EDIT for future readers:
I went with the i3-4160. It's fullspeed in tested games so far. Note that you need to set the affinity on the Dolphin process to two cores, to avoid hyperthreading constantly interrupting the threads. Metroid Prime is a bit microstutter-y, but this seems to be more of a GPU thread issue since CPU usage doesn't spike at those times. Still investigating.
It's also running modern games very well and makes for an extremely smooth desktop.
Original post below.
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The ancient, awful Athlon in my profile fails entirely at running basically any interesting game, as I'd expect, so it's time to get a new CPU (and mobo). The FAQ basically says I want a Haswell chip with a good clock speed, and core count is almost irrelevant.
Since I have a low budget, it looks like the G3258 with a cheap mobo that supports overclocking would be the way to go there, since it can be trivially OCed to 4+GHz.
However, I also want to run new PC games with the chip, and I understand that two hardware threads
isn't going to cut it anymore for any game engine expecting 4 hardware threads; it also has no hardware virtualisation or AES-NI, and some other missing instruction sets.
So: Would an i3-4160 (that's 3.6GHz) run most games at fullspeed under Dolphin? I know there are a few outliers that need insane power- my main interest is the Metroid Prime games and Mario Kart DD/Wii. Mario Galaxy would be nice too.
(I do understand that the Metroids are unfortunately three of the more demanding games.
)
I am currently using the overclockable anniversary Pentium G3258 dualcore, and it's fine at 3,2Ghz but can be clocked at 4.2 without any hassle except for a little volting.
at 4.0 GHz dolphin plays most games well, 3x resolution and at fullspeed. Most games could run at 4 times internal resolution, i choose not to because i would have to manually adapt heavy games. dolphin is getting more efficient so i am not expecting any troubles. Also GTA V apparently runs well, according to youtube. skyrim also hasn't got any issues.
So to conclude, an i3 would also be fine, but you could save the money and go for a cheap motherboard and this pentium, whilst having a decent graphicscard is necessary.
Hey thanks for the reply, but I still have some concerns:
(04-19-2015, 03:09 AM)biervat Wrote: [ -> ]I am currently using the overclockable anniversary Pentium G3258 dualcore, and it's fine at 3,2Ghz
"Fine" as in fullspeed? Probably not, or you wouldn't have bothered OC'd it to 4.0, right?
Quote:at 4.0 GHz dolphin plays most games well, 3x resolution and at fullspeed.
I fully expect an OC'd G3258 to beat an i3 at Dolphin- my question is whether the i3-4160@3.6GHz would be good
enough for fullspeed Metroid Prime.
Quote:Also GTA V apparently runs well, according to youtube. skyrim also hasn't got any issues.
Skyrim would run well on anything now, it's a 2011 game. As for GTAV- the player on YouTube has it at 4.4, he has all the fun sliders like population density tuned down, and he has a stuttery 30-ish FPS with a 750ti. Playable sure, but it doesn't bode well for the future.
DA:I, Rise, and Far Cry 4 are examples of games that either refuse to start with <4 logical cores, or run VERY poorly. Check the video in the Eurogamer article for an example of Rise's performance. The Witcher 3 looks to be flatly insisting on it, too.
Quote:So to conclude, an i3 would also be fine, but you could save the money and go for a cheap motherboard and this pentium, whilst having a decent graphicscard is necessary.
I'll be getting a cheap mobo either way
They all have SATA600 and USB3 now, so I don't really need a high-end one at all. As for graphics, I was just going to keep my 5770. The Dolphin FAQ actually names that very card as one that will be okay for games at HD.
I kind of remain unconvinced that I'd get as much mileage for new and upcoming games from the Pentium as the i3. I'm basically hoping someone who has an i3 will tell me whether Metroid Prime is fullspeed on it with current Dolphin revisions :]
(04-19-2015, 03:35 AM)IVCrumpet Wrote: [ -> ]Hey thanks for the reply, but I still have some concerns:
(04-19-2015, 03:09 AM)biervat Wrote: [ -> ]I am currently using the overclockable anniversary Pentium G3258 dualcore, and it's fine at 3,2Ghz
"Fine" as in fullspeed? Probably not, or you wouldn't have bothered OC'd it to 4.0, right?
Quote:at 4.0 GHz dolphin plays most games well, 3x resolution and at fullspeed.
I fully expect an OC'd G3258 to beat an i3 at Dolphin- my question is whether the i3-4160@3.6GHz would be good enough for fullspeed Metroid Prime.
Quote:Also GTA V apparently runs well, according to youtube. skyrim also hasn't got any issues.
Skyrim would run well on anything now, it's a 2011 game. As for GTAV- the player on YouTube has it at 4.4, he has all the fun sliders like population density tuned down, and he has a stuttery 30-ish FPS with a 750ti. Playable sure, but it doesn't bode well for the future.
DA:I, Rise, and Far Cry 4 are examples of games that either refuse to start with <4 logical cores, or run VERY poorly. Check the video in the Eurogamer article for an example of Rise's performance. The Witcher 3 looks to be flatly insisting on it, too.
Quote:So to conclude, an i3 would also be fine, but you could save the money and go for a cheap motherboard and this pentium, whilst having a decent graphicscard is necessary.
I'll be getting a cheap mobo either way They all have SATA600 and USB3 now, so I don't really need a high-end one at all. As for graphics, I was just going to keep my 5770. The Dolphin FAQ actually names that very card as one that will be okay for games at HD.
I kind of remain unconvinced that I'd get as much mileage for new and upcoming games from the Pentium as the i3. I'm basically hoping someone who has an i3 will tell me whether Metroid Prime is fullspeed on it with current Dolphin revisions :]
Well, where to begin, mine runs well at 4.0 GHz,it will do 4.2 and 4.3, but needs a bit of volting. 4.4 is doable, but not necessary. currently it's running on stock 3.2, which may not be sufficient for many games.
metroid mostly runs at full speed, but has some weird issues, i never play the game so might be something in the configuration, i doubt it would be a lack of processing power.
and to answer your question, i doubt the i3 would be fast enough to do atleast 3x native resolution and play metroid at full speed, in Full HD (3x native minimum)
its true that modern games need more cores, i dont have a need for modern, an i3 would be evenly insufficient powerwise, eventhough hyperthreading offcourse gives the i3 the advantage in modern games.
a z97 motherboard isnt necessary to overclock if you would go anniversary pentium.
anyway, my pentium will kick any i3's ass, especially if you consider it's pricepoint, the next best thing may be atleast 100$ more expensive, if not 200$.
i had to make the same decission, it was either modern gaming with an i5/i3 or pretty zelda, i went with zelda.
Hyperthreading is nice, but i'm not sure what you expect from it. I think the G3258 will beat the i3-4160 even in multi threaded situations, if it's clocked above 4 Ghz. The general rule for hyperthreading seems to be that you can get up to a 1/3 boost in multi threaded applications. So if you would overclock the G3258 to 4.8 Ghz, it would be faster in every situation, even the worst case for a non hyperthreading cpu, and it would be overwhelmingly faster than the i3 in single/dual thread situations.
The only chance i see for the i3 to shine would be its support for some extensions like AVX. I'm not sure what applications support these.
If you want to play GTA V with cpu intensive options(more people and higher viewing distance) without lag, i suggest getting an unlocked i5/i7. I don't see a way around that if you want to play the latest PC games flawlessly. Well, an unlocked haswell or broadwell i5/i7 should fit on the same mainboard as the G3258, so you could upgrade later. The unlocked broadwell i5 is supposed to launch in october btw, but don't expect prices to drop for haswells.
(04-19-2015, 03:35 AM)IVCrumpet Wrote: [ -> ]Hey thanks for the reply, but I still have some concerns:
(04-19-2015, 03:09 AM)biervat Wrote: [ -> ]I am currently using the overclockable anniversary Pentium G3258 dualcore, and it's fine at 3,2Ghz
"Fine" as in fullspeed? Probably not, or you wouldn't have bothered OC'd it to 4.0, right?
Quote:at 4.0 GHz dolphin plays most games well, 3x resolution and at fullspeed.
I fully expect an OC'd G3258 to beat an i3 at Dolphin- my question is whether the i3-4160@3.6GHz would be good enough for fullspeed Metroid Prime.
Quote:Also GTA V apparently runs well, according to youtube. skyrim also hasn't got any issues.
Skyrim would run well on anything now, it's a 2011 game. As for GTAV- the player on YouTube has it at 4.4, he has all the fun sliders like population density tuned down, and he has a stuttery 30-ish FPS with a 750ti. Playable sure, but it doesn't bode well for the future.
DA:I, Rise, and Far Cry 4 are examples of games that either refuse to start with <4 logical cores, or run VERY poorly. Check the video in the Eurogamer article for an example of Rise's performance. The Witcher 3 looks to be flatly insisting on it, too.
Quote:So to conclude, an i3 would also be fine, but you could save the money and go for a cheap motherboard and this pentium, whilst having a decent graphicscard is necessary.
I'll be getting a cheap mobo either way They all have SATA600 and USB3 now, so I don't really need a high-end one at all. As for graphics, I was just going to keep my 5770. The Dolphin FAQ actually names that very card as one that will be okay for games at HD.
I kind of remain unconvinced that I'd get as much mileage for new and upcoming games from the Pentium as the i3. I'm basically hoping someone who has an i3 will tell me whether Metroid Prime is fullspeed on it with current Dolphin revisions :]
If you're not planning to play modern games at full hd resolution, keep that 5770. I used to have a 6770(physically the same as the 5770) and it handles dolphin very well at 3+ IR.
Off topic: Unfortunately, my 6770 died due to a bad bios flash, fortunately though I was able to snag a 5870 for 50 bucks.
(04-19-2015, 04:30 AM)biervat Wrote: [ -> ]i had to make the same decission, it was either modern gaming with an i5/i3 or pretty zelda, i went with zelda.
Yeah well- I want good Dolphin performance but not at the expense of upcoming games.
(04-19-2015, 04:36 AM)mimimi Wrote: [ -> ]I think the G3258 will beat the i3-4160 even in multi threaded situations, if it's clocked above 4 Ghz.
The benchmarks disagree with you TBH, take a look at the Battlefield 4 figures:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/overc...g3258-ae/4
Quote:The general rule for hyperthreading seems to be that you can get up to a 1/3 boost in multi threaded applications. So if you would overclock the G3258 to 4.8 Ghz, it would be faster in every situation, even the worst case for a non hyperthreading cpu, and it would be overwhelmingly faster than the i3 in single/dual thread situations.
Like you say, though, it still lacks AVX and others. And that's *if* I can get it to 4.8. I'd probably need an aftermarket cooler to get to that point, and I might just lose the silicon lottery.
Quote:If you want to play GTA V with cpu intensive options(more people and higher viewing distance) without lag, i suggest getting an unlocked i5/i7.
Sure, but if I could afford an i5 I wouldn't have made this thread
(04-19-2015, 04:37 AM)tiktakt0w Wrote: [ -> ]If you're not planning to play modern games at full hd resolution, keep that 5770. I used to have a 6770(physically the same as the 5770) and it handles dolphin very well at 3+ IR.
Off topic: Unfortunately, my 6770 died due to a bad bios flash, fortunately though I was able to snag a 5870 for 50 bucks.
Yeah, it's held up pretty well. It won't last too long into the PS4 gen really, but I can't upgrade both right now and it's CPU that's holding me back.
(04-19-2015, 05:06 AM)kirbypuff Wrote: [ -> ]Is the Athlon II *that* bad?
Just overclock that "failure of a CPU" to 4.0+ GHz, use this Dolphin build:
http://dl.dolphin-emu.org/builds/dolphin...964-x64.7z
and it will "fly".
Ehh, I will try that build but I'm not too keen to OC this. It's already pretty hot and power hungry, and I don't have any replacement CPUs if it suffers some sort of catastrophic thermal failure. Thanks though
(04-19-2015, 05:10 AM)NKF98 Wrote: [ -> ]What's your budget?
Basically the i3 would be the most I could go for.
(Double post because I can't insert quotes from the preview screen)