can a i3 cpu run most games?

[Firetrak]

Hi guys just wondering if i can get by on an I3 cpu for gaming.

If so why, if not why?

thanks

 

[Yuriman]

Yes, and i3 will run all games. Some games will run better on an i5 or FX-8xxx, others the i3 will beat the FX-8, all should run very well regardless of pecking order. I consider an i3 to be a solid all-around chip for its price.

 

[homebrew2ny]

Without mentioning any shred of an idea as to what you think is acceptable gaming, either it be low, mid, or high end settings you are looking at, I can comfortably say Yes it can run most games, and of course No it can not.

Seriously though, just about all recently modern hardware can 'run most games', you need to be just a touch more specific in your questioning for any fruitful answer.

 

[Firetrak]

Cool thanks, i was going to go the AMD route, but i really prefer intel. Had no end of issues with AMD over the last 5 years.

Yes, and i3 will run all games. Some games will run better on an i5 or FX-8xxx, others the i3 will beat the FX-8, all should run very well regardless of pecking order.

 

[Firetrak]

I didn't realise the i3 is only dual core.

 

[Yuriman]

I didn't realise the i3 is only dual core.

Pentium/Celeron = dual
i3 = dual with hyperthreading, 4 threads
i5 = quad
i7 = quad with hyperthreading, 8 threads

Haswell extracts a lot of performance from hyperthreading, such that an i3 has very roughly 80% of the performance of a (stock) FX-6300 (6 core) in heavily multithreaded loads, while maintaining a per-thread advantage. The performance is about right for the cost.

 

[Firetrak]

Thanks for that info.

Yeah i'll still get it, at least with the LGA 1150 socket i can upgrade at a latter date to the I5 or I7.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Which i3 are you looking at and how much is it? I ask, because I have seen i5-4460's going as low as $172 shipped within the last 2-3 weeks while browsing pcpartpicker.com. Right this second the cheapest is $188 shipped I think, but a couple of days ago you could get one shipped for $178. May not be as expensive as you think to just go i5 from the beginning vs i3. But if you can't spend the extra $60-$70 right now or would rather put that money into a video card/SSD/prostitute (sorry, was reading the thread in the Love and Relationships forum here) then the i3s will be still be very solid for gaming. Though this is a review of the G3258 I'm posting the link to, you can see the i3-4330 doesn't bottleneck even a GTX Titan in Battlefield 4 on Ultra, though it does seem to somewhat in some of the other games tested. Not like you're buying an i3 to run with a Titan though anyways.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html

 

[bbhaag]

My oldest son uses an i3-2100 paired with 8gb of ram and a GTX 560. All of the games he plays run fine with the graphics settings at high. I actually found a cheap i5-2500k for him and when I told him I got a true quad core his response was "Why dad? All the games I play run good".

It really does depend on the games you play though. For him it's Minecraft, World of Tanks, FTL, SC2, ect.

 

[Yuriman]

My oldest son uses an i3-2100 paired with 8gb of ram and a GTX 560. All of the games he plays run fine with the graphics settings at high. I actually found a cheap i5-2500k for him and when I told him I got a true quad core his response was "Why dad? All the games I play run good".

It really does depend on the games you play though. For him it's Minecraft, World of Tanks, FTL, SC2, ect.

And, Haswell i3's are leagues better than previous generations. The gap has closed somewhat between i3's and i5's, though the quads still hold an advantage.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

People are getting massive stuttering in NBA 2k15 on dual and non-HT quads. It is only alleviated by massive overclocks. The game is thread-aware to at least 7 threads from what my task manager shows.

Point being, more and more next-gen console ports are going to rely on thread synchronization like 2K15 does to run optimally. A 6 core "budget" i7 looks to be the best CPU to get for gaming if you want it to last until the next batch of consoles come out.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

And to further elaborate, at 4.3Ghz, my CPU usage during gameplay is only 40%. When I dropped my clock speed to 2100mhz the CPU was nearly 95% utilized. When I shut down two modules and kept my overclock, I experienced all the stuttering people keep talking about.

As a side note, even at 2100mhz/8 core I still have 60fps.

 

[ElFenix]

6 core budget i7?

 

[Madpacket]

Lool

 

[schmuckley]

Not as well as an OC'd Pentium G3258.

 

[Asterox]

People are getting massive stuttering in NBA 2k15 on dual and non-HT quads. It is only alleviated by massive overclocks. The game is thread-aware to at least 7 threads from what my task manager shows.

Point being, more and more next-gen console ports are going to rely on thread synchronization like 2K15 does to run optimally. A 6 core "budget" i7 looks to be the best CPU to get for gaming if you want it to last until the next batch of consoles come out.

Now we can sleep peacefully.

- A 6 core "budget" i7 = hm.............................................!?

- A 6 core budget = AMD FX-6300

 

[TurtleCrusher]

The 5820k has hit some ridiculous sales at Frys. For an i7, yeah it's their "budget" i7 that will stand the test of time.

Just a few weeks ago it was $300 with a motherboard to boot. For a processor that will provide flawless gaming for 4-6 years and has already hit $240 if you count the motherboard savings, yeah that's "budget."

The combo of the 5820k, MicroATX motherboard and 8GB of ram was $375. That's just $125 more than I spent for my FX-8350, Biostar TA970 ATX and 8GB a couple months ago.

 

[Ieat]

The 5820k has hit some ridiculous sales at Frys. For an i7, yeah it's their "budget" i7 that will stand the test of time.

Just a few weeks ago it was $300 with a motherboard to boot. For a processor that will provide flawless gaming for 4-6 years and has already hit $240 if you count the motherboard savings, yeah that's "budget."

The combo of the 5820k, MicroATX motherboard and 8GB of ram was $375. That's just $125 more than I spent for my FX-8350, Biostar TA970 ATX and 8GB a couple months ago.

Some of these prices you mention seems a bit far-fetched. $300 with a motherboard? You sure about that?

 

[Firetrak]

Looking at the Intel Core i3-4130. I'm just being cheap to be honest, I have a PS3 and going to get a PS4 soon. But I wanted a PC for Star Citizen and Archeage. Not really that concerned if i cant crank up the graphics, just something that runs decently. Prob after xmas i'll get an I7.

Which i3 are you looking at and how much is it? I ask, because I have seen i5-4460's going as low as $172 shipped within the last 2-3 weeks while browsing pcpartpicker.com. Right this second the cheapest is $188 shipped I think, but a couple of days ago you could get one shipped for $178. May not be as expensive as you think to just go i5 from the beginning vs i3. But if you can't spend the extra $60-$70 right now or would rather put that money into a video card/SSD/prostitute (sorry, was reading the thread in the Love and Relationships forum here) then the i3s will be still be very solid for gaming. Though this is a review of the G3258 I'm posting the link to, you can see the i3-4330 doesn't bottleneck even a GTX Titan in Battlefield 4 on Ultra, though it does seem to somewhat in some of the other games tested. Not like you're buying an i3 to run with a Titan though anyways.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html

My oldest son uses an i3-2100 paired with 8gb of ram and a GTX 560. All of the games he plays run fine with the graphics settings at high. I actually found a cheap i5-2500k for him and when I told him I got a true quad core his response was "Why dad? All the games I play run good".

It really does depend on the games you play though. For him it's Minecraft, World of Tanks, FTL, SC2, ect.

And NBA 2k15, honestly i could care less. But thanks for letting me know though lol.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Some of these prices you mention seems a bit far-fetched. $300 with a motherboard? You sure about that?

Dead serious. In store, Wilsonville OR. I just bought my AMD setup months prior. I kicked myself in the butt for not waiting. While $125 for the FX8350 was nice, I probably could have convinced the wife on that.

 

[Yuriman]

I put an i3 in my wife's computer, and if building on a budget today I'd probably put one in mine too.

 

[Maximilian]

Short answer: yes
Long answer: probably

 

[crashtech]

Short answer: yes
Long answer: probably

Yeah, this.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Which i3 are you looking at and how much is it? I ask, because I have seen i5-4460's going as low as $172 shipped within the last 2-3 weeks while browsing pcpartpicker.com. Right this second the cheapest is $188 shipped I think, but a couple of days ago you could get one shipped for $178. May not be as expensive as you think to just go i5 from the beginning vs i3. But if you can't spend the extra $60-$70 right now or would rather put that money into a video card/SSD/prostitute (sorry, was reading the thread in the Love and Relationships forum here) then the i3s will be still be very solid for gaming. Though this is a review of the G3258 I'm posting the link to, you can see the i3-4330 doesn't bottleneck even a GTX Titan in Battlefield 4 on Ultra, though it does seem to somewhat in some of the other games tested. Not like you're buying an i3 to run with a Titan though anyways.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html

Battlefield 4 single player doesn't tax my CPU one bit. I didn't notice the change from a Q8200 2.8Ghz to the FX 8350 in singleplayer at all. I'm certain I could disable two of my modules and also get the exact framerates. Battlefield 4 multiplayer, however, uses all available threads and hits up to 75+% usage. That's 8 threads at least, using six cores entirely.

Looking at the Intel Core i3-4130. I'm just being cheap to be honest, I have a PS3 and going to get a PS4 soon. But I wanted a PC for Star Citizen and Archeage. Not really that concerned if i cant crank up the graphics, just something that runs decently. Prob after xmas i'll get an I7.

And NBA 2k15, honestly i could care less. But thanks for letting me know though lol.

You might not care about NBA 2K15 very much, but 2K really optimizes their hoops games for PC and it still runs choppy for anything 4 threads and under. Most Next-Gen games will be unplayable on i3's. Developers are finding ways to utilize all available threads on the consoles (2K15 as evidence) and PC ports will be expected to be completed much faster as a major code recompile won't be necessary. A quad core is the minimum, but an i7, Phenom X6, FX 6xxx or 8xxx is what's going to give smooth gameplay from here on out. You need cores and threads now.

A4, A6, A8, A10, Fx-4xxx, i3 and some i5? You'll be playing old, simple or casual games very soon.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You could be right, but I think it is far from a sure thing. Even in a lot of new games coming out a haswelll i3 is faster than an 83xx or 63xx. And I seriously doubt any sandy bridge or newer i5 will have a problem with games for quite some time. Note that the op did not specify anything except that the game will be playable, although I assume he means at something like 1080p, Med to high settings, which I think an i3 will be able to do.