Intel Pentium G3220 vs AMD Athlon x4 750k

[meanbunny]

Alright guys,

So I am building a budget rig for my sister whose rig I just discovered is running off what is today a $10 CPU. Beyond Ancient, I know. Needless to say if we had the money we would of upgraded it for her a long time ago. Anyway, enough is enough and I want her to be able to game again like she used to. The goal is to get her to be able to play World of Warcraft at around 70 FPS.

Here is the good thing, luckily we have a ATI Radeon HD 5970 waiting for her rig. As I did not pay for this card, I do not have the choice to get another one, not to mention it is better than anything we can currently afford.

Basically, I can't buy all the parts at once, so I am on a monthly budget of about $75 to buy her one piece of the rig per month. So the one thing I am trying to knock out of the way is the CPU.

According to reviews on Newegg, everyone recommends the Haswell Pentium G3220 as an awesome processor for the price of $70. Everyone gets decent FPS with just the onboard graphics, let alone what it could be with a dedicated GPU. So since then that has been my pick.

Now the current best processor recommended by Tom's Hardware for under $100 is the AMD Athlon x4 750k. I wanted to get people's opinion on what they think is the better processor that will best compliment the HD 5970. I know there is probably going to be some degree of bottlenecking for sure, but I am trying to pick the one that will bottleneck it the least. As I have said before this is going to be strictly an entry level gaming rig with an upper tier higher level graphics card.

So basically, which one would compliment the ATI Radeon HD 5970 the best? The Haswell Pentium G3220 or the AMD Athlon x4 750k?

Thanks to everyone in advance for their time and input. Have a great day.

 

[carrera911]

Definately AMD of some sort. The pentium was released in 2002 and is extremely outdated. A new Intel is way overpriced for no more performance. This is what I have and I am typing on right now. It is only 30 dollars more expensive for way more performance and future proofing. Honestly I think that a 4 core processor is almost already outdated. I built a brand new pc with a ssd and nice case for 500 dollars with this cpu and it is extremely fast. http://www.amazon.com/AMD-FD6300WMHKBOX-FX-6300-6-Core-Processor/dp/B009O7YORK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1385340103&sr=1-1&keywords=amd+fx+6300+black+edition

 

[sartorius]

The pentium was released in 2002 and is extremely outdated.

Wrong Pentium, buddy. The G3220 is a Haswell chip released a few months ago.

The Pentium should be a tiny bit faster for most games. If you go with it you'll also have the option of swapping it out for a much better i5 or i7 later on. Kaveri's gonna be FM2+, so you might not have much more to look forward to with the 740K's FM2 socket down the line.

 

[CTurbo]

The Pentium has 2 strong cores, the 750k has 4 weaker cores. The Pentium would be better for older games, the 750k would be better for newer games. The 750k also overclocks. I believe I would go with the 750k if gaming is the concern. Either will work fine for surfing internet, emails, watching videos, etc...

I recommend the 760k over the 750k for an extra $10. It's a good bit better.... especially in single core performance.

 

[CTurbo]

And to specify, the 750k single core performance isn't terrible like the FX 4100. It's really not that bad. It's just no where near on par with Intel's Haswell.
The Athlon will still have slightly better overall performance than the dual core Pentium.

 

[carrera911]

The pentium was released in 2002 and is extremely outdated.

Wrong Pentium, buddy. The G3220 is a Haswell chip released a few months ago.

The Pentium should be a tiny bit faster for most games. If you go with it you'll also have the option of swapping it out for a much better i5 or i7 later on. Kaveri's gonna be FM2+, so you might not have much more to look forward to with the 740K's FM2 socket down the line.

I know that this is not the original pentium from 2001. However the dual core technology it uses is from 2005-2006. With its 2 cores at 70-80 dollars and 6 cores at 110, why would anyone want to buy something that is already outdated?

 

[CTurbo]

The Pentium's 2 cores are VERY strong. Stronger than the FX 8350's and about as strong as the FX 9590's. The g3220 is a lot more capable than you think.

 

[sartorius]

The pentium was released in 2002 and is extremely outdated.

Wrong Pentium, buddy. The G3220 is a Haswell chip released a few months ago.

The Pentium should be a tiny bit faster for most games. If you go with it you'll also have the option of swapping it out for a much better i5 or i7 later on. Kaveri's gonna be FM2+, so you might not have much more to look forward to with the 740K's FM2 socket down the line.

However the dual core technology it uses is from 2005-2006. With its 2 cores at 70-80 dollars and 6 cores at 110, why would anyone want to buy something that is already outdated?

I'm starting to think you have no idea what you're talking about.

It's the architecture that matters. Despite having two less cores, when it comes to most games the 3220 is still a bit faster.

Throwing more cores at something doesn't automatically make it better, especially when comparing i3/Pentium duals and Athlon quads.

 

[meanbunny]

Okay guys,

So I am still a little on the fence about this. You guys say Intel's Haswell Pentium G3220 is a capable chip plus it takes the same socket as the other upper tier Haswell chips incase of future upgrades..

On the other hand, you guys think that the AMD Athlon x4 750k is going to squeeze out a bit more performance since its a quadcore given the logic 4 weaker cores > 2 stronger cores.

I am not too worried about future upgrades at the moment, as when the time comes if I am going to be getting her a much better CPU then most likely a new board is going to come along with it. This rig is just to get her started so that she can capably play World of Warcraft without crying that shes getting 1 FPS in Orgrimmar / Stormwind.

I was looking up the CPU benchmarks for PassMark and it turns out the AMD Athlon x4 750k scores a 4,348 as opposed to the Intel's Haswell Pentium G3220's 3,170.

How that translates to how much more fluid she is gonna be moving around in WoW, I am not sure. As far as I can see the 2 major differences between these CPU's right now is that the Haswell has integrated graphics and is dual core while the x4 750k has no integrated graphics and is an overclockable quadcore.

I am still open for some more votes on to which is going to pair best with AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5970.

Thanks for your input guys, I really am enjoying the discussion and debate over which CPU is the king of the hill. Have a great day guys. Will check back soon to see if anyone else has any input.

 

[beyondlogic]

Alright guys,

So I am building a budget rig for my sister whose rig I just discovered is running off what is today a $10 CPU. Beyond Ancient, I know. Needless to say if we had the money we would of upgraded it for her a long time ago. Anyway, enough is enough and I want her to be able to game again like she used to. The goal is to get her to be able to play World of Warcraft at around 70 FPS.

Here is the good thing, luckily we have a ATI Radeon HD 5970 waiting for her rig. As I did not pay for this card, I do not have the choice to get another one, not to mention it is better than anything we can currently afford.

Basically, I can't buy all the parts at once, so I am on a monthly budget of about $75 to buy her one piece of the rig per month. So the one thing I am trying to knock out of the way is the CPU.

According to reviews on Newegg, everyone recommends the Haswell Pentium G3220 as an awesome processor for the price of $70. Everyone gets decent FPS with just the onboard graphics, let alone what it could be with a dedicated GPU. So since then that has been my pick.

Now the current best processor recommended by Tom's Hardware for under $100 is the AMD Athlon x4 750k. I wanted to get people's opinion on what they think is the better processor that will best compliment the HD 5970. I know there is probably going to be some degree of bottlenecking for sure, but I am trying to pick the one that will bottleneck it the least. As I have said before this is going to be strictly an entry level gaming rig with an upper tier higher level graphics card.

So basically, which one would compliment the ATI Radeon HD 5970 the best? The Haswell Pentium G3220 or the AMD Athlon x4 750k?

Thanks to everyone in advance for their time and input. Have a great day.

amd athlon x4 750 k

the althon shouldnt bottleneck as much as the pentium g3220

having 4 cores which most games are getting core related as well as gpu

e.g bf3 etc

5970 is a beast of a gpu but it draws alot of electric

if your energy concious apu might suite you if you go for the athlon x4 750 k

get a fm2 plus a88x motherboard this will make upgrading nicer as fm2 socket dont support the next chipsets

 

[Blebekblebek]

Get haswell
seriously, just because it's "pentium" by name doesn't mean it's the same pentium back on old days.
it haswell technology.

you have a goal, running WoW @70fps, while some people even said they can run this game with their microwave,
with haswell you have better upgrade option
unlike previous H61 chipset even with budget chipset (H81) it came with native SATA/USB3.

now if you wondering why choose pentium a.k.a haswell G3220? look back at your goal.
WoW performance based on Single threaded power which AMD is lacking with their cpu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135360

ofcourse you can go with AMD, price might a little bit more expensive(or similar if you go with A55 board), more power consumption overall.
either way, both is good enough,

 

[logainofhades]

What is your budget for board and CPU?

 

[sartorius]

Okay guys,

So I am still a little on the fence about this. You guys say Intel's Haswell Pentium G3220 is a capable chip plus it takes the same socket as the other upper tier Haswell chips incase of future upgrades..

On the other hand, you guys think that the AMD Athlon x4 750k is going to squeeze out a bit more performance since its a quadcore given the logic 4 weaker cores > 2 stronger cores.

I am not too worried about future upgrades at the moment, as when the time comes if I am going to be getting her a much better CPU then most likely a new board is going to come along with it. This rig is just to get her started so that she can capably play World of Warcraft without crying that shes getting 1 FPS in Orgrimmar / Stormwind.

I was looking up the CPU benchmarks for PassMark and it turns out the AMD Athlon x4 750k scores a 4,348 as opposed to the Intel's Haswell Pentium G3220's 3,170.

How that translates to how much more fluid she is gonna be moving around in WoW, I am not sure. As far as I can see the 2 major differences between these CPU's right now is that the Haswell has integrated graphics and is dual core while the x4 750k has no integrated graphics and is an overclockable quadcore.

I am still open for some more votes on to which is going to pair best with AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5970.

Thanks for your input guys, I really am enjoying the discussion and debate over which CPU is the king of the hill. Have a great day guys. Will check back soon to see if anyone else has any input.

Passmark loves multicore CPUs regardless of how they perform in most scenarios, and is most definitely NOT an accurate representation of real world performance. Hell, It scores the FX-8350 over the i5 4670k because of how many cores it has, when in reality the i5 is much faster in most programs and general use because of its more efficient architecture and better IPC.

The Pentium would be the better buy, man. WoW doesn't even really have good multicore support, so the Athlon would still be slower.

 

[THSNOTLEK]

I say you save up $140 and get a amd fx 8320 8 cores gets the job done. Future proof. Get a good am3+ mobo with 125 w cpu support and 2 pcie 2.0 slots just in case you want to crossfire in future. Get a 500gb hdd and 2x4 gb ddr3 1600 ram. Which Crucial Ballistix is really cheap. Get a free operating system or get windows 7 get a evga 600 b get a decent case and you should be good.

 

[meanbunny]

You guys are giving me some awesome information, but I still cannot make a decision and Christmas is approaching quickly.

So far for me, here are the pro's and con's.

Haswell G3220 Pro's:

Better single threaded performance.
Better upgrade options with the motherboard / chipset for the future.
3 MB L3 Cache.
Around half the TDP of the opponent so will run much cooler.
22 nm technology.
Cheaper than opponent.

Haswell G3220 Con's:

Only Dual-Core.
Lower Passmark score than opponent.


AMD Athlon x4 750k Pro's:

Quad-Core.
Good overclockability.
Higher Passmark score than opponent.
Faster clock speed.

AMD Athlon x4 750k Con's:

Almost double the TDP of opponent so runs hotter.
Less options for future upgrades due to socket / motherboard.
Single threaded performance not as good as opponent.
No L3 Cache.
More expensive than opponent.

That is all I can think of off the top of my head guys. I really appreciate all the input from everyone, it is really making this a lot easier than it would have been on my own. I know you all may be thinking in this price range to just shut up and pick one, but I really think its gonna make a difference which path I take, Intel or AMD.

In the end, the real question is who is the better partner for the AMD Radeon HD 5970?

Thanks again everyone and have a great holiday season!

 

[logainofhades]

As long as your get an FM2+ motherboard, you are OK on the future upgrades.

 

[THSNOTLEK]

Is fm2+ amd? I thought they were still releasing there new stuff on am3+ why would they make there newest on am3+ and then just go back to fm2+

 

[CTurbo]

They make the fm2/fm2+ for their A series and the Am3+ for their FX series.

 

[THSNOTLEK]

Oh but everyone says am3+ is dead yet they still release stuff for it.

 

[logainofhades]

Is fm2+ amd? I thought they were still releasing there new stuff on am3+ why would they make there newest on am3+ and then just go back to fm2+

FM2+ is for AMD's APU line just as FM2 is now. We are getting new steamroller based APU's next year that require FM2+ motherboards, but FM2 APU and CPU will work in FM2+ motherboards. FM2+ chips will not work in FM2 motherboards. AM3+ is around for another year, but we are just getting a piledriver/vishera refresh.

 

[GotR1GHT]

Definately AMD of some sort. The pentium was released in 2002 and is extremely outdated. A new Intel is way overpriced for no more performance. This is what I have and I am typing on right now. It is only 30 dollars more expensive for way more performance and future proofing. Honestly I think that a 4 core processor is almost already outdated. I built a brand new pc with a ssd and nice case for 500 dollars with this cpu and it is extremely fast. http://www.amazon.com/AMD-FD6300WMHKBOX-FX-6300-6-Core-Processor/dp/B009O7YORK/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1385340103&sr=1-1&keywords=amd+fx+6300+black+edition


I know that this is not the original pentium from 2001. However the dual core technology it uses is from 2005-2006. With its 2 cores at 70-80 dollars and 6 cores at 110, why would anyone want to buy something that is already outdated?

So much fail here,how can you even give advices to people? Seriously, toms hardware needs to start filter those who actually know something about computer hardware and those wannabes..

 

[rolandzhang3]

^It's a community site, thankfully most of you guys here are knowledgeable enough to correct wrong advice

The only thing I'd agree with would be to get an FX 6300 and a decent 970 or 990FX mobo if within budget

The 5970 is a beast dual GPU on par with the 7950, so you'll see a great benefit with pairing an FX 6300 with that

Between the two CPUs listed I'd go for the 750k, its unlocked multiplier means you can overclock the thing to match the G3220's performance in single threaded tasks which is a big bonus

 

[GotR1GHT]

^It's a community site, thankfully most of you guys here are knowledgeable enough to correct wrong advice

The only thing I'd agree with would be to get an FX 6300 and a decent 970 or 990FX mobo if within budget

The 5970 is a beast dual GPU on par with the 7950, so you'll see a great benefit with pairing an FX 6300 with that

Between the two CPUs listed I'd go for the 750k, its unlocked multiplier means you can overclock the thing to match the G3220's performance in single threaded tasks which is a big bonus

Wouldn't it be better to just get fx6300 instead of OC 750k? For oc 750k one would need better OC mobo + cpu cooler,i bet with that money you can get fx6300.Even a non oc fx6300 would be much better choice than oc 750k

 

[rolandzhang3]

That's what I was saying, the 6300 would be the better choice, I was just answering the question between the two CPUs mentioned

The 750k would make a nice choice for an entry level system, but we can definitely agree that it's worth the extra little cash for a 6300 which is a much better pair with the 5970, let's hope they have a decent PSU to power the thing

The 990FX board would be $20-30 more expensive, but this Asus board would be a nice choice

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Xigmatek GAIA SD1283 56.3 CFM CPU Cooler ($31.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $226.97
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-04 05:47 EST-0500)

 

[guggi4]

+1 for saving up for a fx6300. Much More "future proof" than the other two.