Budget AMD Build thoughts

[clone]

1: thanks for posting that

2: Tom's offering up what no one else does almost makes me want to start visiting their site again.

3: in those tests Core i3-3220 beats FX 4300 by a cppl frames and by cppl I mean 1 - 5 but surprisingly Core i3-3220 suffers from more "inside the second" frame latency than FX 4300 overall and as mentioned it still can't overclock.

"splitting hairs, the source of all obsessively prolonged discussions on the web."

I might put that in my sig.

[Black Applesauce]

Guys, this isn't really worth all the fuss. Throw in an i3-3220, a 7850 variation, and some inexpensive RAM and mobo and you're set. Really.

You don't get it, do you?

That made my day.

[MadManOriginal]

So is everyone on board with the current 3470/7850 Build? Or is there a better combination I'm missing?

Microcenter has a crazy good deal on the 3570K, but with gas, tolls, and almost 8% Sales tax it ends up being more expensive than just using Amazon or Newegg. Plus I'm assuming the 3470 will be strong enough that I won't need to overclock it.

Also I don't know jack about the intel motherboards, any better recommendations out there? Assuming 1 - it won't be overclocked, 2 - I can't imagine a dual video card situation, 3 - USB 3 or other ports aren't a big factor, 4 - 4 Ram Slots so we can add more later if need be, 5 - can't break my budget
This still looks pretty good to me for the price - ASRock Z77 Pro3 Motherboard

There is a legit reason to go with a Z77 board even with a multiplier locked CPU - multiplier locked CPUs can still be overclocked, just not 'unlimited'. You can overclock them by +4 speed bins from their normal Turboboost amount for a given number of active cores. That would make the 3470 as fast as a 3570k (aside from the IGP) at stock with multiple cores loaded.

[DPete27]

too bad TR didn't include the i3 in their article. That article really needs a refresh with Piledriver and Intel i3s. Especially so we can see the possible performance hits while multitasking.

Sorry everyone, TR does have frame-latency comparisons including Piledriver FX (although just the 8350, the rest can assumedly be extrapolated from the 8150 vs 8350 matchup) and the Ivy Bridge Pentium, i3, i5, and i7 gamut. That link is for the "multitasking while gaming" page in which the i3 starts to lose ground against the AMD lineup. Multitasking is my biggest concern when recommending i3's for gaming builds these days. If you're ONLY gaming (nothing else running in the background), then the i3 is still a solid choice though.

[Bashiba]

too bad TR didn't include the i3 in their article. That article really needs a refresh with Piledriver and Intel i3s. Especially so we can see the possible performance hits while multitasking.

Sorry everyone, TR does have frame-latency comparisons including Piledriver FX (although just the 8350, the rest can assumedly be extrapolated from the 8150 vs 8350 matchup) and the Ivy Bridge Pentium, i3, i5, and i7 gamut. That link is for the "multitasking while gaming" page in which the i3 starts to lose ground against the AMD lineup. Multitasking is my biggest concern when recommending i3's for gaming builds these days. If you're ONLY gaming (nothing else running in the background), then the i3 is still a solid choice though.

I felt the same way about the i3 idea, my friend always games with Venntrillo running and usually email/browser running on the second screen at the very least, the idea of only a dual core seemed a bit iffy to me when you start to figure there were almost always be some other applications running while gaming.

I'm ordering up the 3470 build for him today, thanks for all the help on this guys.