i3 2100/GT 430 vs A8-3850/6570

[OnePostWonder]

What I'd like to find out is exactly what the title says, and that's how these pairings stack up against each other.

After researching this quite a bit and getting no solid answers, I decided to ask here.

Probably one of my major hang-ups are these two reviews:

X-bit Labs

AnandTech

If you scroll to SCII, at the same resolution and quality preset there are drastically different framerate results. I feel as though the only possible reason for this is because they're actually using different settings, even though they both say "medium quality".

From what I gather though, the A8-3850/6570 will be much stronger for graphics processing than the i3 2100/GT 430 would be. Also, throughout the AnandTech review, they show several cases where the APU+GPU performs worse than the GPU by itself. Is this still an issue?

This build is not for me, and will be centered around very casual gaming and mostly web browsing/video transcoding.

I have a lot more to add to this, but I'd like to see what others have to say about this so far.

 

[xBruce88x]

Starcraft II is pretty CPU heavy and actually benefits from additional cores.

also, the i3 2100 and 2105 have the exact same cpu cores. the only diff. is the gpu cores. the hd 3000 is about 2x that of the 2000. hence the almost 2x fps improvement.

the gt 430 would be a decent gpu for starcraft II, as this page shows. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-430-gf108-fermi,2766-6.html

as for the i3 cpu cores, they too should be decent for starcraft II. I ran starcraft II on an old Pentium e5300 (dual core 2.6ghz) with a 9600GT on Med-high fairly well. An i3 along with a GT430 should handle it pretty well on about high settings. (if 30-40fps is ok for you)

also, a comparison of the GT430 and HD6570 (among others)... they're pretty close performance wise.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-Radeon-HD-6570-512-MB-Video-Card-Review/1271/7

 

[Xaser04]

Why not i2-2300 & HD6570 (I would go for the HD6670 personally)?

 

[OnePostWonder]

Why not i2-2300 & HD6570 (I would go for the HD6670 personally)?

i2-2300, are you meaning to say i3 2100?

If I were to pay the extra cost for the HD6570 over the GT 430, I would want the A8-3850 in order to take advantage of asymmetric crossfire.

 

[OnePostWonder]

Starcraft II is pretty CPU heavy and actually benefits from additional cores.

also, the i3 2100 and 2105 have the exact same cpu cores. the only diff. is the gpu cores. the hd 3000 is about 2x that of the 2000. hence the almost 2x fps improvement.

the gt 430 would be a decent gpu for starcraft II, as this page shows. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gt-430-gf108-fermi,2766-6.html

as for the i3 cpu cores, they too should be decent for starcraft II. I ran starcraft II on an old Pentium e5300 (dual core 2.6ghz) with a 9600GT on Med-high fairly well. An i3 along with a GT430 should handle it pretty well on about high settings. (if 30-40fps is ok for you)

also, a comparison of the GT430 and HD6570 (among others)... they're pretty close performance wise.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-Radeon-HD-6570-512-MB-Video-Card-Review/1271/7

This machine will not be used for SCII. I only used SCII because of the difference in framerate, which you addressed. Thank you for that.

 

[Bo$$]

i3 2100/GT 430 is a better option IMO. easier to upgrade down the line...If you get the AMD you are maxxed out, however intel's option is a low end chip, so INTEL in this case

 

[OnePostWonder]

i3 2100/GT 430 is a better option IMO. easier to upgrade down the line...If you get the AMD you are maxxed out, however intel's option is a low end chip, so INTEL in this case

I hadn't even considered this. So Trinity will not use the same socket then (FM1)?

Given the same socket, I suppose an Ivy Bridge CPU would work on the Sandy Bridge chipsets (H6x, P6x, Z68), wouldn't it?

Thanks for you post.

 

[Bo$$]

I hadn't even considered this. So Trinity will not use the same socket then (FM1)?

Given the same socket, I suppose an Ivy Bridge CPU would work on the Sandy Bridge chipsets (H6x, P6x, Z68), wouldn't it?

Thanks for you post.

exactly, next gen AMD socket is FM2 If i recall. and yes Ivy bridge will work on those boards. post which board your looking at. I am sure that z68 will have support for those CPU's. Ill have to double check exactly which ones will get it

 

[ViperXTR]

one of the reasons i got an i3 2100 + Z68, the upgrade path. Eyeing for the i5 3570K, if not, just get some used i5 2500K hehe (for those folks in our place who are drooling for the IB lol)

 

[OnePostWonder]

exactly, next gen AMD socket is FM2 If i recall. and yes Ivy bridge will work on those boards. post which board your looking at. I am sure that z68 will have support for those CPU's. Ill have to double check exactly which ones will get it

Will Ivy Bridge CPUs only work on Z68? For what this individual is doing, I was actually looking at motherboards in the other chipsets. The build (CPU/Mobo/RAM/GPU) is to be <=$300, but I see that there are some Z68 motherboards for around the price of some of the H67 motherboards I was looking at (<$125).

Based on reviews at Newegg, the best motherboards for under $125 seems to be these:

Biostar TZ68A+

Gigabyte Z68 D3H

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

The Asus P8Z68-M Pro doesn't really have enough reviews towards the favorable side for me to consider it.

I wasn't sure with the AsRock at first. I had intended to buying the Extreme4 for my own build in the near future, but after reading some less than favorable things about it, I opted for something different. I know some of the guys here use this motherboard and think highly of it, but the things I was reading about seem to be too common to take the risk. Maybe someone can inform me otherwise

 

[Jstn7477]

Will Ivy Bridge CPUs only work on Z68? For what this individual is doing, I was actually looking at motherboards in the other chipsets. The build (CPU/Mobo/RAM/GPU) is to be <=$300, but I see that there are some Z68 motherboards for around the price of some of the H67 motherboards I was looking at (<$125).

Based on reviews at Newegg, the best motherboards for under $125 seems to be these:

Biostar TZ68A+

Gigabyte Z68 D3H

ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3

The Asus P8Z68-M Pro doesn't really have enough reviews towards the favorable side for me to consider it.

I wasn't sure with the AsRock at first. I had intended to buying the Extreme4 for my own build in the near future, but after reading some less than favorable things about it, I opted for something different. I know some of the guys here use this motherboard and think highly of it, but the things I was reading about seem to be too common to take the risk. Maybe someone can inform me otherwise

I run an ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 with a 2600K @ 4.5GHz and 16GB of DDR3 and it's rock solid. At one point I had a 6950, GTX 550 Ti and a 6670 running simultaneously, although now it's sans 6670. What are your concerns? The Extreme4 is basically an Extreme3 with lots of stuff added like dual USB 3.0 controllers, a Marvell SATA addon controller, etc. Power delivery should be the exact same on both from what I see.

 

[OnePostWonder]

One of the most common things I was seeing was error code 45. This apparently has something to do with the way the RAM slots are populated.

When I came across HardOCPs review, I was really put off. They tore this board a new one:

HardOCP

Don't get me wrong, all boards have their problems. Unfortunately, because of AsRock's shorter warranty and how much people complain about their tech support, I just didn't feel comfortable putting money towards it. I ended up deciding on the Asus P8Z68-V Pro GEN3 for myself (throwing that out there just in case anyone feels compelled to tear this board a new one ).

 

[OnePostWonder]

I'd like to try and get the Micro Center i3 deal on this, but of the motherboards I listed in post #10, only the Biostar motherboard is carried.

 

[ViperXTR]

Z68, P67, H67 and H61 are supposed to support IB, with UEFI update, boards with Gen3 specs will support the PCI-E 3.0 controller embedded on the IB as well as native USB 3.0

 

[Bo$$]

Z68, P67, H67 and H61 are supposed to support IB, with UEFI update, boards with Gen3 specs will support the PCI-E 3.0 controller embedded on the IB as well as native USB 3.0

thank you I wasn't too sure has i dont own any new pc.


Grab whatever fits in your budget. Anything from asus or gigabyte will be fairly well supported and will get a good few bios updates

 

[Shou Miko]

i don't know which would be best when we r talking applications that supports HT (Hyper-Threading) bcs the i3 will be like a quad-core as the AMD A8-3850 is, but for games, and they do not support HT the AMD should be a better choice of cpu.

but when we talk about graphics the Nvidia GeForce GT 430 would be my choice any day over the AMD Radeon HD 6570 build-in or not still u can use cuda for playback and it's much for powerful even i am a Nvidia Fan boy it's still would be my choice for the day bcs it's a dedicated gpu and u got cuda/physx and if i am not wrong it should also be stronger than the HD6570.

Tom's Hardware - Benchmarks A8-3850 APU + HD 6570 vs. Nvidia GeForce GT 430

 

[Bo$$]

He is playing starcraft. unless he is playing GTA IV there is little benefit from the AMD, plus he can upgrade with the intel option

 

[ViperXTR]

Games or any application can use Hyper Threading, some programs are optimized with it and some are not. Tested it on my i3.

As for GTAIV (a multi thread aware game), here's a sample test of i3 2100 performance

http://www.behardware.com/articles/816-10/intel-core-i3-2100-lga-1155-sandy-bridge-dual-core.html

some personal experiment:
HT disabled


HT enabled

 

[ViperXTR]

StarCraft II, two threads? 4 threads?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738-9.html

 

[Dent1]

Not sure, I would suspect 2 threads. SC2 is one of the worst games to base a performance only decision. The game is one of the most optimised games around, and hence isnt intensive at all. It's one of the few games that can run well on literally any hardware. Friend would play multiplayer and max it out, ultra settings and get 60 FPS consistant on a ATI 4830 and 2.5GHz Core 2 duo.

 

[ViperXTR]

just posted it as a reference since folks are talkin about it hehe

 

[Bo$$]

Games or any application can use Hyper Threading, some programs are optimized with it and some are not. Tested it on my i3.

As for GTAIV (a multi thread aware game), here's a sample test of i3 2100 performance
http://www.behardware.com/medias/photos_news/00/31/IMG0031382.png
http://www.behardware.com/articles/816-10/intel-core-i3-2100-lga-1155-sandy-bridge-dual-core.html

some personal experiment:
HT disabled
[url]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/ViperXtreme/th_HToff.jpg[/URL]

HT enabled
[url]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/ViperXtreme/th_HTon.jpg[/URL]

Im not doubting the HT... I know how it works, iwas saying the i3 is better

 

[ViperXTR]

i was replying to puma99dk|

 

[THE_EGG]

I hadn't even considered this. So Trinity will not use the same socket then (FM1)?

Given the same socket, I suppose an Ivy Bridge CPU would work on the Sandy Bridge chipsets (H6x, P6x, Z68), wouldn't it?

Thanks for you post.

Yes, Ivy Bridge should work on current 1155 mobo's (H67, P67 and Z68), Gigabyte released a new BIOS for my P67A-UD5-B3 for support of 22nm chips. And also from what I have read, trinity will be an entirely new socket being FM2 - not compatible with the current FM1 chips. IMHO I would go for the AMD - 3850 in your case because of the crossfire capability however as other people have mentioned, the intel option would provide a better upgrade path but I would hold off until Ivy comes out maybe even wait till trinity and decide then, its not too far away now.

 

[Bo$$]

i was replying to puma99dk|

sorry man, no quotes