Which CPU; i3 3250, fx 4300 or fx 6300?

Hardware Hub CPU
1

I was originally going to go with the FX 4300 but then after reading through some stuff on sites I've heard the i3 performance is equal if not better, also it is more economical (not a high priority).

I'll be using this setup for gaming so would it be worth it buying the 6 cores, would they all be fully utilized?

Also would only having dual cores on the i3 hinder it's performance on newer/next gen games?

Finally, which is more likely to bottleneck a GPU, if at all? (GPU would be something around Radeon 7870).

2

i won't hesitate to say quad core bulldoser/vishera cpus are crap unless it's a laptop or apu

i3 has better single core performance, anything with decent multithread support the 6300 will kick ass, which is likely where games will be moving with the new consoles, for most things none of these will bottleneck a 7870

3

Currently, the dual core i3 would be fine with most games with hyperthreading.

More games will start to utilise 4 cores in the future however and the price to performance ratio leans in favour of the AMD CPUs.

Either the FX-4300 or FX-6300 would be fine. They only have a $10 difference in price. 

The two both turbo boost upwards of 4.0GHz so this should also be a good performance increase over the i3.

There is marginal differnce between these CPUs. All options are fine in my opinion.

4

Thought the 8320 was near enough the same price as the i3? I would recommend that. If not, the FX6300 will be the best all-round chip for gaming.

5

Australia may have different pricing to the US, but here the 8320 is $40-$50 more than the i3 unfortunately.

If the 8320 is similarly priced in your country then by all means get that.

Apparently there is only around a 5% decrease in performance with the FX-6300 from the FX-8350 (according to others in different threads), so you may be getting more for your money with the 6300.

 

6

the FX6300 is a much better cpu then the i3, so i would say go for that one. if you on a tight budget.

7

Pretty relevent. You would really be fine with most decent modern cpus so long as you have a good gpu to back it up.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/piledriver-k10-cpu-overclocking,3584.html

Combined-Average-Gaming-Performance.png450x1157

 

8

Final choice is the radeon hd 7870 with the fx 6300. Can the cpu or gpu be swapped for better gaming performance for things in the same price range?

9

I'd say the FX6300 and 7870 are the best you're going to get. Unless you increase the budget

10

I can tell you from experince that the fx 6300 will destroy the i3 as I have built a system with each cpu in it and the 6300 oc to 4.0ghz which was a very light overclock will destroy the i3 in almost ever appliction.