Love the work done here. Lots of data which affirms the popular opinions of an i5 being all you need and lower resolutions making for more cpu bound situations, and lower end gpus making for gpu bound situations.
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Systems/Quad-Core-Gaming-Roundup-How-Much-CPU-Do-You-Really-Need
I think with these results coming out and the numbers we're seeing, its time we stop recommending 8350's and really say 4590 or Xeon 1231-v3. It just isn't competitive anymore in 1440p and 1080p when you get to anything more powerful then a Gtx 970/R9 290x level of graphics power.
No G3258. :<
Very good article though. Now... if people see beyond what marketing and paid youtubers are telling them...
Zen better be a holy grail processor. or AMD is done.
The mantle results interested me the most.
Quad core round up. Of course there was no G3258. They had a smaller round up about a year back of dual cores though iirc. That might be of interest to you.
I have been saying it for years, and putting it in all builds that I make for people. The locked i5 is the way to go for gaming for sure. The next logical step up being the xeon stuff.
I never understood why people still consider dual-cores in this day of age. The most we still see them in is some tablets. Not even the atom processors are dual core anymore.
Yeah, a comparison would be nice. But not going to ask for too much.
Quad core really is the way to go, it's future proof for the time being. Dual core won't cut it very soon.
Some of them are dirt cheap, and a lot of fun to play with. That's about it. I don't regret getting a dual core, it does what I need it to, and feels like a higher end chip when doing a few things. It struggles if I do intensive things, but that's about it.
i mean AMD has some quad-core parts that are dirt cheap. that's my point as to why.
The pentium is like 50 ish or so dollars if i remember correctly. an Athlon 860k is like 20 bucks more.
Hence my long standing postive position on vanilla i5's. Facts is facts..
Did you read the article and look at the graphs?
So @ 8FPS more or less in most instances @ 1440P is worth double the cost to you? Did you notice how with the higher end cards and higher resolution the lead for Intel CPU's was very minimal? Would have been interesting to see 4K results especially with Mantle just for shits and giggles.
I think this shows what we might be able to expect from mantle/DX12 in the near future and it excites me.
I was surprised how well the Core i%'s did over their Core i7 counterparts.
OP- VERY good read thanks for sharing!
Its not the averages that strike me, its the minimum's. The minimums were much harsher on the 8350, then on either the I5 or I7. That cements it for me. Also, looking at the 1440p benchmarks is a bad way to judge the cpu's. When the resolution gets higher, the graphics card becomes the limiter before the cpu does. At lower resolutions, the cpu becomes the limiting factor much faster then the gpu does. Going back to the minimum point, that is the thing to really focus on here. The averages were close between the 8350 and I5's, but the minimums (which realllyyy disrupt the experience more then anything else), are much farther from the average on the 8350. The average is important, but stable say 50fps that is stable is playable. But if every 20 seconds that drops to 35, its not going to be a good experience. If it goes from 50, to 45, to 55, and then hovering around 50, its going to be 100% enjoyable, and more then playable. Also going from the 8350 to a locked I5 is not double the cost. An 8350 and Asus 990fx Pro R 2.0, the most popular recommended cpu+mobo combo for the 8350, can be bought for $270 right now (thats including mail in rebates and deals). The I5 4460 ($188) can be used with a comparable board to the Asus 990fx pro for $289 (Board used for comparison is the AsRock Z97 Extreme 3). That's $19 more for slightly better averages and much better minimums. The price to performance argument is stack against the 8350. Back in the 3770k days it was a different story, but we're years ahead of then and its just not competitive for gaming anymore. For productivity, the Xeon 1231-v3 for $20 more then the I5 setup destroys the 8350. It just doesn't fit in quite like it used it used too.
Ah finaly people seem to get the whole picture now i guess? ☺
You also have to consider the decreased power use and heat output. that might not be a huge concern for some, but it is a difference which is present. Also, because it is locked and doesn't need as good of a power delivery thanks to the decreased power consumption and lack of overclocking, you can easily get away with a much cheaper board with the locked i5. A board which is less than $100 will do just fine.
@MisteryAngel, you and I have been preaching about the locked i5 for some time now, it seems. I have one in my system, have for years now, and plan to for at least another year.
I hate to say you were right considering how I always shouted 8350 over your I5 suggestion during the early haswell days, but I guess I underestimating the generational increase from Ivy-Bridge to Haswell... Kudos to you
Just for an apples to apples feature comparison I threw the AsRock Z97 Extreme 3 in there. Its got comparable audio and still supports 2 way sli which H97 boards don't. Although, you could grab a Z87 board like the Z87 pro which is on sale new for $69.99 from Newegg. I also would like to eco that power and heat output point. Going from my Fx 8350 to a Xeon 1231-v3 has caused my room temperature to plummet. The power savings isn't huge to me, but the amount of heat that simply isn't produced going from the 8350 a Xeon 1231-v3 is astonishing. It made a huge difference for me anyways haha.
I had the same thing happen to me going from an E7200 and really inefficient psu to a gold rated one and an i5 4430. It is amazing the difference it makes if you are in a hot climate. All of this is telling me that a locked i5 is a better choice than an 8350. Although, around a 280, it seems that the cpu matters very little and that the 860k is more than enough in most cases, even with something as cpu bound as Civ.
i allways liked those suggestions, because i respect everyone´s opinnion.