need help deciding between two cpu's

[Jerome Cosgrave]

My Friend Has asked me to build him a medium range computer, I have a choice between a AMD athlon II X2 270 or a Intel Pentium Dual Core G860, While both are about the same price i cant decide which one would be better for gaming, (please answer without bias)

 

[AZCompTech]

The Pentium G860 is 28% faster when running single-threaded tasks.
In multi-threaded applications, the Intel Pentium G860 processor has 18% better performance.
The Intel Pentium G860 performs 18% faster in memory-intensive programs.
Graphics performance of the CPU is higher.

 

[Lisan al-Gaib]

Neither of these CPUs are considered "medium range", more of a budget build. You should consider either the Intel i3 or Athlon X4 for gaming. But chose the Intel if your budget is constrained.

 

[lozotheatheist]

I would have to agree AZ. Lisan is also correct, these are going to be for low end gaming. They are not going to be able to push a big graphics card if that is what you have in mind. The Pentium is also a tab bit newer and you can generally find motherboards with a bit more reliability and features. (Just a tab bit bias). The cpu comes out in the top but it's not going to be a huge amount of difference in the overall performance, but single threaded applications are going to benefit from the Pentium.

*Here is a quick performance difference test: http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/85/AMD_Athlon_II_X2_270_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G860.html

 

[Jerome Cosgrave]

Thanks you for your opinions, I would upgrade my friends computer to a higher cpu but He has a tight budget for the moment and the psu might not handle a better cpu, I forgot to add this this pc is just a quick one for the next 4 months until he can afford a better Cpu and psu

One more thing is that He plans on buying a better cpu soon probaly the Fx series but maybe a cheaper intel I5, the intel and amd mobos can support amd Am3+ and Intel socket something i cant remember atm

The psu is a Corsair CX400W, it used to be mine until i got a 500W builder series

 

[lozotheatheist]

Well, the psu is not going to be the problem for a new cpu. Generally, most things that low don't even use half of the power that a 4pin cpu power header can provide. All psu's must provide the same amount of power to that one connector. So the psu would be fine.

 

[Danra]

Well, the psu is not going to be the problem for a new cpu. Generally, most things that low don't even use half of the power that a 4pin cpu power header can provide. All psu's must provide the same amount of power to that one connector. So the psu would be fine.

That depends upon total load capacity on the 12v rail. I do not know what PSU he has, however, I suspect an inexpensive one [what I term junk]. Low end PSU stats are based on peak watts, good power supplies are based on sustained watts [for whatever it is rated for].

 

[8350rocks]

My Friend Has asked me to build him a medium range computer, I have a choice between a AMD athlon II X2 270 or a Intel Pentium Dual Core G860, While both are about the same price i cant decide which one would be better for gaming, (please answer without bias)

You should seriously try to squeeze out a little more cash for a quad core gaming cpu because new games can fully utilize 4 cores, which makes dual cores not so good. If you can get, say, an athlon x4 640, it would be much better than the ones you chose, and its only a couple bucks more. But even better would be an amd phenom II x4 965 Black Edition for 95. If you HAVE to be at the 70 ish price range, then the athlon x4 640 is FAR better than the ones you chose. I didn't offer any intel chips because dual core is not as good as it used to be since games use 4 cores now, and the better chips are way out of your price range. Intel is best in high end, but budget, AMD wins.

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