# intel cpu pricing 5-6k



## digitaltab (Nov 11, 2011)

hello everyone,
i am currently using Intel core 2 duo e7400 2.8ghz
i just want a CPU upgrade to meet minimum requirements to run the games getting launched these days.
my budget is around 5k because games like nfs the run and assassin's creed revelations demanding core 2 duo 3.0ghz as minimum CPU.

i have seen some CPU:
i3 2100,
i3-540


please suggest,
also tell that among core 2 quad and i3, which one is better?

also tell me if i can buy i5 for a budget increment to 7k?

and also tell if amd a8 3850 is gud? should i look for it? i use amd 6870 graphics card, will it crossfire with amd a8 3850?

note: plz tell about amd a8 3850 only from amd processor list, otherwise discuss about intel cpu only....
note: please recommend for gaming point of view.

thanks..


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## Cilus (Nov 11, 2011)

You can't use any i3 or i5 processor in your motherboard and for using those you need to change the motherboard.
If you are eyeing for Sandybridge based CPU, then at 5K CPU + Mobo is not possible.
You can fit a Intel Core2Quad based processor on the existing mobo but for sure post the motherboard details here. Also the availability of C2Q is an issue now. Even if you find one, probably C2Q Q8200/Q8300, they are very highly priced for their performance. So mysuggestion is change sale off tour Existing CPU + Mobo + DDR2 Ram (if any) and get a Athlon quad core.

My suggestion is:-
AMD Athlon II X4 635 @ 4.2K
Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 @ 2.5K
Corsair 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 value Ram @ 1.2K

Total: 7.9K


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## digitaltab (Nov 11, 2011)

Cilus said:


> You can't use any i3 or i5 processor in your motherboard and for using those you need to change the motherboard.
> If you are eyeing for Sandybridge based CPU, then at 5K CPU + Mobo is not possible.
> You can fit a Intel Core2Quad based processor on the existing mobo but for sure post the motherboard details here. Also the availability of C2Q is an issue now. Even if you find one, probably C2Q Q8200/Q8300, they are very highly priced for their performance. So mysuggestion is change sale off tour Existing CPU + Mobo + DDR2 Ram (if any) and get a Athlon quad core.
> 
> ...



hello cilus,
i have intel dg41ty mb and ddr2 ram, and i'll upgrade that too accordingly.
the 5-6k is the processor budget only, 
RAM and MB are not in the scene here, as i'll buy them seperately and may be i'll discuss about those later in respective threads.

please just suggest a CPU assuming that i have already a compatible motherboard and ram.


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## mithun_mrg (Nov 11, 2011)

@op get the one cilus suggested if u want to upgrade because at the price of i3 u will get the amd quad core, i3 is a dual core with HT enabled & modern games take advantage of the 4 cores
else get a second hand quad core for ur existing system


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## Cilus (Nov 11, 2011)

If 5 to 7K is the budget for CPu only, then the only Sandybridge option is i3 2100, priced around 6.1/6.2K. For gaming, it is very good and better than Phenom II X4 955 at phenom's stock speed.
But If you want my opinion, then opt for Phenom II X4 965 @ 6.2K (price from costtoCost; *Link*).

It performs on the par with i3 2100 in gaming and better in all multi-threaded apps. Also it is a Black Edition CPU, so can be overclocked very easily. The stock cooler comes with with Phenom II X4 processors are of very good quality and you can go upto 3.6/3.7 GHz with it.
Another reason is as mithun_mrg has suggested, games are already started to become multi-threaded. The last two games are Crysis 2 and Battlefield 3; both of them can use upto 8 cores. So a true Quad core is always holds little advantage over a Hyperthreaded Dual Core.


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## digitaltab (Nov 11, 2011)

thanku friends, how about amd a8 3850 APU?
check this out

*www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/processors/a-series/Pages/a-series-model-number-comparison.aspx

its a quad core APU
crossfires with amd graphics card.
and i have amd 6870.
and a8 3850 is costing 6667inr in cost to cost, delhi.

reply plz


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## mithun_mrg (Nov 12, 2011)

i think better avoid fusion apu's if ur into gaming they r good for htpc's 
also i am correct it will cfx with only low end gpu's like 6450


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## Minion (Dec 1, 2011)

My suggestion is just buy a powerful card and Since games depends on GPU and the processor you have is fine.


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## Cilus (Dec 1, 2011)

The integrated GPU of A8-3850, 6550D can only be crossfierd upto HD 6670 or HD 6750. In your case, with HD 6870, the IGP will be disabled.

You can sell the existing config of yours and get a Phenom II X4 955  @ 6K + Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 @ 2.5K + Corsair 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 value Ram @ 1.2K combo.


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## sukesh1090 (Dec 1, 2011)

yes op buy what cilus has suggested above.it is the best bang for buck and if you have some more budget for mobo then you can go with a good mobo around 5k having good features like usb 3.sata 6GBps.....


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## zacfx05 (Dec 3, 2011)

hello frnds 
isn't intel G840 around 5K , its sandy bridge right...without hyper threading and only hd graphics.

i dnt know correct pricing and its performance but taught it would be helpful, i saw it in some other sites ... and they recommend it, please check the bench results of this cpu with older cpu... anandtech have a bench tool i guess.


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## AcceleratorX (Dec 4, 2011)

@Cilus: A lot of games are heavily multithreaded today, off the top of my head I'll name a few:

Splinter Cell: Double Agent (4 cores)
Splinter Cell Conviction (6 cores)
Assassin's Creed 2 and later (4 cores)
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (6 cores)
Prototype (6 cores)
Almost any game based on Unreal Engine 3, released 2009 or later (4 cores, sometimes 6 cores)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (though it still works very well on 2 cores)
Red Faction: Guerrilla (4 cores)
The Saboteur, Saints Row 2, GTA IV (these games simply will not let you enjoy at high detail if you don't have at least 3 cores).
Witcher 2 (4 cores)

In some games like RF:G, between an Intel i3 and an Athlon II CPU, the differences I had noticed keeping the same graphics card was that though the average framerate was roughly the same, the true quad core (Athlon II) is much "smoother" i.e. frame rate drops are much lesser even though maximum frame rate is probably lower. This is because Intel's hyperthreading doesn't always work at every instant since it revolves around threading architectures and at any given instant, a part of the CPU needs to have free cycles to process the data.

This is why, despite their performances being roughly equal, I'd still recommend a REAL quad core over a hyperthreaded dual core.

So my recommendation? Go for the AMD Phenom II or the AMD FX-4120/FX-6120 if this is available.


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## Cilus (Dec 4, 2011)

^^ I agree with you here, But another thing is although a lot of games can use 4 cores there are few of them which actually takes advantage and provide better FPS by using four or more cores. Once Tomshardware has performed a test 1 years back to check how games can be benefited from mulri core and high speed CPU and found out that although a lot of games can use more than two core,s only couple of them can have FPS advantage due to it.
Since the per core performance of Sandybridge is far better than an Athlon II architecture, normally in gaming i3 2100 is actually better.
But obviously the picture has changed a lot now, Crysis 2, BF2 and BF3 can use upto 8 threads and can have significant performance advantage by the use of a true quad core CPU.

zacfx05, G840 is not at all recommended, even a ATHLON II X3 3 GHz has overall better performance than it and also more than 1K cheaper.

If you can spend upto 5K, Phenom II X4 840 @ 5.2K is the best choice, far better than G840. BTW, G840 does not have Turboboost too.


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## AcceleratorX (Dec 4, 2011)

What the review websites aren't looking at is smoothness - i.e. frame rates over time, they just give out average FPS, and that's not how it works in the real world. For example, say I'm playing Red Faction Guerrilla and I'm driving around in the world, plowing down a building. All this would come under a benchmark.

Under this scenario, Core i3 540 = Athlon II X4 640 (roughly, say)

But when a scene occurs suddenly that 3 buildings fall at the same time, my vehicle crashes, and troops are killing each other - suddenly you've got a lot more threads to process at this particular instant! At such instants, it is a distinct observation that true quad cores always do better than Intel's hyperthreading, and frame rates at this instant only are much better on the athlon II.

But this scene that hardly lasts 2 seconds will simply not affect the average FPS at all! Thus, the benchmark will still say Core i3 540 = Athlon II X4 640 (however. note that these small interval slowdowns are very much observable to the average user - remember the issues with BF3 stuttering caused by Intel's hyperthreading?)

This is why a true quad core will always be better, except when your application doesn't use quad cores at all......

BTW Intel G840 is not _that_ bad apparently looking at this review:

*www.anandtech.com/show/4524/the-sandy-bridge-pentium-review-pentium-g850-g840-g620-g620t-tested/3

it performs like the old generation Core processors, the Phenom II X4 840 should be roughly equivalent to the Intel G850. But it's important to note that it's cheaper to find a good AMD motherboard compared to a good Intel board. You will often find more features on an AMD board for the same price.


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## zacfx05 (Dec 4, 2011)

hi cilus just a doubt , r we judging a processor only on its gamming capability or overall performance.... u said G840 is not good , is it only based on gamming ?...

i was thinking about it because and only becauz i taught due to bulldozer not been a success, and probabily the next amd processor will require a new socket... and intel will support 1155 socket atleast till haswell. investing in amd is not good right now if he plans to upgarde later... 

and u can c it was given as as best gamming cpu in toms hardware, definetly not vfm.... but alongside amd athlon x3 440 rana.

i personally was thinking of buying G630 or G G840 and upgrading it later with ivybridge probabily i5.... and yes i am a little tight on my budget ... and i taught shivam is also tight on his budget but insit a intel machine...


*www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-overclocking,3077-2.html

in that case whats ur opinion frnd 

and before bulldozer release i taught of getting amd... because it had gr8 vfm processors and mostly budget frindly , iwas looking to buy amd board that support bulldozer and as AcceleratorX said its cheaper compared to the intel counterpart. but then when bulldozer released it became a failure and it is said that amd not going to make next processor backward compatible
i mean all athlon to phenom its a big range of processor that supported am3+ socket....

i guess i made my point clear....


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## Cilus (Dec 4, 2011)

AcceleratorX,  that is the rason my pickup is also Phenom II 840 

zacfx05, it is exactly opposite. In gaming G840 may be little ahead but most of the other apps Athlon II X3 is a better choice. Now a days even Web Brwsers like Firefox, IE 8 n 9, Chrome are highly multi-threaded, not to mention the productivity apps. So An Athlon II X3 3 GHz+ is a overall better choice.

For better understanding check the Anandtech review: *www.anandtech.com/show/4524/the-sandy-bridge-pentium-review-pentium-g850-g840-g620-g620t-tested/1

And if you get a good AM3+ mobo at 3K+ range, like the Asus M5A78 series or Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P (rev. 3.1) with 125W TDP CPU support, you will also get a huge list of processor supports too. And Bulldozer is a failure is not a correct statement. Obviously it was not able to live as per the expectation but till offers very good performance. And for your info, the next AMD processor, termed as Piledriver is gonna be compatible with AM3+ socket. Now at your budget if you want to get a Sandybridge based config, you will get some H61 based mobo with very limited feature set. Also planning to use an Ivy Bridge Processor with a H61 mobo is not a very good idea.

So take the decision after reading some reviews and verifying the future upgradability option at your budget.


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## ico (Dec 4, 2011)

zacfx05 said:


> and intel will support 1155 socket atleast till haswell. investing in amd is not good right now if he plans to upgarde later...


Intel supporting LGA 1155 till Haswell? Forget it mate. Ivy Bridge and then Intel moves onto a new socket.

AMD is going to see Piledriver and then move onto a new socket. Both Intel and AMD are going to launch only one more refresh for these sockets.

Compared to i3-540, Athlon II 645 is the obvious choice as the latter is overall faster.

Pentium G840 vs Athlon II X3 450? X3 450 can be overclocked and G840 can't be. Makes it an even contest for me - more down to multithreading. X3 is what I'll prefer and X4 is an obvious choice.

i3-2100 vs Athlon II X4 645/Phenom II X4 840/Phenom II X4 955 BE, it pretty much depends on what you want and what you don't want. All are more or less same for me. Basically, the minimum for gaming as it's the GPU which is the deciding factor in 98.5% of the games. It gets down to what you want. Price to price you get a better motherboard with AMD, plus if you like to overclock, then AMD becomes your choice. i3-2100 can't be overclocked. But if you want a plain - bread and butter PC - I suggest i3-2100.


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## zacfx05 (Dec 5, 2011)

ico said:


> Intel supporting LGA 1155 till Haswell? Forget it mate. Ivy Bridge and then Intel moves onto a new socket.


 

i meant to say the same , thnks man 
and cilus i dint know abt piledriver support am3+ sry my fault, lack of searching.
i will chk that thanks once again man 

ico liked ths part

"it pretty much depends on what you want and what you don't want. All are more or less same for me. Basically, the minimum for gaming as it's the GPU which is the deciding factor in 98.5% of the games. It gets down to what you want. Price to price you get a better motherboard with AMD, plus if you like to overclock, then AMD becomes your choice. i3-2100 can't be overclocked. But if you want a plain - bread and butter PC - I suggest i3-2100"


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