Athlon 5150 for Lego PC games

[cbn]

You should had added comsumption for more a accurate picture.

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/70977-intel-pentium-anniversary-edition-g3258/?page=8

I did acknowledge power consumptions difference in post #46:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36706680&postcount=46

 

[cbn]

Keep in mind you can always add a video card to the AM1 platform down the road as well. My testing has shown (PCPer guys did similar testing) that pairing a 5350 up with a AMD 7750 or Geforce 750 shows huge gains in *most* games that aren't severely CPU limited. I was even able to play very demanding games like Crysis 3 comfortably on the 5350 when adding a Geforce 750 Ti.

Hopefully as games engines become better multithreaded the 4 cores on the AM1 chips are better taken advantage which appears to be the trend because of the adoption of the newest game consoles.

The fact Athlon 5350 is quad core is not of much help IMO for at least two reasons:

1. Modern Windows Games that make use of quad core tend to have higher single thread demands than Athlon 5350 is capable of fulfilling.

2. Games that are playable on Athlon 5350's iGPU tend to be older games that don't need four cores. Unfortunately, it may be the Athlon 5350s single thread is not good enough here either as well. (Best case scenario, the game is playable and the extra two cores are merely wasted silicon die area)

With that mentioned, I am sure there are some exceptions to what I am saying. Perhaps one of them is Left 4 dead 2 (a game that stands out in my mind as scaling well with quad core, but not having high single thread requirements). Not sure how difficult it is on iGPU though.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I didn't want to get into a cherry picking contest over hardware costs but as stated earlier AM1 motherboards are much cheaper and they start at the low $30 dollar range. For example the MSI AM1I is only $33 at Newegg.com, where the ASRock AM1B-ITX is only $39 if overclocking is important. Also Tigerdirect has the 5150 on for $49 and 5350 on for $56.

No cherry picking, just using the mobo you picked in post #15. Very quickly searched for something comparable. For all intents and purposes the price difference is negligible.

Yes the Pentium blows away the AM1 chips and is clearly a better value if speed is of concern however keep in mind the OP's requirements. This system is for a 7 year old boy who wants to play Lego games and watch Netflix. As demonstrated the AM1 system easily meets these requirements and can save the OP a little money (up front out of pocket and long term power savings) in the process..

No, an AM1 is demonstrated as a bad choice for most types of gaming. There are many budget laptops that perform better because, essentially, the Athlon 5150 is a tablet CPU not a desktop CPU. That does not save the OP any money, it forces him to have to pay for another build once they realize it sucks. To be fair, I will be the first to say I think the G3258 is only marginally less sucky to play games with. A dedicated GPU is needed.

Keep in mind you can always add a video card to the AM1 platform down the road as well. My testing has shown (PCPer guys did similar testing) that pairing a 5350 up with a AMD 7750 or Geforce 750 shows huge gains in *most* games that aren't severely CPU limited. I was even able to play very demanding games like Crysis 3 comfortably on the 5350 when adding a Geforce 750 Ti.

Adding a GPU to the 5350 only compounds the problem further and clearly illustrates it's very humble roots. Any GPU you added would perform better with a Pentium behind it.

Hopefully as games engines become better multithreaded the 4 cores on the AM1 chips are better taken advantage which appears to be the trend because of the adoption of the newest game consoles.

Yes there is always that hope. Right now most games want big fast cores and the benchmarks prove which is the better choice.

 

[AtenRa]

It has been established in post 23 with two videos that Athlon 5350 is capable of playing those games.

I would suggest the OP to get a AM1 motherboard that allows iGPU OC and pair it with the Athlon 5150. OC the iGPU to 600MHz+ and let the kid play those games.

 

[cbn]

It has been established in post 23 with two videos that Athlon 5350 is capable of playing those games.

I would suggest the OP to get a AM1 motherboard that allows iGPU OC and pair it with the Athlon 5150. OC the iGPU to 600MHz+ and let the kid play those games.

Playability was questionable for LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes.

For example, looking at 10s to 20s in the video frame rate was always under 30 FPS and even dropped to 17 FPS. Later parts of the video appeared to be the same as well. In fact, I think FPS in the video only touched 30 FPS once or twice (other than the part of the game where he brought up the menu).

 

[ShintaiDK]

Unless the OP have a strict requirement for max 25W TDP but still above 10W, get the Pentium or FM2+ platform. You cant recommend the AM1 platform for anything else. Its simply obsolete from day 1.

 

[AtenRa]

Playability was questionable for LEGO MARVEL Super Heroes.

For example, looking at 10s to 20s in the video frame rate was always under 30 FPS and even dropped to 17 FPS. Later parts of the video appeared to be the same as well. In fact, I think FPS in the video only touched 30 FPS once or twice (other than the part of the game where he brought up the menu).

His 7 year old kid will not be looking if the fps is 30 or 26 or 20. And even if you use an even more powerful APU you will still have fps drops bellow 30fps.
So for his son i believe the AM1 Athlon is fine, later on you can upgrade with a new APU of dGPU.

 

[Seba]

On that video (post #30) with Sandy Bridge Core i5 (with HD Graphics 3000), the image quality looks bad (ugly).

Why bother to build a PC for Lego games and then put up with lowest settings (assuming that it will be playable even at the lowest settings)?

This machine will probably be connected to a big screen TV and that will make things worse (compared to a small laptop screen).

 

[Flapdrol1337]

I did acknowledge power consumptions difference in post #46:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36706680&postcount=46

Powerconsumption in idle depends on the motherboard, operating system and drivers, comparing the athlon vs the pentium is pretty pointless imo, cpu has very little effect on idle powerconsumption.

 

[Seba]

You can always turn off/unplug the PC when not in use.

 

[frozentundra123456]

It has been established in post 23 with two videos that Athlon 5350 is capable of playing those games.

I would suggest the OP to get a AM1 motherboard that allows iGPU OC and pair it with the Athlon 5150. OC the iGPU to 600MHz+ and let the kid play those games.

Yes it "plays" it, but the vast majority of the time is below 30FPS in the first video. And that was in pretty non-intense scenes. And what if they want to play split screen co-op, one of my favorite features of the lego games? I would be interested to see how the 5350 handles that.

And, yes, yes, I know a 7 year old is not going to run fraps to monitor the framerate. I do however, think he would notice the kind of stuttering and slowdown that were in the first part of the first video when the FPS was dropping into the teens and twenties. The point is not whether it is possible to play on the 5350, but whether it is the best choice. Personally I would go with the pentium, since the igp of the unlocked pentium (from the few benchmarks we have) appears faster than the 5350, and it would absolutely demolish it if later the OP decided to add a discrete card. But in the interest of trying not to inflame the intel vs amd debate, I still would suggest a more powerful FM2 APU.

 

[Shivansps]

Its not about AMD vs Intel, AM1 on desktop has been a nonsence since day 0, most likely AMD trying to get rid of these things no one wants on the 3rd world.

You just can't lose by going FM2 or 1150, any of those whould be a better option.

 

[AtenRa]

Yes it "plays" it, but the vast majority of the time is below 30FPS in the first video. And that was in pretty non-intense scenes. And what if they want to play split screen co-op, one of my favorite features of the lego games? I would be interested to see how the 5350 handles that.

And, yes, yes, I know a 7 year old is not going to run fraps to monitor the framerate. I do however, think he would notice the kind of stuttering and slowdown that were in the first part of the first video when the FPS was dropping into the teens and twenties. The point is not whether it is possible to play on the 5350, but whether it is the best choice. Personally I would go with the pentium, since the igp of the unlocked pentium (from the few benchmarks we have) appears faster than the 5350, and it would absolutely demolish it if later the OP decided to add a discrete card. But in the interest of trying not to inflame the intel vs amd debate, I still would suggest a more powerful FM2 APU.

As i have said, you can even use a more powerful APU and still get your fps to drop bellow 30fps. The Pentium will not be able to sustain 30fps+ using its iGPU. It will dip bellow 30fps constantly.
I would go for the FM2+ and the new A6-7400K or A8-5600K but that is more expensive than what the OP was asking for a 7 year old.

 

[AtenRa]

You just can't lose by going FM2 or 1150, any of those whould be a better option.

No, using a entry Level FM2 or 1150 APU will not be better than the AM1 Athlon. A4-4000/A4-5300 and Celeron/Pentium Socket 1150 will not perform better in games than AM1 APUs.

 

[SPBHM]

No, using a entry Level FM2 or 1150 APU will not be better than the AM1 Athlon. A4-4000/A4-5300 and Celeron/Pentium Socket 1150 will not perform better in games than AM1 APUs.

http://pclab.pl/art57195-7.html

a4 4000 and g1820 are simply faster, as CPU and GPU
overall not a big difference for gaming with the IGP but in some cases you can see 30-50% gain for the others (like on Fifa14), as I said, better to go with A8 (richland or trinity) or celeron + discrete graphics minimum,

 

[AtenRa]

http://pclab.pl/art57195-7.html

a4 4000 and g1820 are simply faster, as CPU and GPU
overall not a big difference for gaming with the IGP but in some cases you can see 30-50% gain for the others (like on Fifa14), as I said, better to go with A8 (richland or trinity) or celeron + discrete graphics minimum,

When the game is unplayable with AM1 APUs it is also unplayable with entry level FM2 and 1150 CPUs. So at the end you dont gain anything most of the times, and yes you will need an A6-7400K or A8 and above to really be able to play all of the games at 720p.

Well A6-6400K could be a better choice at reasonable higher price.

 

[cbn]

When the game is unplayable with AM1 APUs it is also unplayable with entry level FM2 and 1150 CPUs.

If resolution is dropped to a lower level, I think we will probably see a very large gap between G3258 and Athlon 5350 as far as playability goes (in many games).

 

[monkeydelmagico]

No, using a entry Level FM2 or 1150 APU will not be better than the AM1 Athlon. A4-4000/A4-5300 and Celeron/Pentium Socket 1150 will not perform better in games than AM1 APUs.

G3258 performs significantly and measurably better than 5150 in most games. The fact is an $80.- combo of G3258 CPU and mobo is BY FAR the better choice.

 

[Abwx]

If resolution is dropped to a lower level, I think we will probably see a very large gap between G3258 and Athlon 5350 as far as playability goes (in many games).

At lower resolution bandwith has less importance, compare the 3dmark firestrike scores.

 

[cbn]

At lower resolution bandwith has less importance, compare the 3dmark firestrike scores.

Its not the bandwidth I am thinking about, it is the cpu.

At lower resolution GPU becomes less of a factor, and the power of the cpu has a stronger effect.

 

[cbn]

Fact is both Athlon 5350 and G3258 have small iGPUs.

If a person is going to using such small iGPUs most of the gameplay will be limited to either older games or current games at very low resolution.

In both the scenarios I mentioned G3258 is a much better choice.

In older games G3258's CPU is obviously superior. In modern games g3258's CPU also wins by quite a large margin. Think about it, If Tom's hardware rates G3258 better than AMD's unlocked trinity quad big core, how do you think they would rate G3258's CPU against the Athlon 5350 jaguar quad core we are discussing here?

 

[Abwx]

If Tom's hardware rates G3258 better than AMD's unlocked trinity quad big core, how do you think they would rate G3258's CPU against the Athlon 5350 jaguar quad core we are discussing here?

That was in an overclocking point of view, they re did another article as they knew that they were too prompt to draw conclusions that were quite hypefull once one looked at the frame time variances...

The revisited article :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888-4.html

As for general features i could add that the pentium and celeron dont support 4k video at all contrary to the Athlon 5350, so much for the perinity of such a general usage that is videoplay.

 

[Shivansps]

No, using a entry Level FM2 or 1150 APU will not be better than the AM1 Athlon. A4-4000/A4-5300 and Celeron/Pentium Socket 1150 will not perform better in games than AM1 APUs.

On exactly witch scenario a 5350 is better in any way compared to Celeron Haswell or a A4-6300?

Lets see...
G1840 - $48
G3220 - $60
G3258 - $70

5350 - $65
5150 - $55

6300 - $48
5400K - $60
6400K - $65

FM2+
ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ - $40
MSI A55M-E33 - $45

AM1
MSI AM1I - $34
GIGABYTE GA-AM1M-S2H - $35

H81
BIOSTAR H81MHV3 - $40
MSI H81M-P33 - $45

SO... why should anyone buy a AM1? makes no sence its not even the cheaper option.

On the lower side, a 1037U with ST mem beats the crap out of a 2650... for less money too.

AM1 on desktop was DOA, is still DOA and it will die as a DOA, im not sure why you people are trying to make it work.

 

[frozentundra123456]

That was in an overclocking point of view, they re did another article as they knew that they were too prompt to draw conclusions that were quite hypefull once one looked at the frame time variances...

The revisited article :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888-4.html

As for general features i could add that the pentium and celeron dont support 4k video at all contrary to the Athlon 5350, so much for the perinity of such a general usage that is videoplay.

In that article, both cpus at stock, the pentium won 3 tests and the Athlon 4, based on frame time variance, although when the Athlon won it did tend to be by a bigger margin. So it wasnt a definitive victory for either cpu. In any case that was with a discrete gpu so is not really relevant to this discussion.

 

[cbn]

That was in an overclocking point of view, they re did another article as they knew that they were too prompt to draw conclusions that were quite hypefull once one looked at the frame time variances...

The revisited article :
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888-4.html

That was only one game (Thief), and Tom's hardware definitely did not change their recommendations of G3258 over Athlon x4 750K after that article you linked entitled "The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment".

In fact, not only did they continue to recommend G3250 over Athlon x4 750K after that article was released, but they even removed AMD as an alternate:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

Speaking of the Pentium G3258, Chris Angelini took a closer look at its behavior matched up to a no-frills motherboard and stock heat sink in The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment, which is worth a read if you're curious about the highest possible performance you can achieve with the lowest investment. With the G3258's potential more than proven, we've removed the Athlon X4 750K from our recommended list.