[TBG] The Best Gaming CPUs: Pentium vs. Core i3 vs. Core i5 vs. Core i7

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Yep and almost every consumer would notice a big difference too.

Edit: SSD makes a difference but for the average consumer the ability to play video, skype, open 10 flash heavy tabs on the internet is going to be far superior to launching applications faster.

Yeah, but the assertion was that an old computer couldn't run modern tasks -- which they can. They may not do it well or multitask quickly, but the older architectures can still perform the same functions as a modern box. I actually know a few IT guys that buy SSD's as the last ditch band aids to keep the old stuff relevant. Many smaller organizations don't have the funds to upgrade the entire machine.

 

[Enigmoid]

Yeah, but the assertion was that an old computer couldn't run modern tasks -- which they can. They may not do it well or multitask quickly, but the older architectures can still perform the same functions as a modern box. I actually know a few IT guys that buy SSD's as the last ditch band aids to keep the old stuff relevant. Many smaller organizations don't have the funds to upgrade the entire machine.

Some not all. There are plenty of everyday tasks that will bring a P4 to its knees.

I agree with you that adding an SSD will make the computer tolerable. However the statement that adding a SSD to a P4 will make the computer better than something modern with a HDD isn't true.

For a small business without cash on hand throwing in an SSD will improve things. However any P4 class computer absolutely guzzled down power, your average system used something like 120W+ at idle and 220W at load. A typical office computer pentium to i5 in a SFF case on the igp is going to idle around 30W and use up to 80W for most tasks (browsing the internet on average is about 30-40W for an i3 and about 150-200W on a P4). In countries where power is expensive that can easily add up.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Some not all. There are plenty of everyday tasks that will bring a P4 to its knees.

I agree with you that adding an SSD will make the computer tolerable. However the statement that adding a SSD to a P4 will make the computer better than something modern with a HDD isn't true.

For a small business without cash on hand throwing in an SSD will improve things. However any P4 class computer absolutely guzzled down power, your average system used something like 120W+ at idle and 220W at load. A typical office computer pentium to i5 in a SFF case on the igp is going to idle around 30W and use up to 80W for most tasks (browsing the internet on average is about 30-40W for an i3 and about 150-200W on a P4). In countries where power is expensive that can easily add up.

I know the non-profit that is still running all the Pentium 4's doesn't pay an electricity bill -- utilities are covered under its office lease. Many organizations don't pay electricity -- generally the ones that own their real estate are the ones that have to do so. So power consumption only affects certain organizations (probably a majority), but not all. Most non-profits have been hit hard since the bank bailouts -- Donations are historically low and many are milking their desktops way past their prime because there is simply no other option.

 

[escrow4]

Not really credible? WOW.... You've got blinders on.

80% of the office computers at the non-profit where I volunteer are still Pentium 4 powered. They run modern tasks on a daily basis -- it is how they get donations and survive.

Most office workers don't watch HD videos when they're supposed to be working. Those P4's run the database software and office suites on Windows 7 just fine.

I just can't believe all the elitist crap I hear on this forum. Some of you really sound like snobs -- Look at the hard facts... 25% of the world's computers are still running freakin' XP (and Windows XP actually just increased in share in June).... At least these guys at the non-profit are running Win 7. There are a ton of schools/churches/day care/volunteer groups that are using donated desktops that are around 5 - 10 years old. It's not like a computer suddenly stops running applications the day it turns 2 years old.

The average business uses a desktop for 4 years -- and many donate them to be used at non-profits (or recycled) after that. The catholic school down the street is still running Pentium 3's in its computer lab. Windows XP still suits a lot of people's needs despite Microsoft trying to kill it.

10% of the federal government's desktop computers are about a decade old. There are several government agencies that run servers that are now over 20 years old.

BTW, Tom's Hardware already proved that your opinion is not credible:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-upgrade-hard-drive,2956.html

Read the numbers and weep -- that 2010 PC with a hard drive is considerably
slower than a 2006 PC powered by an SSD. Thus, proving the point I was making.
You can easily take a marginal machine and impress/shock the user by simply
dropping an SSD in -- been there, done it. We're talking about real world usage --
booting to the desktop, opening the office suite or a web browser. I know a
Haswell will be forced to wait for the hard drive to catch up for most things....
But an SSD can push those apps to a creaky old CPU nearly instantaneous.
I guess there isn't a lot of common sense on this forum.

All P4's are junk by now. Just because you use them due to lack of choice doesn't mean they are good for anything. Hot, slow, junk. Facts. Using them day to day would send me up the wall. The Internet has gotten way too chunky and fat for them.

 

[BSim500]

All P4's are junk by now. Just because you use them due to lack of choice doesn't mean they are good for anything. Hot, slow, junk. Facts. Using them day to day would send me up the wall. The Internet has gotten way too chunky and fat for them.

Indeed. IIRC, many P4 era chipsets (plus Windows XP) also don't support TRIM which negatively affects SSD performance over time. No problem if you intend to reuse the SSD in a future build, but running an SSD without TRIM is not really ideal on a modern OS.

 

[Deders]

All P4's are junk by now. Just because you use them due to lack of choice doesn't mean they are good for anything. Hot, slow, junk. Facts. Using them day to day would send me up the wall. The Internet has gotten way too chunky and fat for them.

I was using a P4 in one of my last jobs, it had to replace a 5 year old Core 2 Duo laptop that wouldn't stay on for too long. It handled all the tasks I needed nearly as well, sometimes over 50 tabs open in firefox, as well as Excel work.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

All P4's are junk by now. Just because you use them due to lack of choice doesn't mean they are good for anything. Hot, slow, junk. Facts. Using them day to day would send me up the wall. The Internet has gotten way too chunky and fat for them.

The later Pentium 4's are just as powerful as the average netbook of 2 - 4 years ago. If those netbooks are still useful...... Then a P4 can get the job done, too.

 

[cbn]

The later Pentium 4's are just as powerful as the average netbook of 2 - 4 years ago. If those netbooks are still useful...... Then a P4 can get the job done, too.

Tom's did a comparison test of P4 to the first atom:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atom-d510-pentium-4-nettop,2649.html

Definitely an interesting read.

Basically the 3.2 GHz P4 was strong in some single thread apps and some older apps that didn't use modern extensions.

One thing to note though is that the P4 got an X800 video card. (Obviously boosting its score in some benchmarks vs. the two 45nm atom processors iGPU)

 

[escrow4]

The later Pentium 4's are just as powerful as the average netbook of 2 - 4 years ago. If those netbooks are still useful...... Then a P4 can get the job done, too.

Useful to who? I have a netbook still. Sluggish treacle would be the definition. No matter how you slice it a $40 G1840 and ~$50 H81 mobo wipe the floor with any P4, and can also double up for a Core E8400 era replacement too. A P4 gets the job done - but at what cost? Never mind the ancient chipset which would be lucky to support AHCI and SATA I.

 

[wand3r3r]

I dropped an ssd into a net book and it made a huge difference! It boots a lot faster than a high end laptop with a Hdd.

I agree with the sentiment of dropping it into an old rig, unsure about p4's though.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

I dropped an ssd into a net book and it made a huge difference! It boots a lot faster than a high end laptop with a Hdd.

I agree with the sentiment of dropping it into an old rig, unsure about p4's though.

I think a lot of people don't realize it -- but some P4's actually came with the ancestor to SSD's. They called them "Disk On Modules" back then -- but they were more or less very similar to solid state drives. I recycled a Pentium 4 recently with a Disk On Module -- it plugged directly into the EIDE port. The biggest downside was they were really small by today's standards.... The biggest DOM I ever saw was only 4 GB, but it was enough space to run a custom version of Redhat the client needed. IMO they seemed considerably faster than the average 5400 RPM hard drive back then.

 

[wand3r3r]

Microcenter has the Intel G3258 bundle with an MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard for $99. That's the start of a dirt cheap setup, which for the $ is excellent performance. Then again they probably have the i3 or i5 bundled as well like the higher end stuff.

 

[cbn]

Right now I am playing Titanfall using Origin's Gametime offer. I am happy to report the gameplay is butter smooth on all maps and modes I have played using 4.4 Ghz Pentium G3258 with R7 250X. (Resolution: 1080p low)

Here is a link to TitanFall's minimum requirements:

http://www.titanfall.com/news/be-titanfall-pc-ready

 

[frozentundra123456]

Microcenter has the Intel G3258 bundle with an MSI Z97 PC Mate motherboard for $99. That's the start of a dirt cheap setup, which for the $ is excellent performance. Then again they probably have the i3 or i5 bundled as well like the higher end stuff.

Unfortunately, Microcenter's i3 bundles usually do not impress me. They do the bundle only with the higher end i3 and pair it with a Z series motherboard, so the overall cost is near to that of an i5. So for intel, best to either go cheap with the pentium or powerful with the 4690K bundle.

They also have a very tempting FX6300 bundle for 90 bucks with a free motherboard.

 

[pw257008]

MicroCenter's website usually lets you bundle with any mobo for the $40 or so off, it's just not advertised on the bundles page--you could do i3 plus H81 pretty cheap.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I thought the overclocked G3258 would be awesome until I started trying to run modern games on it. But frame variance really hurts it on a lot of games. I didn't realize how many new games need a quad core to run properly. Now having a better understanding, I would definitely recommend that people who can only afford the G3258 take a look at the upcoming Athlon X4 860K for the extra $20 bucks. I just don't think any game machine should be built with less than 4 cores. At the minimum, people should at least step up to a hyperthreaded dual core (i3) -- although, even then its still a locked chip

What games did you get lots of stutter in? And are you talking MP or SP?

 

[DrMrLordX]

The G3258 is a value champion. The best part about it is that you never have to guess at whether or not its resources can be utilized to their fullest. There's only two cores, so you better believe every piece of software out there will make them both work! Er well, except SuperPi.

It has its limitations, so expectations shouldn't be set too high, but it's still a nice little chip.

 

[bononos]

I know the non-profit that is still running all the Pentium 4's doesn't pay an electricity bill -- utilities are covered under its office lease. Many organizations don't pay electricity -- generally the ones that own their real estate are the ones that have to do so. So power consumption only affects certain organizations (probably a majority), but not all. Most non-profits have been hit hard since the bank bailouts -- Donations are historically low and many are milking their desktops way past their prime because there is simply no other option.

Its a bad argument to say that 'many' org don't pay electricity to ignore the power guzzling issue. Electricity gets paid either way, someone has to foot the bill for them if they are above paying the electricity bill.