what is the best Value for money CPU upgrade right now?

[beyond2000]

Trying to upgrade a pc!
what is the best value for money Cpu on the market right now?

[kalniel]

AMD A4 3300 or Intel Pentium G620

[beyond2000]

Thanks i will look in to this!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I suppose it depends on what you are using the system for.

I would say the Intel Celeron G530,AMD Llano A4 3400(IGP clocked 20% higher than A4 3300) and AMD Athlon II X3 460 if you don't want to spend more than around £60. The A6 3500 can be had for around £60 sometimes too. The A4 and A6 have reasonable IGPs so if you want to play something like WoW it would be a good choice.

[beyond2000]

thanks for the reply CAT-THE-FIFTH!
might opp for the intel one! i heard somewhere that it is more reliable than the AMD.
so be on the safe side

[Zak33]

thanks for the reply CAT-THE-FIFTH!
might opp for the intel one! i heard somewhere that it is more reliable than the AMD.
so be on the safe side

ignore that advice

the quality of the motherboard makes that difference. Intel motherboards for Intel was the way forward few years ago, and I still stick with that, but AMD for AMD is safe as houses.

I have both Intel and AMD here and both rock. AMD is slightly better value.

But, what you MUST look at, isn't the cost of the CPU, but the cost of the CPU and Motherboard combo. Buying a good motherboard is critical.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

As Zak33 said the motherboard price is also very important and the quality is important too. Remember it is OEMs who make the motherboards with either Intel or AMD chipsets,hence the company and the specific range is important to consider.

Regarding my CPU suggestions:
1.)G530 for basic PC
2.)A4-3400 if you intend to run some older games or WoW at lower settings. The IGP is as fast as the IGP in the £100+ Core i3 2105.
3.)Athlon II X3 460 if you intend to build a gaming rig(the G840 might be an alternative for some games) and also want overclock. I know a few people who have unlocked them to quad cores.
4.)A6-3600 if you want to run older games at higher settings

Regarding the price of the motherboards, I tend to find AMD based ones a cheaper for ATX based builds. For mATX builds,the FM1 ones are very good for the price,and the AM3+ can be similar in price to the Intel ones. If you intend to get a mini-ITX motherboard,the Intel ones tend to start at a much lower price than the AMD ones.

[DanceswithUnix]

Why do people include WoW with older games?

The game is patched constantly, including graphics updates. I updated my wife's PC recently as her 4670 just wasn't cutting it any more, and I believe the top of the range Llano is slower than 4670?

Edit to add: Just to add something actually on topic I just went for an Athlon X3 for an update to my father's PC. 3 cores at 3.3GHz, £62 from Scan. I was also looking at the Athlon X2 250 for £50 at Ebuyer, but went with Scan in the end.
These old Athlons are going out of stock and up in price as AMD aren't making them any more, so I made sure I paired it with an AM3+ socket motherboard so it can take one of the new FX processors in the future if needed.

To be honest I would probably have gone for an A4-3400 if I could find a motherboard that met the requirements, but I couldn't. As others have said, you can't choose a CPU in isolation.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I said older games or WoW!

The A4-3400 IGP has DX11 so it actually not only improves image quality in the game but makes it runs faster!!

[DanceswithUnix]

I said older games or WoW!

The A4-3400 IGP has DX11 so it actually not only improves image quality in the game but makes it runs faster!!

ISTR in WoW if you turn on DX11 you get more shader effects, so it will go slower

Llano will be fine for WoW if you turn off most of the visual effects. Even then, I wouldn't play on a PvP server. If the other faction can see you before you can see them it will get a tad one sided

[Doritos]

i would say i5?

talking about WoW - i had an 8600GT and was running wow on medium setting and was getting 30fps.
then i bought a GTX 550 Ti and can run the game on Ultra and now getting over 100fps. 80-90 in cities.
I only have the trial game tho..

[Bagnaj97]

i would say i5?

talking about WoW - i had an 8600GT and was running wow on medium setting and was getting 30fps.
then i bought a GTX 550 Ti and can run the game on Ultra and now getting over 100fps. 80-90 in cities.
I only have the trial game tho..

25 man Ultraxion fight - ~14fps in DX11, ~6fps in DX9, everything on Ultra except shadows on low, 8x AF/4x AA, 1920x1080. My pc has a Radeon 5850@stock with Athlon II X3 @4GHz. WoW can still drag a reasonable system to its knees!

[xiaogray]

you should tell us your budget and the old configuration dude.

[xiaogray]

AMD A4 3300 or Intel Pentium G620

why? How do you know his configuration is not built on i3 platform and he is looking for an upgrade to 6-core-system?

[kalniel]

why? How do you know his configuration is not built on i3 platform and he is looking for an upgrade to 6-core-system?

I answered his question. If he wants to add criteria that change the nature of the question then I'd happily answer the new question

Welcome to Hexus btw.

[siliveshere]

Try looking at the info available on the CPU Benchmark site, which directly compares price against benchmark performance. Granted it's in dollars, but I think it gives a fair indication:

cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html

I always look at it before I build a new system, v helpful site.