Intel Pentium G2120 vs. AMD Athlon X4 750K

[littlebluesmurf]

Now prices in the UK might be less ideal. But the fact remains that in the US, the 6800K is just awful value. No gamer with any amount of sanity would choose A10 vs. well, almost anything with a 7850.

Even IF you whine about the X4 + 7850 being slightly more expensive than the A10 mATX build, you could drop the 7850 to a 7750 DDR5 card and come in CHEAPER than the A10 mATX build, while still being hugely faster.

As for MiniITX, at the prices they want, it's a bit ludicrous.

A 7750 + 760k is good value in the UK and around the same price as the 6800k, a 7850 however is more expensive than the 6800k on its own.

If we compare a 7850 to a 6800k in the UK you are in two different performance brackets but two different prices brackets at the same time.

 

[Arkaign]

A 7750 + 760k is good value in the UK and around the same price as the 6800k, a 7850 however is more expensive than the 6800k on its own.

If we compare a 7850 to a 6800k in the UK you are in two different performance brackets but two different prices brackets at the same time.

That definitely makes sense. Having many friends in very diverse parts of the world, I understand that in the US we are quite lucky with pricing in many things, electronics and computer parts being a major one.

Here locally we have a Micro Center store, and often times I'll go buy things retail, here are some of the prices with the current conversion to GBP :

Generic case w/400W PSU $19.99 / £12.89
24X Liteon DVD+-RW Drive $15.99 / £10.30
Gigabyte Z87 UD4H $69.99 ($40 instant combo savings) £45.12
i5 4670K $199.99 / £128.92
FX 8350 $179.99 / £116.03
24" 1080P LED Display $119.99 / £77.35

etc.

Some things may actually be more expensive, but those are the current prices on some common stuff in store here. There is also a roughly 8% sales tax in my state.

 

[seitur]

Prices you listed does include this 8% tax or are before adding it?

 

[Arkaign]

Prices you listed does include this 8% tax or are before adding it?

Before. It's just the way prices are listed here in the states. There are a number of buyers who are tax-exempt, you simply bring the tax exempt cert to the store and have them file it, and then you skip the 8.25%.

For me, those prices would be multiplied by 1.0825 at the door.

IIRC, the UK has a VAT tax, and that's usually pre-calculated in the tax, at least I see it that way in adverts. I'll see something listed at x.xx GBP 'including VAT'.

 

[Arkaign]

So using this :

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/57383/Intel-CPU-Core-i5-4670-3-4GHz-Haswell-LGA1150

In the UK the total price including VAT is £188.14
In the US the total price including sales tax is $216.48 (£139.55)

IOW, about 75% of the UK price.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I dunno, I am content with my G2020, it does nearly everything a $1000 processor would, for much less.

However, given the choice, I'd pick a quad processor over it any day :awe:

 

[shady28]

That definitely makes sense. Having many friends in very diverse parts of the world, I understand that in the US we are quite lucky with pricing in many things, electronics and computer parts being a major one.

Here locally we have a Micro Center store, and often times I'll go buy things retail, here are some of the prices with the current conversion to GBP :

Generic case w/400W PSU $19.99 / £12.89
24X Liteon DVD+-RW Drive $15.99 / £10.30
Gigabyte Z87 UD4H $69.99 ($40 instant combo savings) £45.12
i5 4670K $199.99 / £128.92
FX 8350 $179.99 / £116.03
24" 1080P LED Display $119.99 / £77.35

etc.

Some things may actually be more expensive, but those are the current prices on some common stuff in store here. There is also a roughly 8% sales tax in my state.

Microcenter is definitely the way to go if you are buying a new mobo/cpu combo and live stateside.

The OP had posted a $130 CPU.

@ Microcenter -
For $119 you can order an fX-6300 + mobo.
For another $89 you can get a Radeon 7770 / 1GB.

On the intel side, the cheapest combo is $115 more, and consists of an i3-3245 on a Z77 mobo. That's a better mobo, but an inferior cpu. I would go for the FX-6300 over an i3 any day.

 

[Arkaign]

Microcenter is definitely the way to go if you are buying a new mobo/cpu combo and live stateside.

The OP had posted a $130 CPU.

@ Microcenter -
For $119 you can order an fX-6300 + mobo.
For another $89 you can get a Radeon 7770 / 1GB.

On the intel side, the cheapest combo is $115 more, and consists of an i3-3245 on a Z77 mobo. That's a better mobo, but an inferior cpu. I would go for the FX-6300 over an i3 any day.

Yeah, I think the 6300 is definitely better overall, even if the i3 wins some less-threaded titles by a fair margin.

For the i3 though, you don't need a Z77 board considering that they're locked MP. Even an H61 board with an Ivy-capable bios will work, and I've seen those boards at Micro Center for as low as $39.99.

With either the 6300, 750k, 760k, Pentium Dual-Core, i3, etc, you are free to use a single stick of ram and not being tied to 2133 ram for good performance, which saves even more $$. You see a 0-2% performance difference going from single-channel 1333 to dual-channel 2133 for those kinds of processors. With the APUs, you lose a massive amount of performance with slower ram, and with single-channel memory you lose all hope entirely.

For desktop gamers, it bears repeating ad nauseum : APUs are a non-starter. Simply too slow to compete with even a cheap combo with almost any other CPU + 7750 DDR5. Scooping up legit combos to score $99 7850, etc, just makes it more ludicrous of a gap.

 

[seitur]

Before. It's just the way prices are listed here in the states. There are a number of buyers who are tax-exempt, you simply bring the tax exempt cert to the store and have them file it, and then you skip the 8.25%.

For me, those prices would be multiplied by 1.0825 at the door.

IIRC, the UK has a VAT tax, and that's usually pre-calculated in the tax, at least I see it that way in adverts. I'll see something listed at x.xx GBP 'including VAT'.

Yeah. It is not that diffrent in EU, as VAT tax is generally paid once per product, so if you're a compoany which buy it to resell it later to end-customer then end-customer pay VAT only and you as company do not, etc There are also situations where you don't have to pay it. It's complicated.

Anyway price shown generally is with VAT and those who are extempt from it (or have to pay it, but get a refund later or can deduct it from other tax, etc) have to calculate themself lol Just diffrent philosophy. In US, normal end customer have to calculate final price with tax and in EU generally it is other way around Well actually there often is price without VAT shown as well just in smaller size.

So in my country prices example in my local store are:

i5-4670k 237$ without VAT, and 291$ with VAT

lowest I could find when buying from internet or other city would be around 20$ less than above.


Biggest diffrences in price are usually on CPU, expensive motherboards and GPUs which are often cheaper in US even if you deduct VAT diffrence.
Smallest or non-existant (aside of VAT ofc) are usually on things like RAM, SSD, DVD drives, cheapest CPUs and motherboards, HDDs.

Other thing is that steep discounts on older equipment are rarer and if they happen it usually is cleared very fast. In example I've read about Sandy Bridge i5-2500k / i7-2600k being sold at big discounts at Microcenter in USA some time ago, while in my country (if they are still in stock) then they're only like 30-40$ cheaper than Haswells.

 

[frozentundra123456]

APU means less power and less noise, that's why it costs the same as Athlon+discrete . Not everyone is after pure performance.

Seriously?? I have an i5 and a HD7770, and have never once been bothered by the noise, even under heavy gaming.

As for power usage, an A10 is what, 100 watts? If you are concerned with power and pair the x4 with a 7750, you are adding only 50 watts for the video card and will save some power because the igp is disabled. You will however get twice the gaming performance.

Except for very limited scenarios such as an HTPC, an APU really makes very little sense for gaming on the desktop compared to a cheap cpu like a phenom x4 or the FM2 athlon paired with a discrete card.

If you are not interested in "pure performance" (which is not exactly how I would describe any of these combinations) just get a cheap pentium or celeron, save power, and use the igp.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Seriously?? I have an i5 and a HD7770, and have never once been bothered by the noise, even under heavy gaming.

I think, the idea of unified cooling is the main point here. No matter, how quiet discrete graphics cards can get, they can still add noise under certain circumstances. It takes time and effort to completely silence that gear. Having only one cpu socket to cool is easier and more elegant, in my opinion (one less fan to clean).

It's only when "performance matters", any of that ^ is starting to get irrelevant. Otherwise, SoC/APU is the way to go

 

[cbn]

A10 can be installed in slim Mini-iTX cases, Athlon + HD7770 cannot

Yes, that is true. The best someone can hope for with slim micro atx or slim mini itx is a low profile HD7750 which is $22.99 more expensive (after factoring in shipping differences and rebates) than the cheapest full height HD7770. The HD7770 also comes with a game. The more expensive low profile HD7750 does not.

Cheapest low profile HD7750 is $89.99 with $2.99 shipping ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161418

Cheapest HD7770 (low profile is not available) is $69.99 AR with free shipping (and comes with a free game under the new Never Settle Forever bronze award) --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127687

7770 is ludicrously faster in gaming. I mean it's absolutely a staggering gap.

The A10 is the best IGP (by FAR really when you consider driver quality), but it's still relatively horrible unless you're running really low res with mediocre details, and even then it's meh.

Yep, HD7770 is much faster. Even the slower clocked, lower stream processor HD7750 is much faster than the A10-6800K's iGPU:

2x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz = $56,99 (newegg)

2x 4GB DDR3 2133MHz = $64,99 (newegg)

Price difference = $8.00 :whiste:

Now that there is a slow kit on sale for $49.99 (with free shipping) to go along with that fast kit on sale for $64.99 (with free shipping), the price gap has increased back up to $15.

X4 750K ($84.99 with .99 shipping) + HD7770 ($69.99 with free shipping and one game under Bronze never settle forever reward) + $49.99 (with free shipping) 2 x 4 GB 1333 memory kit = $205.96 AR

A10-6800K ($149.99 with free shipping and Blood dragon game) + $64.99 (with free shipping) 2 x 4 GB 2133 memory kit = $214.98

A10-5800K ($129.99 with free shipping and Blood dragon Game) + $64.99 (with free shipping) 2 x 4 GB 2133 memory kit= $194.98

This slots the x4 750K/HD7770/1333 combo (with free game under bronze award) $9.02 cheaper than the A10-6800K/2133 combo (with free Blood dragon game) and $11.01 more than the A10-5800K/2133 combo (with free Blood dragon game).

 

[cbn]

Also as i have said before, CPU + dGPU = louder + more power consumption. A10-6800K also has higher OC headroom than Athlon 750K and can be paired with any dGPU as well.

Not sure the noise would be any higher.

Sure the TDP is higher on Athlon x4 and HD7770 compared to A10-5800k or A10-6800K, but the total cooling is effectively larger as well.

 

[cbn]

Some tests comparing Core i3 (and other CPUs) to two AMD Trinity quad cores while using triple HD7970s (effectively removing or lessening GPU bottleneck) at 1440p:

Core i3-3225 (3.3 Ghz with HT): 54.92 FPS
A10-5800K (3.8 Ghz, 4.2 Ghz Turbo): 50.44 FPS
A8-5600K (3.6 Ghz, 3.9 Ghz Turbo): 49.88 FPS

Core i3-3225 (3.3 Ghz with HT): 99.29 FPS
A10-5800K (3.8 Ghz, 4.2 Ghz Turbo): 100.33 FPS
A8-5600K (3.6 Ghz, 3.9 Ghz Turbo): 96.59 FPS

Core i3-3225 (3.3 Ghz with HT): 60.52 FPS
A10-5800K (3.8 Ghz, 4.2 Ghz Turbo): 51.68 FPS
A8-5600K (3.6 Ghz, 3.9 Ghz Turbo): 49.6 FPS

Core i3-3225 (3.3 Ghz with HT): 50.42 FPS
A10-5800K (3.8 Ghz, 4.2 Ghz Turbo): 57.65 FPS
A8-5600K (3.6 Ghz, 3.9 Ghz Turbo): 56.85 FPS

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In two of the games, the Intel Core i3 dual core wins. One game there is a rough tie (with the A10-5800K CPU slightly winning, but the A8-5600K quad core slightly losing). In the last game, both AMD quad core beat the Core i3 dual core.

Overall, that looks pretty good for the Intel Core i3-3225 dual core CPU.

 

[cbn]

I dunno, I am content with my G2020, it does nearly everything a $1000 processor would, for much less.

However, given the choice, I'd pick a quad processor over it any day :awe:

1. Yes, an Intel quad core would be better than an Intel dual core. With that said, I am not sure a quad core is always better (when comparing AMD Quad to Intel dual). It seems single thread performance is still king.

Maybe a good way of delving into this further would be a comparison of Intel Pentium G2120 vs. AMD Athlon x4 750K (stock and overclocked) in a more demanding quad core game like Battlefield 3 64 player.

2. Also, when comparing DIY FM2 motherboards for Athlon x4 750K what is the best value for stock cooler overclocking? How good are the choices at the $55 and below mark for mild overclocking?

I noticed Anandtech recommends the Asrock FM2A75 Pro4 ---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157334 (the cheapest board on the Newegg that comes with extra heatsinks), but according to Anandtech trinity guide here this board is really meant for higher energy overclocking with larger coolers like the Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus/Evo.

 

[inf64]

Don't forget 5800K has 2 FP units shared between 4 integer cores so effectively 4 threads for SSE stuff. Core i3 basically has the same amount of dedicated FP hardware as 2M/4T Trinity part .

PS I own 750K+Asrock FM2A75 Pro4 combo (with Corsair 2x4GB 1600Mhz memory). Excellent bang for the buck.

 

[shady28]

Some tests comparing Core i3 (and other CPUs) to two AMD Trinity quad cores while using triple HD7970s (effectively removing or lessening GPU bottleneck) at 1440p:
...
In two of the games, the Intel Core i3 dual core wins. One game there is a rough tie (with the A10-5800K CPU slightly winning, but the A8-5600K quad core slightly losing). In the last game, both AMD quad core beat the Core i3 dual core.

Overall, that looks pretty good for the Intel Core i3-3225 dual core CPU.

Do what? Quad 7979 crossfire with an A8-5800K is just plain stupid.

Here's what it's meant to be in - systems that use integrated graphics and no discrete. If you want to use a discrete, buy the cheaper FX-6300, which will beat your i3 in most situations.

The A10-6800k in this review is $149 at newegg, vs $139 for the i3-3225 :

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Even Toms Hardware says Pentium is out, replaced with the Athlon II X4 and Athlon X4 750K for their Entry Level gaming recommendation.

With modern games often able to take advantage of more than two processing cores, AMD's old quad-core chips (like the Athlon II X4 and Llano-based A6 and A8 APUs) look better now compared to Intel's dual-core models than they did before. As a result, I cut the Pentium G860 from our recommendation list. The Athlon II X4 640 takes its place. Running at 3 GHz, this CPU performs roughly on par with the A8-3870K for less money. Use the savings on a discrete graphics card.

Also, Core i3 is a 4-thread CPU and should not be used to approximate the performance of the 2-thread Pentium.

 

[cbn]

Do what? Quad 7979 crossfire with an A8-5800K is just plain stupid.

Here's what it's meant to be in - systems that use integrated graphics and no discrete. If you want to use a discrete, buy the cheaper FX-6300, which will beat your i3 in most situations.

The A10-6800k in this review is $149 at newegg, vs $139 for the i3-3225 :

These are reviews comparing CPU with their iGPUs.

What I am trying to figure out is what CPU is better when paired with HD7770: the $85 Athlon x4 750K (a lower clocked, but also unlocked, version of the A10-5800K/A8-5600K that doesn't have an iGPU) or the $75 Pentium G2120?

Unfortunately I do not have any data comparing the $85 Athlon x4 750K trinity quad core (with discrete GPU) with the $75 Pentium G2120 dual core (with discrete GPU).....so I have been making do with these Core i3 vs. A10/A8 Trinity quad core comparisons for the moment.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Do what? Quad 7979 crossfire with an A8-5800K is just plain stupid.

Here's what it's meant to be in - systems that use integrated graphics and no discrete. If you want to use a discrete, buy the cheaper FX-6300, which will beat your i3 in most situations.

The A10-6800k in this review is $149 at newegg, vs $139 for the i3-3225 :

Back to the 2 cpus in the original post, I would recommend the x4 750k for gaming with a dedicated HD7750, while I would recommend the pentium for general use, since it would not require a discrete card.

I still dont understand why anyone would push a 150.00 apu for gaming when the x4 750k mentioned in the original post with a HD7750 would give twice the performance at very little additional cost.

Those promoting APUs as desirable gaming solutions should read the recent Tom's hardware article concerning the smoothness of gameplay with a HD7750 compared to an apu or an apu in crossfire with a discrete card.

link.

The article is primarily about the stuttering evident in an asymmetric crossfire set up, but note that the 6800k alone often has a very bad frame time variance, while the discrete HD7750 is consistently very low.

 

[cbn]

Even Toms Hardware says Pentium is out, replaced with the Athlon II X4 and Athlon X4 750K for their Entry Level gaming recommendation.

With modern games often able to take advantage of more than two processing cores, AMD's old quad-core chips (like the Athlon II X4 and Llano-based A6 and A8 APUs) look better now compared to Intel's dual-core models than they did before. As a result, I cut the Pentium G860 from our recommendation list. The Athlon II X4 640 takes its place. Running at 3 GHz, this CPU performs roughly on par with the A8-3870K for less money. Use the savings on a discrete graphics card.

Not sure what games they are referring to? (I'm guessing Battlefield 3 64 player would be one of them, but I would like to see concrete data)

According to an earlier article they wrote http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120.html, Pentium G860 beats the AMD Athlon II x4 645 (3.1 Ghz) which is actually 100 Mhz faster than the Athlon x4 640 (3.0 Ghz) they recommend for July 2013.

Pentium G860: 35.0 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 26.2 Avg FPS

Win Pentium!

Pentium G860: 53.1 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 53.1 Avg FPS

Tie!

Pentium G860: 58.2 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 51.4 Avg FPS

Win Pentium!

Pentium G860: 45.6 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 30.0 Avg FPS

Major Win Pentium!

Pentium G860: 73.5 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 68.4 Avg FPS

Win Pentium!

Pentium G860: 48 Avg FPS
Athlon Athlon II x4 645: 43.5 Avg FPS

Win Pentium!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intel G860 Sandy Bridge Pentium= 5 wins, 1 tie and no losses vs. AMD Athlon II x4 645

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Win Pentium!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intel G860 Sandy Bridge Pentium= 5 wins, 1 tie and no losses vs. AMD Athlon II x4 645

Yeah, I'm not surprised you still won't accept reality. Even when Tom's Hardware - a respected PC hardware site who's personally reviewed hundreds of CPUs - reverses their previous recommendation, you still know better, don't you?

 

[cbn]

Looking further into the Tom's hardware entry level Gaming CPU recommendation:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-2.html

I'm seeing them list performance of three games for each recommended CPU:

1. Skyrim
2. Starcraft
3. Far Cry 3

Skyrim and Starcraft II performance are already in the post #71 above (Pentium G860 beats the Athlon II x4 645 in those tests.)

Skyrim:

Pentium G860: 35.0 Avg. FPS
Athlon II x 4 645: 26.2 Avg. FPS

Pentium wins by 34%!

Starcraft II:

Pentium G860: 45.6 Avg. FPS
Athlon II x 4 645: 30.0 Avg. FPS

Pentium wins by 52%!

For Far Cry 3 I had to look up another Tom's test here.

Pentium G860 is listed, Athlon II x 4 645 is not. However, the Pentium G860 does beat a Phenom II x4 955 @ 3.2 Ghz in minimum frame rate and by a hair in average frame rate.

I think it is safe to say if the Phenom II x4 955 was replaced with an Athlon II x4 640, and the Pentium G860 was replaced with a Pentium G2120…..the delta would have much larger!

 

[beginner99]

But to be fair, AMD's current dedicated gpu prices are just insanely good and that is making their apus value look worse than normal. Seeing a $200 7950 and $100 7850 for new cards from newegg is nuts.

Damn, With those prices I would be running to the shop and getting 2 7950s right now. Both of them are at least double the price here, double.

 

[FearfulSPARTAN]

It wins in alot of games but I would still base a budget system on amd quad over any intel dual core at the moment. Everything points to games being more multi threaded and I would just stay away from duals if you can.