Pentium G4400 or A10-7700K?

[jesuspaiditall]

The games I will be playing mostly are Skyrim, Just Cause 3 and Fallout 4.

I currently have the following.
Athlon 5350 @ 2.4 Ghz
Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3 SDRAM 8 GB Dual Channel Kit 1866
Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
PSU CX430M

I am looking to upgrade and have a very limited budget. I have narrowed down my options to either the Pentium G4400 or A10-7700K. I will only be upgrading the motherboard and CPU and will be reusing everything else. Which CPU will give me the best frame rate overall?

 

[monstercameron]

The games I will be playing mostly are Skyrim, Just Cause 3 and Fallout 4.

I currently have the following.
Athlon 5350 @ 2.4 Ghz
Crucial Ballistix Tactical DDR3 SDRAM 8 GB Dual Channel Kit 1866
Crucial MX100 256 GB SSD
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
PSU CX430M

I am looking to upgrade and have a very limited budget. I have narrowed down my options to either the Pentium G4400 or A10-7700K. I will only be upgrading the motherboard and CPU and will be reusing everything else. Which CPU will give me the best frame rate overall?

860k...

 

[Yuriman]

^ There's little point in buying a CPU with an integrated GPU you're not going to use (7700K).

If you can swing it within your budget, an i3 6100 would be best - it's only $10 more than a 7700K. An 860K would likely be a better all-around gaming CPU than a G4400, but socket FM2 has no upgrade path. The 860K is basically the fastest CPU you'll ever be able to use.

Newegg prices:
G4400 - $65
860K - $75
7700K - $110
i3 6100 - $130

 

[dark zero]

Going G4400 advises you to go DDR4, on DDR3 the improvements aren't as great as expecting.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I dont think it matters much with a HD7750. However, I agree with Yuriman, the 7700k makes no sense. Either save some money and go with an 860k or spend a bit more and get the i3.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Get an i3 if you are already willing to pay 100$+.

 

[jesuspaiditall]

Thanks for the replies all. Looks like I will be going with the I3 6100.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Good choice :thumbsup:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Thanks for the replies all. Looks like I will be going with the I3 6100.

With a cheap ASRock Z170 board, and some DDR4-3000, to do a "SKY OC"? 4.2-4.7Ghz i3?

 

[Yuriman]

With a cheap ASRock Z170 board, and some DDR4-3000, to do a "SKY OC"? 4.2-4.7Ghz i3?

While it would be nice, by that point you've nearly doubled the cost of the CPU + motherboard + RAM, and would then be better served with cheap RAM + motherboard and an i5.

 

[deasd]

^ There's little point in buying a CPU with an integrated GPU you're not going to use (7700K).

If you can swing it within your budget, an i3 6100 would be best - it's only $10 more than a 7700K. An 860K would likely be a better all-around gaming CPU than a G4400, but socket FM2 has no upgrade path. The 860K is basically the fastest CPU you'll ever be able to use.

Newegg prices:
G4400 - $65
860K - $75
7700K - $110
i3 6100 - $130

LGA1155,1150,1151, if you look back then you'll find the so-call 'upgrade path' is a joke. I'll recommend to buy something as cheap as possible. An overclockable G3258 or 860k is good.

 

[TheELF]

LGA1155,1150,1151, if you look back then you'll find the so-call 'upgrade path' is a joke. I'll recommend to buy something as cheap as possible. An overclockable G3258 or 860k is good.

Yes,if you have a look, all of these are still being sold new in stores...

 

[AtenRa]

While it would be nice, by that point you've nearly doubled the cost of the CPU + motherboard + RAM, and would then be better served with cheap RAM + motherboard and an i5.

Yea I was going to say that, it is much better to get the i5 if you going to spend that much for the i3.
2014 onward PC games need at least 4 cores and I emphasize cores not threads.

 

[crashtech]

Budget and enthusiast are a tough thing to put together, much less gain consensus on. But this generation of Intel CPUs have some interesting capabilities that one is likely locked out of without an OC capable motherboard. The barrier to entry is not all that high, though, 80 bucks gets you into the BCLK and RAM OC club. That's money well spent for anyone with more than an ounce of passion for this hobby, imo.

 

[AtenRa]

Well the price of the Core i3 6100 + cheapest Z170 board + DDR-4 3000MHz is almost the same as Core i5 6400 + cheapest H110 board + DDR-4 2133MHz.

Now if you like to play with the OC and then upgrade to a Core i5/i7 in a few months then by all means go for it. But if you just want to cheap out and buy the Core i3 in order to OC to gain performance, you better go with four real cores for gaming at the same price.

 

[crashtech]

I guess it depends on whether the user in question wants to "set it and forget it" or play around with settings to get the best performance. I'll play the heretic and suggest that fun/dollar is not always equal to perf/dollar.

 

[TheELF]

Yeah, if the i5-6400 wasn't 1Ghz slower then the i3-6100....

...even at stock,imagine if you clock the i3 and leave the i5 at stock.

 

[AtenRa]

Yeah, if the i5-6400 wasn't 1Ghz slower then the i3-6100....

...even at stock,imagine if you clock the i3 and leave the i5 at stock.

Yea, look what happened to 4.5GHz G3258 vs 3.3GHz Core i5.

 

[TheELF]

Yea, look what happened to 4.5GHz G3258 vs 3.3GHz Core i5.

What did happen?
Not that 2c/2t is the same as 2c/4t but please, do tell us.

 

[AtenRa]

What did happen?
Not that 2c/2t is the same as 2c/4t but please, do tell us.

This one is a 4 generation old Core i5 2500K at default clocks (3.3GHz base).

 

[jesuspaiditall]

No room in the budget for DDR 4. I really will not need to overclock as this will be a huge upgrade from my current setup.

 

[Yuriman]

You'll be very pleased with the 6100. It's the best you can do in that price range.

EDIT: After some consideration, I suspect there's an argument to be made for the OC i3 setup - not for OP, but if one were comparing i3 vs i5, as this thread seems to have derailed into. Looking at OC results, a highly overclocked i3 offers similar multithreaded performance to an i5, with significantly superior ST performance. I'd say the i5 is still a better value, given that OCs are not guaranteed, that it'll probably draw less power delivering the same performance (in MT), and you'll probably want an aftermarket heatsink if you're shooting for 4.6+ with the i3, but I should not dismiss the i3 + Z170.

 

[crashtech]

Yeah, this is an enthusiast site so guys like me are always going to try and talk you into more, but that i3 is pretty decent for the money.

 

[beginner99]

i3-6100 makes no sense as new RAM will be needed and he is on a budget and already confirmed it won't work.


Options:

1.
get a Athlon 860k for cheap but the platform isn't exactly new and you will have no upgrade path.

2.
Buy used. 2500k would be nice but with your current setup even an old i5-750 (lynnfield) CPU would be a huge upgrade and actually faster than a 860k! Used you can probably get that + mobo for $100 -150. Similar alternatives would be i7-860 or i7-920.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-...832377?hash=item3d0da3a0b9:g:4HMAAOSwT~9WiMAE

Or even better but more expensive:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-PBZ77-...091606?hash=item3f59c60e16:g:Lg0AAOSwnipWT7ni

 

[crashtech]

i3-6100 makes no sense as new RAM will be needed and he is on a budget and already confirmed it won't work.

That's not correct, many Skylake boards support standard DDR3, like the Asus H110M-A D3, for instance.