Consensus on suitability of i3-8100 for non-gaming builds? Entry-level gaming?

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whm1974

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Jul 24, 2016
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In principle, I agree completely. Heck, 120GB SSDs (BX500) recently broke the 200DKK (USD $30, though not directly comparable) marker, which is cheaper then a HDD. So there is absolutely no reason to use HDDs for anything but bulk storage. There is always a -but- however...

Legacy PCs. Plenty of older laptops still use 2.5" 5400RPM drives.

Unfortunately, plenty of people hang on to their laptops for 5-10 years. Basically, use-until-death. Most people treat their PC as an appliance today. Which unfortunately mean you can still find Brazos-era (2011) systems with 5400RPM spinners out there... slow isn't the word to describe such...
I wouldn't buy such laptop either. Considering that we can get newer higher performance refurbished Thinkpads for rather cheap, why even bother?

Off hand would the most recent Atom based CPUs be faster then Brazos?
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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I know that the thread originally said non-gaming builds. But I recently sold a Ryzen 3 1200 gaming rig (thanks dude!), and he already had a GTX 1050-ish card, so I kept the one that was in that rig and gave him a discount. So, now I've got, an i3-8100, 2x4GB DDR4-2800, a 512GB M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, and an H310 MSI micro-ATX mobo with an M.2 slot. And a GTX 1050 3GB.

How's the i3-8100 for entry-level gaming? I know, I know, 6C or better is better at gaming, and Lord Knows how many Intel i5-8400 gaming PCs have sold since that CPU's introduction. But is the i3-8100 still suitable for gaming? I guess it's something like an i5-7400/7500/7600, whichever clock speed it matches. (It basically is a Kaby Lake quad-core with a Coffee Lake-compatible pinout on the package.)
 

whm1974

Diamond Member
Jul 24, 2016
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I know that the thread originally said non-gaming builds. But I recently sold a Ryzen 3 1200 gaming rig (thanks dude!), and he already had a GTX 1050-ish card, so I kept the one that was in that rig and gave him a discount. So, now I've got, an i3-8100, 2x4GB DDR4-2800, a 512GB M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, and an H310 MSI micro-ATX mobo with an M.2 slot. And a GTX 1050 3GB.

How's the i3-8100 for entry-level gaming? I know, I know, 6C or better is better at gaming, and Lord Knows how many Intel i5-8400 gaming PCs have sold since that CPU's introduction. But is the i3-8100 still suitable for gaming? I guess it's something like an i5-7400/7500/7600, whichever clock speed it matches. (It basically is a Kaby Lake quad-core with a Coffee Lake-compatible pinout on the package.)
If you Slap a cheap 1030 card in there then yes the build will be quite suitable for entry level gaming. However given the price point of the Ryzen 2200G and it's near 1030 iGPU performance, that will be more cost effective gaming solution.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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I know that the thread originally said non-gaming builds. But I recently sold a Ryzen 3 1200 gaming rig (thanks dude!), and he already had a GTX 1050-ish card, so I kept the one that was in that rig and gave him a discount. So, now I've got, an i3-8100, 2x4GB DDR4-2800, a 512GB M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, and an H310 MSI micro-ATX mobo with an M.2 slot. And a GTX 1050 3GB.

How's the i3-8100 for entry-level gaming? I know, I know, 6C or better is better at gaming, and Lord Knows how many Intel i5-8400 gaming PCs have sold since that CPU's introduction. But is the i3-8100 still suitable for gaming? I guess it's something like an i5-7400/7500/7600, whichever clock speed it matches. (It basically is a Kaby Lake quad-core with a Coffee Lake-compatible pinout on the package.)
The gtx1050 will be the bottleneck with the i3 8100, and yes the 8100 will game very good.
About as good or faster than a 6 core Ryzen 1600.
https://youtu.be/nnstaZLDB6Q
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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and yes the 8100 will game very good.
About as good or faster than a 6 core Ryzen 1600.
https://youtu.be/nnstaZLDB6Q
As the owner of several Ryzen R5 1600 rigs, I find that kind of hard to believe, but I suppose it's possible, if the Ryzen 1600 isn't overclocked.

Thanks, Happy, I'll check out that video in a few.

Edit: Didn't watch the whole video. But noticed that the 1600 had lower frametime ms, most of the time, except for that F1 game. Even though the graphics were similar.
 
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Insert_Nickname

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Off hand would the most recent Atom based CPUs be faster then Brazos?

Yes, Apollo Lake is faster per core. Features 2 more cores (for some SKUs), higher frequency and a much better IGP. Gemini is ~30% faster on top of that.

They're roughly at first-gen Core 2 Duo/Quad IPC. With 10x lower power consumption. So certainly usable for non-CPU intensive tasks.

I scrapped all my old C2D systems for that reason. Coupled with the physical reduction in size possible for ITX systems.
 
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whm1974

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Yes, Apollo Lake is faster per core. Features 2 more cores (for some SKUs), higher frequency and a much better IGP. Gemini is ~30% faster on top of that.

They're roughly at first-gen Core 2 Duo/Quad IPC. With 10x lower power consumption. So certainly usable for non-CPU intensive tasks.

I scrapped all my old C2D systems for that reason. Coupled with the physical reduction in size possible for ITX systems.
I notice that there are single board computers using 7th generation Core m3 processors such as the Lattepanda Alpha series:
https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1729.html
They offer a great of performance for something with a 5w TDP.:eek:
 
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