i5 4590 vs i3 6100

[dakotaw 0]

I'm finally looking to upgrade my rig after having (just recently) become hooked on FSX. After flirting with P3D (meh) for about a month, I took the opportunity of having a clean install of FSXSE to run FSXMark11. My average of 16fps was the final straw, I'm going to intel. Right now I'm running an A6 6400K at 4.5ghz. For reference, here are most of the addons I use,

• Quality Wings 757
• Active Sky Next
• Megascenery earth (a few regions I frequent, not sure if I'm going to keep using it)
• Traffic 360

 

I will definitely be adding on payware airports to my collection, once I have some other things added to my library. Also, I will most likely be picking up the PMDG 737 eventually. My graphics card is an R7-260X, nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. Upon looking at deals I can get near me, I've narrowed down my choices to three choices.

 

Pentium G3258 - This is obviously the budget option, but is suppose to be a great overclocker. Although I'm a bit hesitant to be purchasing another dual core (without hyperthreading). But, I'm not sure if it would out preform an i3 if it was overclocked.

 

i3-6100 - I was favoring this for quite a few days. New architecture, and in some of the benchmarks I've seen it can be the i5s and i7s a run for their money in single threaded applications. How much of a performance hit would I be taking from going with this versus a real quad core?

 

i5-4590 - it's obviously clocked quite a bit slower than the i3, but from the benchmarks I've seen it's single threaded performance is within 5% of the i3, while in multi-threaded tests it outperforms by upwards of 35%. Before I get people advising me to go with the newer generation of i5, a local chain known for their great deals has this for about 160$. It's still a good 50$ more than the i3 6100. My concern is investing into the LGA 1150 socket. The room for upgrade down the road would be limited.

 

I appreciate the help.

[martin-w 3,235]

I see you are looking at super low budget. The Skylake i3 isn't a K version, so no overclocking possible, unless you have a bash at BCLK overclocking. Or maybe such a thing isn't something you'd consider?

 

I'm not impressed with any of your choices to be honest, and you haven't mentioned any of the other specs of your intended machine.

 

Best if we know your max budget so we can advise. Plus all of the components you are intending.

[dakotaw 0]

I see you are looking at super low budget. The Skylake i3 isn't a K version, so no overclocking possible, unless you have a bash at BCLK overclocking. Or maybe such a thing isn't something you'd consider?

 

I'm not impressed with any of your choices to be honest, and you haven't mentioned any of the other specs of your intended machine.

 

Best if we know your max budget so we can advise. Plus all of the components you are intending

I'm sorry, I didn't even consider the rest of the machine, right now I was just intending to do a CPU upgrade. Yes, I am on a fairly tight budget, being a broke college student working (part time) minimum wage, I don't exactly have a few grand to go spend . Here is what I have thus far, that I plan to use in the mean time:

 

• Case - an old HP case, it's served me well and has plenty of room...
• PSU - Cooler Master Extreme power plus 500w. Before I take heat for only having a 500w, it worked just fine running an radeon 6870 with a fx 6300... neither of which I would call efficient.
• GPU - R7 265X. Yes it's on the weak side, and I plan to upgrade this after the CPU, but for now I am 99% sure upgrading the CPU first would get me much better performance.
• Hard drives - I have several hard drives (ranging from 5,200 - 7,200rpm) I'm using right now, I tend to put P3D and FSX on their own hard drive away from the C Drive. I'm not sure if it does anything, but it keeps me organized at least.
• Motherboard - this obviously varies depending on the CPU I get...
• Monitor - I run two monitors, one at 1080P I use for the sim, and a smaller 1368 x 764 monitor I use for flight tracking, ASN, etc.

Here's the thing, right now I have about as weak of a CPU that is possible, so anything will be an improvement. I'm not expecting to max anything out (I at least want to be able to use 20 - 30% commercial traffic, right now I cant use any). If it would absolutely make things better I could wait a few weeks and try to pick up an unlocked version of the i5, but there is now way I will be able to spend 300+ on an i3. What sort of performance would I be looking at with the 4590?

 

My absolute max budget would be 300$ for the CPU + Mobo, which is why I didn't go for the unlocked i5's. Getting one, and than investing in a good quality board that would let me get a decent overclock would most likely put me over that budget. But maybe y'all know something I don't

 

-edit-

 

You talked about overclocking the i3 6100, that is something I would definitely do, but it was my understanding that intel was closing the loophole that was allowing people to do this, and I have read that many motherboard companies have actually updated their bios to stop the practice. That is why I did not consider it.

 

Thanks,

 

Dakota Wise

[martin-w 3,235]

My absolute max budget would be 300$ for the CPU + Mobo

 

 

That is very low.

 

I see your dilemma.

 

That's about £209. Yikes.

 

I think I'b be inclined to go for the i3 6100 with an Asus Z170-A. [i have this board with a 6700K]

 

You'be be nicely set up for the future then, and when funds permit, awesome CPU's like the 6700K would be compatible with the board. You also get, USB 3.1. M.2, U.2, NFC etc. Loads of nice features.

 

 

However... I think you've forgotten RAM! You would need DDR4, so above your budget. You'd need to add at least another $80 I reckon. Might be time to save up a little more., 

 

 

 

You talked about overclocking the i3 6100, that is something I would definitely do, but it was my understanding that intel was closing the loophole that was allowing people to do this, and I have read that many motherboard companies have actually updated their bios to stop the practice. That is why I did not consider it.

 

 

 

Oh right. Last I heard was that it was still a valid proposition.

 

Do you have a link to that?

[dakotaw 0]

That is very low. I see your dilemma. That's about £209. Yikes. I think I'b be inclined to go for the i3 6100 with an Asus Z170-A. [i have this board with a 6700K] You'be be nicely set up for the future then, and when funds permit, awesome CPU's like the 6700K would be compatible with the board. You also get, USB 3.1. M.2, U.2, NFC etc. Loads of nice features.  However... I think you've forgotten RAM! You would need DDR4, so above your budget. You'd need to add at least another $80 I reckon. Might be time to save up a little more.,      Oh right. Last I heard was that it was still a valid proposition. Do you have a link to that?

Here you go:

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/asrock-killed-overclocking-intel-skylake-nonk/

 

I went and got the 6100 yesterday, and once my classes for the day are done, (dang calculus exams) I'm going to run FSMark11 and see what I can get. I didn't see any i3's in the results.

 

-Edit-

 

I did not even realize the the skylake platform required the use of DDR4 memory. I just bit the bullet and ordered some (16gb), thanks to Amazon same day shipping i'll still get to try everything out tonight! Thanks for the help Martin :smile:

Edited February 19, 2016 by dakotaw

[martin-w 3,235]

I did not even realize the the skylake platform required the use of DDR4 memory. I just bit the bullet and ordered some (16gb), thanks to Amazon same day shipping i'll still get to try everything out tonight! Thanks for the help Martin  :smile:

 

 

 

Good luck, hope it all goes well for you.

 

Let me know how you get on.  :smile: