diablo 3.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/700?vs=677

It's also worth noting that for $10 more, you can get the FX-6300 that has slightly better performance in gaming, but has 3 modules/6 cores.

 

[melikepie]

AMD is for budget computers like in this case. I'm not saying the i3 would be a bad choice I'm saying the AMD FX (try to get the 6 core for not much more) would be better overall. I know this because I have a 8120.