i3 or i5?

[cheepskate24]

So I'm in the midst of planning a gaming rig. For moneys sake, would an i3-7100 3.90 GHz suffice for TS, or would it be safer to go with an i5-7500 3.4 GHz?

[OldAlaskaGuy]

I7 !!!!!!!!
https://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/386100/what_difference_between_an_intel_core_i3_i5_i7_/
Price difference between I5 and I7 about $100. US. Same MB Socket LGA 1151. If you can afford it. I purchased my I7 6700K for $299. listed for $399. check sales.

[Axe]

I believe it would be best going for the best you can afford. The CPU is king when balancing your gaming PC for TS running.

[cheepskate24]

Thanks for the advice (and the article) guys. Really leaning towards the i5 atm, but it's close to tipping the scale on whether or not I add an SSD.

[Axe]

Originally posted by cheepskate24:

Thanks for the advice (and the article) guys. Really leaning towards the i5 atm, but it's close to tipping the scale on whether or not I add an SSD.

I totally understand the choices you have to make as I have done the same lately for my new PC.

There are better people than myself to advise you but can I suggest you tell us your budget here so the experts can advise you how to squeeze the best out of your available finances :-)

[cheepskate24]

Honestly, I'm really hoping CB pops in. Always love seeing his techie words of wisdom :D

[Axe]

Originally posted by cheepskate24:

Honestly, I'm really hoping CB pops in. Always love seeing his techie words of wisdom :D

I'm sure I would listen too if he does...

[Numenorean]

I3 is useless; due to the poor performances and fewer core. I5 is the best choice between price and performances. I7 is a waste if all that you do is to play, since the better performances are only marginal, compared to the extra price.

[Felix.AVMP]

Regarding singlethreaded games like TS2017, the i3 or even Pentium G is actually the BEST choice, bar none, since it is highly clocked and it is cheap (and those savings can be used on bigger/faster RAM, graphics or SSD).

However, since it can be safely assumed, that the OP wants to play other games (TSW springs to mind, but not only), i5 is a reasonable compromise.

There is, however, another reasonable compromise available these days - AMD Ryzen 5, which gives also great general productivity performance.

[cheepskate24]

Welp, went with the i5.
You're right @Felix.AVMP, I do plan on getting TSW so i5 was best choice.

[Chicken Balti]

Hello cheepskate24, I personally would have gone for the i5-7600K if you can afford the little extra, although as Felix states, the AMD Ryzen 5 is gaining very good pro reviews, now the optimisation process has started in earnest. Tough call now as both very good in their own ways for all tasks, as seen in the link below.
Best.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-cpus,review-33354.html

[cheepskate24]

Originally posted by Chicken Balti:

Hello cheepskate24, I personally would have gone for the i5-7600K if you can afford the little extra, although as Felix states, the AMD Ryzen 5 is gaining very good pro reviews, now the optimisation process has started in earnest. Tough call now as both very good in their own ways for all tasks, as seen in the link below.
Best.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-cpus,review-33354.html

CB, always a pleasure to see your advice.
I would have loved to go the extra bit, unfortunately it would have gone over budget, plus the 7500 was on sale.
I probably would have considered the AMD build-path, if I had been able to find a compatible motherboard within budget.
Many thanks for your input :)

[Numenorean]

Originally posted by Felix.AVMP:

Regarding singlethreaded games like TS2017, the i3 or even Pentium G is actually the BEST choice, bar none, since it is highly clocked and it is cheap (and those savings can be used on bigger/faster RAM, graphics or SSD).

However, since it can be safely assumed, that the OP wants to play other games (TSW springs to mind, but not only), i5 is a reasonable compromise.

There is, however, another reasonable compromise available these days - AMD Ryzen 5, which gives also great general productivity performance.

I am not sure what kind of reasoning you have, to support the statement that i3 and Pentium are better.

TS is an old game based on a very old engine; which was written without the optimiziation available today for modern computers, with multi core. This means that you get marginal increase in performances, with better and more modern CPU.

On top of that, since the multi core technology is not used in full, you en being tied to CPU frequency on each single core, so how could an i3 at 1.6 GHZ go faster, than an i5 or i7 at 4 GHZ? This is without even mention the differences in bus speed, memory and frequency of the memory and the bus which control the GPU on PCI-E.

Even if you can overclock an i3, if they run at the same speed, the i3 will ALWAYS be slower than an i5 or i7, because their number of transistor in the die, are different.

[Phase3]

There's a lot of talk about cpu's here, but what you need for any game is a BALANCED SYSTEM. Put a fast processor on a cheap mobo and watch the performance fall away. Like wise put in slow RAM and a low end video card and a cheap monitor,OS, PSU, slow HDD, poor case and cooling, and it all starts to go downhill. Usually the only significant difference between i5's and i7's is hyperthreading and that is not needed for TS2017 but possibly for FSW, TSW, etc. TS2017 is an intel biased game with nvidia graphics (watch the opening screen), it is multicore capable (since 2012) so it runs well on fast multicore rigs. The code has been regularly updated and it runs as well as any other 32-bit game considering what it has to render. As I say a balanced system is needed for any simulation. Performancewise there is little difference in real terms, between Haswell, Kabylake and Skylake rigs. Of course its better to buy a later rig as the mobo's have much more features, M2 support, Optane , USB 3.0C and so on.

[Axe]

(Attn. Phase3... car analogies are great here. OK ;-))

[Bill Paradise]

Originally posted by Chicken Balti:

Hello cheepskate24, I personally would have gone for the i5-7600K if you can afford the little extra, although as Felix states, the AMD Ryzen 5 is gaining very good pro reviews, now the optimisation process has started in earnest. Tough call now as both very good in their own ways for all tasks, as seen in the link below.
Best.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/best-cpus,review-33354.html

Recently upgraded my rig with a i5-7600K. I had no problem overclocking at 5.0ghz.
It is a great choice.