I3 2120 vs Phenom ii x4 965. Help.

Certainly, if you take into account overclocking on Phenom. Bit closer if not.

Bump

I would go with the i3. Overclocking the Phenom might get you to a similar performance level, but then we're talking about more heat, adding a cpu cooler, perhaps upgrading a power supply.

Well it's 50 50 now..And I mean everyone I know is split between telling me the i3 or phenom..v.v

A lot of people are still fond of the old phenoms, especially since they used to be such great overclockers. That being said, these processors aged. In most situation the i3 2120 will perform better.

Did you intend to overclock your Phenom ?

Eventually. It's my first build so yeah. I just want to play games on a budget haha.

I understand what you mean. Well, one thing is certain : You won't be able to overclock an i3. Then again, an overclocked Phenom will perform pretty much like a stock i3, the latter needing no extra cpu cooler or going through the hassle of achieving an interesting clock speed.

You might have already read this article, but if not it might prove interesting to you.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-a...

You'll see the the 980 and 955 (only a few mhz slower than a 965) getting outpeformed a lot of times by an i3 and even a Pentium. You might not read through every segments of the benchmarks but the conclusion does a good job of explaining the important parts.

i3 if you don't want to overclock.

The phenom will take advantage on BF3 MP and other cpu heavy/intensive games/applications.

Of course, the balance may change, shortly. The i3 Ivybridge is out in China, and supposed to be launched in USA this week.

That's an interesting point. I know he said that he was strictly limited to either 2120 or 965, but waiting for the Ivy i3s for a few days/weeks could be wise. Reviews will soon be up, it's going to be interesting to see how they perform. Not to mention that should you decide to stick with a Sandy Bridge, you might have a price drop coming your way.

Some of the ivy bridge duals (pentium 2120, i3 3220, i3 3220t) are already out on newegg and ncix and can be purchased and shipped.

Anybody seen any reviews on IV i3's

Get the phenom II and overclock it, 4 cores > 2 cores

Doesn't seem to be any reviews just yet.

Also, jacknhut : While 4 > 2 this isn't simple mathematics. i3's outperform phenoms in most if not all gaming situations. There is also the fact while the i3 has only 2 physical cores, hyperthreading is an efficient technology and does a great job at keeping with x4 quad core CPUs.

I'm not so sure that I3 can keep up with an overclocked phenom 2 x4 in games that fully utilize 4 cores. And I don't think any games that support hyperthreading either, so the I3 is still a 2 cores in gaming.

Alright. So I'm going to wait to check out the new i3's and see if there is a price drop. If it doesn't look good and the price doesn't drop then I'll get a Phenom ii x4 off ncix for 90 bucks and overclock it. Does that sound good? I mean like a 5 fps difference doesn't matter that much to me. Anymore and yeah.

965 is an antique

I got the i3 3220 and would say it is around 4-7% faster than the i3 2120. In some applications it could be 30% faster, but overall it is just slightly better. The phenom is still good, but requires $30 for a better cooler and requires more power. So I would get the i3 2120 or i3 3220.