TheManuel Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Hello, everyone. I'm currently facing a hard decision as I consider upgrading the machine in my cab. With currently available deals, I can upgrade to either an Intel Pentium G3258 with O/C available, or an AMD FX-6300, also with o/c, for a similar amount of money. Both setups are within what I'm willing to pay for the upgrade, with Intel's i3 family and above being outside of the budget so let's not consider those for this discussion. Since I only want to go with stock voltages and cooling, I expect I can overclock either of the alternatives to around 4.0 GHz, perhaps 100-200 MHz more, so let's use this assumption. With so much information out there, I'm to the point where I'm no longer sure what is the best answer, in terms of current performance on the different types of applications I'll be using, future proofing in terms of software, etc. Hardware upgrade path is not a consideration as I will stick to this setup for years and when it's time to upgrade again I will not be able to reuse any of the hardware. Here are the applications that are relevant to the discussion: MAME: low importance as I already run everything I need at full speed Demul: low importance, as either upgrade above should get me to full speed PCSX2 & Dolphin: somewhat important as I don't know if both up upgrades will allow me to achieve full speed but I don't play many games on these emus PC Games: important as I occasionally add PC games over time and I don't know how multi-core performance will change in the future (also, I currently can't play MKKE or IGAUUE at full speed) Can anyone voice their opinion on this choice? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marxkemp Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 A lot of people are having succes with the pentium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justinwebb Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 what graphics card will you be using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheManuel Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 what graphics card will you be using? I am using a GTS 250 and it has proven quite capable for anything I throw at it. On everything I currently played, my bottleneck is the CPU, an old Core 2 Duo E4300 overclocked to 3.0 GHz on stock voltage and cooler (and quite stable). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark13 Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 From the tests of G3258's buyers it seems really close to 4670k. When overclocking you need to overvolt; it is not an issue if it's not too "extreme" as "maximum" vcore for intel is usually higher than you will need. For windows games multithreading can be an issue, especially because G3258 does not have multithreading like i3. In this case fx6300 should be a better choice while G3258 is a better choice for emulators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheManuel Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 From the benchmarks I've seen on current games, the overclocked G3258 seems to hold its own against quad-core AMD chips. The question is whether the Pentimum's low number of cores will hold me back in the future... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marxkemp Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Its not a cpu for future proofing but for emulation tasks its a real nice option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urbangangsta101 Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Just upgrade it in the future (If there is ever an emulator that would fully utilize a quad core...) I'm running the G3258 @ 4.4GHz with 1.330v and LLC compensation set to 100% - The Emulator performance at this speed is exactly the same as my overclocked i7 4770K (Also at 4.4GHz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheManuel Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 Just upgrade it in the future (If there is ever an emulator that would fully utilize a quad core...)I'm running the G3258 @ 4.4GHz with 1.330v and LLC compensation set to 100% - The Emulator performance at this speed is exactly the same as my overclocked i7 4770K (Also at 4.4GHz) That's pretty impressive performance. I'm sure it will do great for emulation. I'm more concerned about the lack of more cores hurting my chances with future PC games that my use them, and force me into another upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rust2dust Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 The a10 chips are pretty cheap now.....got a whole white box computer for under 400 US. 4.1 ghz...no need for overclocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheManuel Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 The a10 chips are pretty cheap now.....got a whole white box computer for under 400 US. 4.1 ghz...no need for overclocking. Are those worth considering, compared to FX? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rust2dust Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Are those worth considering, compared to FX? Match it with a decent video card and it will run anything you throw at it. As much as I wanted an i7 build I'm glad I went this route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark13 Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 A10 7850 can even run a lot of games trought IGP at 720p 30fps. Obviously don't expect them to run battlefield 4 at "enthusiast" . In terms of "raw" power they're worst than fx6300, fx 6300 is 6cores while a10 are quadcores. For emulation, obviously, only frequencies matters as they're more or less same architecture and only 2 cores will be stressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwcr Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Ive just ordered a g3258 for my first ever build after reading good things on here about it. Could someone recommend me a graphics card for my setup that will play all consoles upto wii. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marxkemp Posted August 13, 2014 Share Posted August 13, 2014 Msi n750 ti, evga gtx 750 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwcr Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Thanks for your reply marxkemp, which evga 750 is it you recommend? Do you have a link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marxkemp Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I do not have specific model Me myself should buy a low profile card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vwcr Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 I been looking and these cards are over £100 I was hoping for something a little cheaper really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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