Looking for the best budget CPU

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

My budget is $160 (Canadian) but if I have to I might be able to get that up to $200. I'd very much prefer to stay below $170. The only part I have is a GTX 960 4gb, other than that I'm flexible. So what CPU should I get?

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Hmm, how much is an i5? I might have to go with Intel..

i5-6400
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12201111158

i5-6500
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12201110592

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

Publicado originalmente por Rumpelcrutchskin:

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Hmm, how much is an i5? I might have to go with Intel..

i5-6400
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12201111158

i5-6500
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=12201110592

Yeah that's out of my budget

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

Intel motherboards cost so much more :/

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Yeah that's out of my budget

Then i3-6100 is best you can do and you can always upgrade it to i5 or i7 later but with AMD there is nowehere to upgrade.

http://www.vuugo.com/computer-hardware/computer-parts/cpu/intel-CPU-BX80662I36100.html?tracking=5108053939762

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

Publicado originalmente por Rumpelcrutchskin:

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Yeah that's out of my budget

Then i3-6100 is best you can do and you can always upgrade it to i5 or i7 later but with AMD there is nowehere to upgrade.

http://www.vuugo.com/computer-hardware/computer-parts/cpu/intel-CPU-BX80662I36100.html?tracking=5108053939762

Now to just find a motherboard..

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Intel motherboards cost so much more :/

You dont need some fancy motherboard for locked core Intel, B150 will do fine:

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11831121265

[∫öĿ Vξċŧøг]

Go H170 not H110/B150. Worth the extra $10 for the wider data bus alone. Z170 though is definately a waste of money. Also i3 6300 is 100mhz faster and has 25% more cache than the 6100 for very little more. I'd recomend that upgrade as well.

As for vs AMD... http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-6300-vs-AMD-FX-9590/3536vs1812

[_I_]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

Intel motherboards cost so much more :/

no
cheap amd boards are cheap for a reason, 7xx chipsets can run fx, but not at the correct specs
you need a 970-990 chipset board to get the most out of fx cpus and they still fall in skylake i3 range

ddr3 and ddr4 cost about the same

there is no reason to buy a new amd cpu anymore

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Yeah there is actually good price on H170 motherboard currently in here:

http://www.vuugo.com/computer-hardware/computer-parts/motherboard/gigabyte-motherboards-GA-H170-D3H.html?tracking=5108053939762

[Squirrell]

32-bit skyrim only uses 2 main threads, not cores. The first at 80%, the second at 14%. So the faster the single-thread speed of the cpu the better. An i3-6100 is a good budget cpu for this.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

Regarding heavily modded Skyrim, the mods that can require good hardware are the scripted and landscape mods like hi-res textures, grass, trees, weather, ENB, enhanced towns and so on. But even at 30fps the game is very playable.

For the 64-bit games like Skyrim-64 and Fallout 4, you should still be able to get 60fps with vanilla on an i3-6100..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_zZyrvCig0

Skylake is a better choice than other options because if/when you get funds, the cpu can be swapped out for a better one. If you don't want a 6100, the next best for these games is an i5-6600.

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

If I can somehow manage to get the i5 6500, will it really be worth it?

[CursedPanther]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

If I can somehow manage to get the i5 6500, will it really be worth it?

Yes.

Personally I'm with you and believe that dual-core CPU is a thing of the past, but then people's budget always come as a serious limitation.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Publicado originalmente por Egyptian Sex Lord:

If I can somehow manage to get the i5 6500, will it really be worth it?

Yes, this can hold you up for years and there is really no game that would not run with it.

[Hare+Guu!]

Get a used ivy bridge i5. Around $90-110 us + whatever lga1155 that has a 7 in the middle of it's name (h75, z77, etc) motherboard, around $40 us (new). You probably need $200 canadian money though.

Sandy bridge would be even cheaper, but then you won't have pcie3 for super fast ssds or usb3.

[Trustworthy Tubesock]

I'll see if it's possible to get the i5 6500 but I'll need to find a cheaper mobo