Pentium G860 / G2120 / Core i3 3220

[Hes]

Has anyone tried any of these CPUs with Dolphin?

The Pentium G860 is a Sandy Bridge 3.0 GHz dual core without HT.
Pentium G2120 is an Ivy Bridge 3.1 GHz dual core without HT.
Core i3 3220 is an Ivy Bridge 3.3 GHz dual core with HT.

I am inclined to think that the i3 3220 should offer full speed on most games except the most demanding (Mario Galaxy, Last Story etc), but if that is the case the G2120 shouldn't be that far behind. Is it correct that Dolphin gains nothing from HT? So the G2120 might be a pretty solid pick for people on a budget.

Can anyone tell me more about my beliefs that all of these CPUs should do fairly well, even the G860? They'd be coupled with a midrange card such as an HD 7770.

[DefenderX]

Yep, it's correct, that Dolphin doesn't benefit from HyperThreading.

If I were you, I would but the i3-3220 though. Ivy Bridge architecture is better than the Sandy Bridge architecture (22nm vs 32nm)

[Hes]

(11-19-2012, 11:42 PM)DefenderX Wrote: Yep, it's correct, that Dolphin doesn't benefit from HyperThreading.

If I were you, I would but the i3-3220 though. Ivy Bridge architecture is better than the Sandy Bridge architecture (22nm vs 32nm)

Of course the i3 is the best, but how big would the difference be with the Pentium G2120 (which is also Ivy Bridge, but 200MHz slower).

Also, these are the prices these CPUs currently have in my country:

G860: €62
G2120: €90
i3 3220: €115

A fairly large increase in price each step of the way, which makes me extra interested in G860 and G2120 performance.

[DefenderX]

Well, the i3-3220 should be about 15% faster (I just guessed). It depends on the game, how big the increase of performance will be. But... generally, the difference between the G2120 and the i3-3220 is not very big.

btw: You won't be happy, if you want to use LLE/LLE on thread with those CPUs. But the i3 will have a better LLE performance because when LLE on thread is active, Dolphin uses 3 cores. With HT, the i3 has 4 cores anyway, I just wanted to say that. Of course both CPUs are too weak for LLE in most of the games.

[ExtremeDude2]

(11-19-2012, 11:51 PM)DefenderX Wrote: With HT, the i3 has 4 virtual cores

Fixed that for you

[Shonumi]

(11-19-2012, 11:51 PM)DefenderX Wrote: btw: You won't be happy, if you want to use LLE/LLE on thread with those CPUs. But the i3 will have a better LLE performance because when LLE on thread is active, Dolphin uses 3 cores. With HT, the i3 has 4 cores anyway, I just wanted to say that. Of course both CPUs are too weak for LLE in most of the games.

Depends on which games he's going to play. A lot of games will be perfectly doable with the i3-3220 with LLE audio. The only real issues are going to be the more demanding titles like SMG and Metroid Prime.

[admin89]

Either G860 + H61 mobo or G2120 + B75 mono are fine for most games . Even demanding games like Xenoblade , Monster Hunter 3 should play well . I tried those 2 games on my laptop , Xenoblade run well and MH3 run fullspeed all the time with "EFB copies to Ram" and 2.5xIR ( i just start playing MH3 today for 2 hours ) . Both the 2 pentium are faster than my laptop CPU , so you shouldn't worry about them
About your GPU , just stick with directx9 backend , 4x Internal Res , no AA , 16x AF , you'll be fine

[Hes]

(11-20-2012, 02:34 AM)admin89 Wrote: Either G860 + H61 mobo or G2120 + B75 mono are fine for most games . Even demanding games like Xenoblade , Monster Hunter 3 should play well . I tried those 2 games on my laptop , Xenoblade run well and MH3 run fullspeed all the time with "EFB copies to Ram" and 2.5xIR ( i just start playing MH3 today for 2 hours ) . Both the 2 pentium are faster than my laptop CPU , so you shouldn't worry about them
About your GPU , just stick with directx9 backend , 4x Internal Res , no AA , 16x AF , you'll be fine

Thanks for your sharing your own experience. The performance you get on your laptop seems to reinforce the notion that i5 2500k or i5 3570k are not needed for good results with most games.

What about multiplayer though? Would these CPUs be able to handle 2 player Mario Kart Wii?

Any reason you'd pair the G2120 with a B75 mobo, or is that just so you will be sure you won't have to bios update an older H61 mobo before it'd work with the newer CPU?

[admin89]

Quote: What about multiplayer though? Would these CPUs be able to handle 2 player Mario Kart Wii?

G2120 is your best bet . I don't think G860 can run MK full speed with 2 real players
If you want full speed with 4 real players , i5 2500k @ 4.5GHz or i5 3570k @ 4.2GHz will be fast enough

Quote:Any reason you'd pair the G2120 with a B75 mobo, or is that just so you will be sure you won't have to bios update an older H61 mobo before it'd work with the newer CPU?

Not all H61 have bios update for Ivy Bridge . I don't recommend bios update , it's kinda risky sometime , it might screw up your mobo

[NaturalViolence]

(11-20-2012, 01:31 AM)ExtremeDude2 Wrote:

(11-19-2012, 11:51 PM)DefenderX Wrote: With HT, the i3 has 4 logical cores

Fixed that for you

Fixed that fix for you.