Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Flying Fox, morphine
ronch wrote:Hi gerbils. My cousin asked me to buy and build a system for him to be used for gaming. For his budget, I'm thinking about getting either the i3-2120 or the FX-6100. Now I know the FX-6100 isn't the most well-received CPU ever, particularly due to its weak single-threaded performance, but the thing is, the 6100 usually gets compared to the i5 series, which is not the case here. This is a choice between an i3 (2 strong cores) vs the FX-6100 (6 weak cores).
ronch wrote:...to be used for gaming...
ronch wrote:I do believe that each SB core is about 2x faster than a BD integer cluster.
ronch wrote:That would make the FX-6100 roughly 50% faster (on aggregate) than the 2120
ronch wrote:there are two BD cores (a.k.a. BD integer clusters) in a BD module. Hence, one module has two cores. I do acknowledge that a BD core is a real core because it's independent of everything else that goes on elsewhere
Chrispy_ wrote:And before you think that overclocking might be a valid option, have a look at how it OM NOM NOM NOMs power compared to an i3
TDIdriver wrote:Why does everyone always assume that power consumption is an issue? Typically if you're overclocking that's already been thrown out the window.
TDIdriver wrote:Chrispy_ wrote:And before you think that overclocking might be a valid option, have a look at how it OM NOM NOM NOMs power compared to an i3
Why does everyone always assume that power consumption is an issue? Typically if you're overclocking that's already been thrown out the window.
ronch wrote:Chrispy_ : Er, no. First off, yes, there are two BD cores (a.k.a. BD integer clusters) in a BD module. Hence, one module has two cores. I do acknowledge that a BD core is a real core because it's independent of everything else that goes on elsewhere, more or less. Hence, the FX-6100 does have 6 cores. The i3-2120 has 2 cores, each of which supports HT.
Each SB core with HT is roughly 2x faster than a BD core, hence, it would take a BD module to match the performance of an SB core in terms of aggregate performance. Doing the math, it means 3 BD modules outperform 2 SB cores by 50%, in aggregate terms, of course.
puppetworx wrote:TDIdriver wrote:Why does everyone always assume that power consumption is an issue? Typically if you're overclocking that's already been thrown out the window.
It can have an effect on selecting a power supply, which may make the difference between buying a cheaper CPU and more expensive PSU or a cheaper PSU and faster CPU. I know which route I'd go.
TDIdriver wrote:here's a thread with a comparison between the two
ronch wrote:Yeah, well, unfortunately, there's a big pond between me and Microcenter.
MadManOriginal wrote:If you want to say the FX has '6 cores' because of the BD architecture you might as well say the i3 has '4 cores' because of Hyperthreading. The core count, especially with the way AMD counts BD cores, aren't comparable. There's a reason people say Intels are better for gaming, it's because they are Check out the gaming benchmarks at the bottom here, this is an i3-2100 (slower than 2120) versus an FX-8150. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=434
MadManOriginal wrote:I love when people ask for advice, are provided hard evidence, but already have their mind made up so ignore said evidence. Here is a better comparison, i3-2120 vs FX-6100: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... html#sect0
Bulldozer is just a bad architecture for gaming, full stop.