Question 10100(F) still suitable for gaming? Yay or Nay?

VirtualLarry

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4C/8T, 10th-gen. GPU is currently a GTX 1650, but I've got GTX 1660 Ti/Super avail, as well as a BNIB RTX 3050 and RTX 2060 12GB.

PC is a Dell G5 5000 Gaming (10th/11th-Gen). PSU is 500W.

Old PC Is an i5-6400 Skylake 4C/4T, GTX 1650. Worth upgrading?
 

eK-XL

Junior Member
Oct 15, 2022
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I have a 4C/4T 6500k that I find still works okay for gaming. Many modern games are starting to really leverage 6 cores, so I plan to upgrade within the next 6 months. I don't have hyperthreading and an older architecture, so you should be able to hold out longer, especially coupled with mid-range last gen GPUs. Since this is an enthusiast forum most people will tell you to upgrade, but I say wait until there's a game you can't play on it but want to. I think that CPU will last another year, at least.
 
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VirtualLarry

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Since this is an enthusiast forum most people will tell you to upgrade, but I say wait until there's a game you can't play on it but want to. I think that CPU will last another year, at least.
This would be for either a friend's kid (elementary), or another mutual friend's kid (HS).

Not like the elementary-age kid had any issues with their i5-6400.
 
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eK-XL

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If they are going to be playing any games released in 2023 that aren't GAAS games (Apex, Fortnight, etc) then I'd recommend a 6-core processor, preferably with hyperthreading. It's more future proof. If they'll be playing older games or GAAS games it'll be fine.
 

VirtualLarry

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I think that I might have a 10400F in a mining mobo. I'm just lazy and don't want to take off the dell heatsink.

But let me get that all hooked up, at least someone's getting a nice gaming rig for Halloween.

Price comparison for a refurb $659
 
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DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
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I think that I might have a 10400F in a mining mobo. I'm just lazy and don't want to take off the dell heatsink.

But let me get that all hooked up, at least someone's getting a nice gaming rig for Halloween.
I had a good time gaming on the 10100f paired with a 2060 super and 3060. This guy just did a build with it using a 5500XT.

 

Shmee

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The 10100F should be a decent upgrade, but mainly due to higher clocks and the HT, when compared to the 6400. AFAIK, the architecture would be basically the same. It would be similar to upgrading the 6400 to a 7700k I suspect.

I honestly don't think it would make a huge difference, especially for a younger kid, but it does depend on the games played of course, and other factors I suppose, such as the rest of the hardware.
 
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coercitiv

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The 10100F should be a decent upgrade, but mainly due to higher clocks and the HT, when compared to the 6400.
One more thing that changes is memory speed support. When talking about locked platforms, the i5 6400 is running DDR4 2133 at best (or some DDR3 flavor), the 10100F takes that to DDR4 2666.

The other vector that could help with gaming would be cache, unfortunately the only quad-core from Intel that got a true cache upgrade is the i3 12100.
 

VirtualLarry

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The 10100F should be a decent upgrade, but mainly due to higher clocks and the HT, when compared to the 6400. AFAIK, the architecture would be basically the same. It would be similar to upgrading the 6400 to a 7700k I suspect.
I agree. Other than a few hardware-level Spectre/Meltdown fixes in 10th-gen, yes, it's effectively like a 7700.
 

SteveGrabowski

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I always feel like is X a good gaming cpu is an ambiguous question unless X is either really low end or really high end. I play on a 60 Hz panel so my definition of an adequate gaming cpu would be way different than someone who wants to target 144 fps. For me 10100F would work pretty well.
 
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LightningZ71

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Just for a comparison, I regularly game on a (i feel shame for even mentioning it) i7-6700t. Yes, a 35 watt, 4/8 skylake. I have used throttlestop to undervolt it a bit so it does boost better than stock. It rarely hits processor limited scenarios while pushing low end video cards. A 10100f is notably better than that, significantly in single thread, and should be fine in most situations.
 

Aapje

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4/8 cores should be fine for budget gaming, but is not very futureproof. I would expect the elementary kid to be into the kind of games that are not that demanding anyway. For the HS kid it depends, but most likely it is fine.

And if it is better than what they have, they don't get to complain about it.
 

VirtualLarry

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So, I put my triple-slot EVGA Black GTX 1660 ti 6GB card into the Dell G5 Gaming 5000 PC with the 10100 (non-F, interestingly enough, even though the mobo completely lacks any outputs for the iGPU).

See Hot Deals. I bit on that HP full-height tower refurb PC with 10100, 8GB, 1TB HDD for $209, and the I picked up an MSI Aero ITX RX 6400 GPU for $120, that should, in theory, just slot in. That, and I'll want to throw in another 8GB stick of DDR4-2666.

So, I'll have PCs for both of them.
 
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VirtualLarry

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Side Q: would the idle power draw of an HP with the 10100 and an RX 6400, RAM,SSD,HDD,wifi, be low? At idle? Watching YT?

As compared to a custom-built rig, with B350 chipset, Ryzen 1200, 16GB DDR4-2666, an SSD, I think a HDD, and a 4GB Asus Strix RX 470 or 570?

How would the gaming performance stack up?
 

coercitiv

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Side Q: would the idle power draw of an HP with the 10100 and an RX 6400, RAM,SSD,HDD,wifi, be low? At idle? Watching YT?
Yes, low for a desktop. IIRC a 6600K on Z170 board, two DDR4 sticks, SSD, network interface and 450W Gold PSU was idling around 17W. Adding the dGPU means 3-4W from the card and also possibly a few more watts for CPU idle as well (although I'm not sure about 10th gen, maybe they improved on that).

As compared to a custom-built rig, with B350 chipset, Ryzen 1200, 16GB DDR4-2666, an SSD, I think a HDD, and a 4GB Asus Strix RX 470 or 570?
The 10100/RX 6400 system will use a fraction of the power in games and offer 80-90% of the performance. The second system will also use more power in idle / browsing / YT scenarios as well. Older hardware, especially the GPU.
 
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