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Core i3-3240 vs Core i5-3470 for gaming

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So I'm looking at these 2 CPUs and wondering what would give the not only the best gaming performance but good overall computer performance as well.

Keep in mind I don't need professional rendering performance that takes use of all 4 cores. I just need some advice on purely gaming performance.

I'm thinking of going with the i3 since it has hyper threading support higher clock speed and most games only use 2 cores and most likely will continue to use 2 cores for quite some time yet.

Another question is since most games use only 2 cores would going with the lower clock speed i5 actually be a detriment to gaming? Since the game is only using 2 of the cores I assume that the lower clock speed would bottleneck performance more than the higher clock dual core.

Please be able to back up your responses with evidence regarding your claim.

More about : core 3240 core 3470 gaming

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abundantcores said:
Despite what a lot people seem to be saying in parts of the internet, 2 cores just isn't enough for gaming, or anything, not really.

you should go for the i5, even at a lower clock speed, no question


But why isn't it? Is it because the operating system offloads some of its usage off to the other 2 cores leaving the game to use the first 2?

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ellayt said:
But why isn't it? Is it because the operating system offloads some of its usage off to the other 2 cores leaving the game to use the first 2?



Most games today actually like more than 2 cores, especially if your playing online.

Take BF3 (just as a current example), that will use up to 8 cores, but it will make do with 2, it will even bench reasonably well on the 2 core chip, but at a cost of very high CPU usage, and you take it online where more processing power is needed to calculate whats going on around you live; and that 2 core chip will find its self wishing it could multiply its self, that's only going to get more so, not less so..

I would not be at all surprised if the i3 would bottleneck a higher end GPU like the 7950 or GTX 670 online, or even offline.

Twice the cores = twice the processing power, and it frees up one or two cores to do other things, like crunching the numbers for 63 other players and everything they are doing.

abundantcores said:
Most games today actually like more than 2 cores, especially if your playing online.

Take BF3 (just as a current example), that will use up to 8 cores, but it will make do with 2, it will even bench reasonably well on the 2 core chip, but at a cost of very high CPU usage, and you take it online where more processing power is needed to calculate whats going on around you live; and that 2 core chip will find its self wishing it could multiply its self, that's only going to get more so, not less so..

I would not be at all surprised if the i3 would bottleneck a higher end GPU like the 7950 or GTX 670 online, or even offline.

Twice the cores = twice the processing power, and it frees up one or two cores to do other things, like crunching the numbers for 63 other players and everything they are doing.


Ahh I see now I should get a quad for the future when games do start using all 4 cores.
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