Ye or Ne on replacing a G3258 @ 4ghz with a Xeon E3-1240L v3?

[Shou Miko]

I am wondering if I should buy a cheap E3-1240L v3 for my girl's pc she is at the moment using a Intel Pentium G3258 clocked at 4ghz together with a MSI Z97I Gaming AC board, Mushkin 2x8GB DDR3 2400mhz memory and a GTX 960 2GB on a HP 22inch 1080p screen (I think it's a 22 I don't remember) but she is struggling with some bad optimized games she likes to play and I am thinking if this could be a good replacement that won't cost like $300's to do.

it's replace a Dual-Core with a Quad-Core with HT it's usually good in performance boost but since the E3-1240L v2 is running stock at 2ghz with boost up to 3ghz I am just a little insure so please some advice here.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I'd go with a 4690k and a CM Hyper 212 for less than $300 before I went with a E3-1240L v3 for $300

 

[little cat]

It will worth if the GPU is high-end . But why not Xeon E3-1231 V3

 

[BarbaricSoul]

But why not Xeon E3-1231 V3

also a good idea

 

[Shou Miko]

I'd go with a 4690k and a CM Hyper 212 for less than $300 before I went with a E3-1240L v3 for $300

I am talking about a second handed Xeon here they go under 145USD (under 1000dkr) and forgot to say there ain't space in her case for a Hyper 212 she has a Cooler Master Elite 110 and right now using a Noctua NH-L9i instead of a stock cooler bcs it's better and more quiet.

I haven't seen any E3-1231's on sale only i5 K versions which r too much want to keep the TDP low.

 

[Silas Woodruff]

I think the Xeon is a very good deal + you've got that Noctua cooler, turbo boost should kick in pretty easily so the mhz difference isn't that huge apart.

 

[little cat]

single core , Pass Mark
E3-1240l v3 - 1745 points Pass Mark
G3258 - 2173

multi core
E3 1240l v3 - 7507 points
G3258 - 3983 points
http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

So , again , the upgrade is worth only if high end video card is used - e.g. GTX 1060 /RX 480 and faster

 

[P4-630]

I think the Xeon is a very good deal + you've got that Noctua cooler, turbo boost should kick in pretty easily so the mhz difference isn't that huge apart.

The thing is, most games nowadays support multithreading and in this case the CPU won't boost much or even stay at it's base speed.
I have a i5 6500 boost to 3.6GHz, but when I'm gaming the clockspeed stays at at the 3.2GHz base speed.

 

[Aquinus]

You're only going to see an improvement in games that can utilize more than 2 full threads worth of compute at once. Also keep in mind that a 25 watt TDP part isn't going to boost more than probably a single core to 3Ghz. You'll need to do some finagling if you're going to push boost on all 4 cores to 3Ghz which is going to making a good amount of extra heat and might require some voltage adjustments.

All in all, I can see cases where it would be an upgrade and a side-grade. Some situations it might actually even be slower if it can't manage to boost because you'll be stuck with 2Ghz which is abysmally low for gaming.

Honestly, I would find a better CPU that doesn't have such a low base clock, that CPU is far better suited for something like a HTPC or a quiet workstation due to the low TDP IMHO.

 

[little cat]

You're only going to see an improvement in games that can utilize more than 2 full threads worth of compute at once. Also keep in mind that a 25 watt TDP part isn't going to boost more than probably a single core to 3Ghz. You'll need to do some finagling if you're going to push boost on all 4 cores to 3Ghz which is going to making a good amount of extra heat and might require some voltage adjustments.

All in all, I can see cases where it would be an upgrade and a side-grade. Some situations it might actually even be slower if it can't manage to boost because you'll be stuck with 2Ghz which is abysmally low for gaming.

Honestly, I would find a better CPU that doesn't have such a low base clock, that CPU is far better suited for something like a HTPC or a quiet workstation due to the low TDP IMHO.

In general i agree . But i checked that Xeon does well

 

[BarbaricSoul]

I am talking about a second handed Xeon here they go under 145USD (under 1000dkr) and forgot to say there ain't space in her case for a Hyper 212 she has a Cooler Master Elite 110 and right now using a Noctua NH-L9i instead of a stock cooler bcs it's better and more quiet.

My bad, mis-read your opening post. Thought you said upgrading to the Xeon would cost you about $300, which is what I based my recommendation on.

 

[little cat]

For GTX 960 (noticed now the GPU) , it should improve the performance : maybe 10% and smooth gameplay

 

[TRWOV]

Another option would be a Core i3 4360 or 4370, it's a dual core with HT but in this case HT does help since there are a few games out there that won't run without at least 4 threads being present (Far Cry Primal for example).

Still I would think that a 4GHz Pentium would be more than enough for most titles even if they support multithread. What games is she having problems with?

 

[Shou Miko]

Another option would be a Core i3 4360 or 4370, it's a dual core with HT but in this case HT does help since there are a few games out there that won't run without at least 4 threads being present (Far Cry Primal for example).

Still I would think that a 4GHz Pentium would be more than enough for most titles even if they support multithread. What games is she having problems with?

Some online games, vindicus, and some others but i tried to get her to do some custom around bcs i could read online that the games were shitty optimized for everything.

 

[Devon68]

Lower the settings for now and wait for a deal on a i5. That is what I would do.

 

[little cat]

Does the GPU load fluctuate a lot ? Does it reach 100% ?

With the overclock G3258 should hit 5000 points in Pass Mark . Usually this is sufficient for GTX 960 . But the two cores most likely cause stuttering .

 

[Shou Miko]

Does the GPU load fluctuate a lot ? Does it reach 100% ?

With the overclock G3258 should hit 5000 points in Pass Mark . Usually this is sufficient for GTX 960 . But the two cores most likely cause stuttering .

She normally does LoL, Overwatch and other games without issues but she would like more games like GTA V and others and Ik that a quad-core i5/xeon would do a good job and i won't oc her pc getting a better cpu.

 

[little cat]

Benchmark the GPU and check also the GPU load

other options i5 4670T , i5 4690T , i7 4790T