How does this $80 AMD stack up against a Core i3 540?

[john5220]

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-AD7...ywords=AMD+CPU

or even a haswell Pentium G 3220

Its use is for ONLY Diablo 3 ROS and Starcraft 2 both of which are only 2 threads.

My current Athlon II X2 really sucks and it has persuaded me NEVER to buy an AMD again it can only do 8 FPS in big fight scenes in diablo 3.

My friend's OC core i3 540 to 3.5 GHZ can do minimum of around 40 FPS it does not really go lower than that in D3

 

[Yuriman]

There aren't a lot of reviews on low end chips, for whatever reason. I don't own either, but here's my conjecture:

I'd guesstimate the G3220 is very approximately 50% faster per clock, but only has half the cores. With an overclock of 4.5GHz on the Athlon you'll get close to the same performance as a stock Pentium in Diablo 3 / Starcraft II as they don't use more than 2 threads. If you play any other games which can utilize 3-4 threads, you'll be much happier with the AMD chip.

The i3 540 is also going to be faster per clock, but I couldn't say by how much.

If you don't plan to overclock, grab the Pentium for your use, or a used i3 of an older generation. If you do, it's a tossup, because the Athlon is going to be the faster chip in general-use, but not really any faster in those particular games.

 

[Arkaign]

You can find i5-750/760 pretty cheap now. Combo that with a decent 1156 mobo, and you've got a great upgrade.

 

[sm625]

With an overclock of 4.5GHz on the Athlon you'll get close to the same performance as a stock Pentium in Diablo 3 / Starcraft II as they don't use more than 2 threads.

No. Athlon regor core will choke regardless of clock speed. It could be 5.7GHz on LN2. Look at this HWBOT submission: http://hwbot.org/submission/1052057_tapakah_superpi___1m_athlon_ii_x2_250_13sec_437ms

A G3220 at stock is faster at super pi than any 45nm athlon known to man. (lol seriously?) Super pi scores correlate pretty well with diablo 3 minimum framerates.


The newer athlon is faster than your current athlon by a fair bit, but diablo 3 simply thrives on intel.

 

[BSim500]

As answered on your other thread, aside from drawing double the power, they're still far slower (as in literally half the speed). It's not even close:-

Starcraft 2:-
i3-530 = 48min / 70avg
X4 955 = 33min / 47avg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3351/bt7w.png

And that's a STOCK i3. Clarkdale's were awesome overclockers (my old 2.93GHz i3-530 did 3.9GHz on stock voltage). All the 1-2T games you've mentioned plainly and simply need an Intel. Whether you buy an i3-530 and OC it to 3.8-4.0Ghz or a 3.0-3.2GHz Haswell Pentium - the result will both be the same, your current min fps will virtually double from 30fps to 55-60fps. Moving from a 2C -> 4C AMD of same low single thread performance architecture will do nothing for the 1-2 threaded games you've listed.

Personally I'd go with the Haswell Pentium (unless you can get the i3-540 cheaper) as you've also got other upgrades (USB 3.0, etc) which itself halves the speed of backing up files to a USB 3.0 stick. If it's any use, an i3-540 @ 3.8-4.0GHz is roughly on par with a Sandy Bridge i3-2120 @ 3.3GHz which itself is roughly on par with a 3.2GHz Haswell Pentium for most 1-2 threaded games.

 

[SlowSpyder]

No. Athlon regor core will choke regardless of clock speed. It could be 5.7GHz on LN2. Look at this HWBOT submission: http://hwbot.org/submission/1052057_tapakah_superpi___1m_athlon_ii_x2_250_13sec_437ms

A G3220 at stock is faster at super pi than any 45nm athlon known to man. (lol seriously?) Super pi scores correlate pretty well with diablo 3 minimum framerates.


The newer athlon is faster than your current athlon by a fair bit, but diablo 3 simply thrives on intel.

Judging a modern CPU on SuperPi is like judging a modern CPU on floppy disk performance.

 

[dragantoe]

It's an excellent cpu, for well multithreaded it will blow the i3 or pentium out of the water... i know my old ivy bridge pentium couln't play dota 2 very well, but my brother's 760k can handle it no problem. especially with a nice OC

 

[BSim500]

How does this $80 AMD stack up against a Core i3 540 or even a haswell Pentium G 3220

Found a benchmark with those two exact CPU's in for SC2:-

Athlon X4 750K = 24.8fps
Pentium G3220 = 37.8fps
Pentium G3420 = 40.2fps

http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/radek/2013/pentiumhsw/wykresy/def_n/sc2_1920.png

 

[Insert_Nickname]

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-Athlon-AD7...ywords=AMD+CPU

or even a haswell Pentium G 3220

Its use is for ONLY Diablo 3 ROS and Starcraft 2 both of which are only 2 threads.

In this particular situation, I think the Pentium makes the most sense. The Athlon is a better multi-purpose CPU, potentially with the added benefit of overclocking, but Blizzard games tend to like Intel cores better. If you have the budget, take a look at the G3420 or even a low-end i3 like the 4130.

You should factor in that the Athlon can easily break 4GHz, even with the stock cooler, since it doesn't have a power-hungry IGP taking up its thermal budget. You can get 6800K level performance out of it, but that'll likely need a better cooler. At which point its completive with Ivy i3's.

My current Athlon II X2 really sucks and it has persuaded me NEVER to buy an AMD again it can only do 8 FPS in big fight scenes in diablo 3.

My friend's OC core i3 540 to 3.5 GHZ can do minimum of around 40 FPS it does not really go lower than that in D3

So you're judging AMD based on a low-cost version of a tweaked ten year old architecture...? Seems a little thin to me... :biggrin:

 

[Conroe]

So you're judging AMD based on a low-cost version of a tweaked ten year old architecture...? Seems a little thin to me... :biggrin:

Athlon II came out in June 2009. It's not five years old yet.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Athlon II came out in June 2009. It's not five years old yet.

Perhaps, but the underlying architecture is a tweaked, higher clocked version of the original K8 that came out in December 2003. Not to mention the Athlon X2 was the (Well almost, not counting the single core Semprons) lowest-end of AMD's K10 line-up...

 

[SPBHM]

Perhaps, but the underlying architecture is a tweaked, higher clocked version of the original K8 that came out in December 2003. Not to mention the Athlon X2 was the (Well almost, not counting the single core Semprons) lowest-end of AMD's K10 line-up...

Athlon II was Phenom II without L3 cache, Phenom II is early 2009,

k8 is slower
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/121?vs=27

not to mention 2003 K8 didn't even support SSE3 and was a single core 2GHz CPU.

 

[daveybrat]

Best bang for the buck and performance for the 2 games you play is currently the Intel G3420 3.2GHz Haswell Dual-Core.

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Pentium-...keywords=g3420

It's only $69.99, $3 more than the G3220 3GHz version.

I'll take the extra 200MHz for only $3 more!

And the huge benefit is that you can grab a nice cheap H81 motherboard for about $50 that can be upgraded to an i3, i5, or i7 Haswell cpu down the road when you need an upgrade.

 

[tweakboy]

Not good. IF you want to play todays games,,, you need more then a i3 ,,, with that ati vid youll get 4fps average... gl

 

[Headfoot]

Blizzard games are all really poorly threaded and highly dependent on single thread performance (2 threads max iirc). For whatever reason. Even though they have enormous budgets... Intel defacto leads in single thread performance

I agree with Daveybrat above, the G3420 will be a solid upgrade. The Athlon you linked is based off of a new core and it works in new motherboards. So in case you were thinking you could just replace your current CPU with that one, unforunately you can't. You'd need a whole new motherboard. And at that point, you might as well get the G3420

 

[lyssword]

SC2 loves intel

 

[john5220]

thanks so much guys I didn't realize AMD was so bad.

I can get a Haswell Pentium G3220 for only $60 on Amazon and I believe I am going that route.

As the other guy says Diablo 3 strives on Super Pi which intel is superior at and no clock speed will help it.

Yeah the days of AMD I am done with, I only play SC2 and D3 so I want a Intel.

Well I am seeing the G 3420 at 3.2 GHZ is going for $70 might be a better deal incase I MIGHT want to run some Battlefield 3? i have BF3 installed on my PC but my Athlon II X2 gets 3 FPS.

And my friend's old i3 gets like over 40 this is in 64 player maps online.

 

[john5220]

Found a benchmark with those two exact CPU's in for SC2:-

Athlon X4 750K = 24.8fps
Pentium G3220 = 37.8fps
Pentium G3420 = 40.2fps

http://pclab.pl/zdjecia/artykuly/radek/2013/pentiumhsw/wykresy/def_n/sc2_1920.png

WOW thanks so much man

I didnt know AMD was so bad for Blizzard games.

I saw the G3220 going for $50 new on Amazon last 3 days. So I will hold out till monday the prices generally go down on Mondays.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Athlon II was Phenom II without L3 cache, Phenom II is early 2009,

k8 is slower
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/121?vs=27

not to mention 2003 K8 didn't even support SSE3 and was a single core 2GHz CPU.

The fundamental design is still very similar, the Phenom just has a newer instruction set, more cores and some other improvements.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_K10#Characteristics_of_the_microarchitecture

AMD didn't move away from the fundamental K8 architecture until Bulldozer. Llano was the last K8 derived architecture (K10.5).

 

[chrisjames61]

Athlon II came out in June 2009. It's not five years old yet.

5 years is ancient in the tech world. You are comparing a 5 year old Athlon II to a modern Intel processor?

 

[chrisjames61]

thanks so much guys I didn't realize AMD was so bad.

I can get a Haswell Pentium G3220 for only $60 on Amazon and I believe I am going that route.

As the other guy says Diablo 3 strives on Super Pi which intel is superior at and no clock speed will help it.

Yeah the days of AMD I am done with, I only play SC2 and D3 so I want a Intel.

Well I am seeing the G 3420 at 3.2 GHZ is going for $70 might be a better deal incase I MIGHT want to run some Battlefield 3? i have BF3 installed on my PC but my Athlon II X2 gets 3 FPS.

And my friend's old i3 gets like over 40 this is in 64 player maps online.

AMD isn't "so bad". You are using a five year old low end Athlon II to play a modern game? Use some logic. Try that Athlon 750k X4 or a 6300 and the see how "bad" AMD processors are. Those Athlons kick ass for $80. With the ability to overclock by a full GHz many times with a cheap FM2 board and just a Hyper 212 EVO.

 

[SPBHM]

The fundamental design is still very similar, the Phenom just has a newer instruction set, more cores and some other improvements.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_K10#Characteristics_of_the_microarchitecture

AMD didn't move away from the fundamental K8 architecture until Bulldozer. Llano was the last K8 derived architecture (K10.5).

I know, but saying an Athlon II is k8 is misleading, it was never called that by AMD, it's not the same design with no significant changes, 2003 K8 is a single core 2ghz CPU with lower IPC.


but back on topic,

something tells me that if the Athlon II is doing 8FPS the 540 shouldn't be doing 40 at the same scene, much higher sure? but the difference seems exaggerated.


but I would agree that Pentium Haswell for D3 and SC2 is unbeatable for the money.

 

[john5220]

^ unless he is lying but I can tell you for sure its between 8 and 15 fps

Its mostly 15 fps through most big battles but when there are 4 wizards using spell effects it will come down to 8. But I have a hard time believing a i3 regardless of the year it was made can go below 40 fps.

Ok I just watts app him and he says the lowest he has ever gotten with his i3 was 30 fps. hmmmm......

But he has a 9600 GT and I am willing to believe thats his bottleneck. my Hd 4870 sure isn't it way exceeds the requirements for SC2 and D3

and also it cannot run Sc2 on ultra but taking off a couple options putting shaders on medium brings SC2 to 60 FPS campaign. Battles 2v2 and 4v4 goes from 1 FPS to 17 with my AMD regardless of how lot the settings are.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I know, but saying an Athlon II is k8 is misleading, it was never called that by AMD, it's not the same design with no significant changes, 2003 K8 is a single core 2ghz CPU with lower IPC.

I said "a low-cost version of a tweaked ten year old architecture". Anyway it was just a bit of fun, no harm in it...

But back on topic;

But he has a 9600 GT and I am willing to believe thats his bottleneck. my Hd 4870 sure isn't it way exceeds the requirements for SC2 and D3

It's a little difficult to judge with such old cards, but he's likely GPU limited, while you're definitely CPU limited. Pair a G3220/G3420 with that HD4870, and SC2 will likely fly...

Both your next upgrades should be your graphics cards. The HD4870 is still respectable, but power-hungry for the performance it provides. The 9600GT is getting very old indeed, it's from early 2008. A couple of Geforce 750(ti)'s would make a world of difference. No need to go higher then that for Diablo and SC2.

 

[john5220]

hey yeah I plan on upgrading my GPU but I am waiting for it to die a natural death.

Its been getting lots of use for the past 5 years I am surprised it shows absolutely no sign of failing. The reason i never upgraded this GPU is most of the games were console ports and my 4870 would practically run everything on high and lots with 4X AA enabled. I won't lie the 4870 was truly a beast of a card.

After the years the rate at which GPU speeds climbed was not as huge prior to the 4870. In the past they would nearly double, the speed that is but after this it started to slow down. 6870 wasn't a great deal better than 5870 ec. And my 4870 did everything I needed it to do with 4x AA so i could not ask for anything more.

I was going to change it to play Battlefield 4, because this card is 512MB RAM and it can barely play BF3. But since Blizzard shut down auction house and re leased reaper of souls I never bothered with anyother game since LOL