Question About CPU's

[RicardoZ]

It's probably worth mentioning that the only game I play is WoW and it's the only game this system will be used for. Aside from playing WoW, I'll just be using the computer for web browsing and other light computing.

I've been looking into starting to build my own system lately and I've run into some questions about cpu's. In the interest of brevity and keeping it as simple as possible, as these conversations have a tendency to get sidetracked and go down wormholes and bunnytrails, I'll just list my questions like this:

1. Why is everybody telling me not to get any of the AMD Phenom II cpu's when I look them up on YouTube and they're running current gen games flawlessly at max settings? It's like everybody has one, but they tell me not to get one...doesn't make any sense. Is it some kind of hipster thing where they don't want other people to know about it or something?

2. Is the AMD FX-8350 Black Edition any good? I've heard it's comparable to the i5 series in gaming performance and for about $30-$50 less.

3. Would it be totally stupid to buy an i3-3220? I've read that there's no way you should buy a dual core processor because every game now and in the future will require four except WoW, but I don't really do much multitasking while I'm playing WoW (I don't even run anything in the background) so that might work for me.

And on an unrelated not, is it absolutely necessary to have 8gb of RAM or can I sneak by with 4gb, seeing that again, not really much multi-tasking going on.

Any ideas?

[n0cturnal]

1. The AMD phenoms II are old and are outperformed in most games by an Intel I3.
2. It is a decent CPU but lacks a lot when it comes to playing WoW, an Intel I3 will perform better.
3. No it isn't stupid but if you can afford an I5 that would be the better choice.

There is really no point in getting 4GB of RAM anymore, 8GB is really cheap.

[RicardoZ]

1. The AMD phenoms II are old and are outperformed in most games by an Intel I3.
2. It is a decent CPU but lacks a lot when it comes to playing WoW, an Intel I3 will perform better.
3. No it isn't stupid but if you can afford an I5 that would be the better choice.

There is really no point in getting 4GB of RAM anymore, 8GB is really cheap.

Thanks for the reply. I'm thinking just solely budget-wise, I could save quite a large chunk by going with an i3. Since the computer won't be used for anything more demanding than WoW, which as far as I know doesn't use more than 2 cores and probably won't any time soon, I'm guessing it will be worth it in the name of saving the money.

[Libram]

I do hope you will be using a graphics card?
In case this helps the family computer I built has the i3 3220 CPU and 4GB of RAM.
I gave it my stored away GTX460 graphics card that wasn't being used and was able to play WoW at decent settings and frame rate.
It cost about $340 total. However I salvaged the old HDD, Optic drive, and re-activated and transferred the Windows license key from
the previous machine to save money. (Will cost about $100+ more for a new graphics card if I didn't already have one.)

[chazus]

AMD CPU's arent -bad- per se. It's just that the best AMD right now is comparable to the mid-range Intel. The perk of the intel is it allows you an upgrade path. AMD does not. AMD's are great for a budget, if you are positive you'll never upgrade. It's just the simply fact that Intel dominates the high end, and a lot of people like the high end.

An i3-3220 is a great CPU. My friend just got one and he's able to run High on WoW (and a Radeon 7770) without issues.

Currently VERY few games support 2 cores, or even 4. And I highly doubt games in the next year or two will 'require' four. Maybe benefit some. Maybe. But require, or hugely benefit? No.

[RicardoZ]

An i3-3220 is a great CPU. My friend just got one and he's able to run High on WoW (and a Radeon 7770) without issues.

That's actually exactly what I wanted to know because I'm looking into the 7770 Vapor x OC Edition. I've seen people on Youtube playing on Ultra with that card.

I think I could get Ultra because I don't require a lot of stuff like SHAO or whatever it's called, Shadows, water textures, weather effects, etc (I'll probably put them all on the lowest possible setting)...I just want ultra particle density, view distance, ground clutter, environment detail, and as high resolution textures as possible. I don't care about anti-aliasing or having 16x anthosclerosis or whatever it's called. On top of all that I'll probably not be playing at 1080p either, which will probably keep my resolution low enough to support the graphics settings I wanted with the card I can afford.

EDIT: Oh yeah, sorry for originally putting this in the wrong forum (again). My bad

[blazto]

I would really go no lower than an I5 2500k on a cpu if you're going to game on your PC. AMD makes a really nice product but Intel has them at the moment on all aspects of gaming with their cpus. I3s are nice but an I5 would last you longer and give better overall performance for the price difference.

[chazus]

I3s are nice but an I5 would last you longer and give better overall performance for the price difference.

To be honest, i3s will give you more bang for buck on performance. the i5's cost nearly twice as much, but they definitely don't give twice the performance. For someone on a budget, the i3s are fantastic processors. Then again, hardware has greatly outpaced software except in extreme situations. As an i5 owner, I bought that simply because... well.. I could afford it. Would I likely be equally happy on an i3, if my budget was cut down by $150? Definitely.

As much as people talk about "Best CPU for Gaming", there isn't THAT much of a difference. It's more of a "I want to spend X dollars, which is best"

The most budget-y budget hobo-junction AMD CPU at $75.... still performs within about 80% as the $230 Intel i5-3570K without overclocking. Doesn't that mean that everyone should be buying $100 CPUs? The i3-3220 scores about 90% at the $120 mark, making it fantastic.

Really, the place that the i5-3570K shines in its cost, is the overclocking capability. Going from 3.4ghz to 4.4ghz is a MASSIVE performance boost for things that benefit from CPU usage. But is a massive performance boost on something that's already stupid powerful ... really worth it?

Don't get me wrong, I love my i5-3570K. I love my computer. It's awesome. But people who will likely spend $300 less than me will still be in possession of a fantastic system that will kick the crap out of WoW, and many other games. And games it doesn't kick the crap out of, will still be in the range of Enjoyable.

[RicardoZ]

LOL @ "hobo-junction" haha I love that phrase

[chazus]

"Hobo Junction" was the nickname of a kid that used to come into our store, always having problems. His computer was consistently cobbled together from stuff he found that people had thrown out, or parts from goodwill or police auctions. Heatsinks that were taped down because the clips were broken, CD drives with the face plates missing, a stack of 10GB hard drives pulled from grandma's dead AOL machine.

But, you know what? He tried. He worked within his budget (uhhh, $15?) and got a functional computer. Sorta. Sometimes.