Core i3-2105 vs. Phenom II 970 X4 – the Importance of Hyper-Threading in Gaming
Conclusion
It is clear to us that the Phenom II solution is nearing the end of it’s useful life as their quad-core flagship 980 BE overclocked to 4.3GHz was barely able to hold its own in high-resolution gaming against the three-year old Core i7-920 at 3.8GHz as in our last article. Here we see AMD price-positioning their second-fastest Quad-core processor against Intel’s lowest enthusiast dual-core CPU line with good reason. The newer Intel i3 architecture can overcome its clockspeed disadvantages and use HT to compensate for having only two physical cores.
It now remains to be seen if AMD will be again competitive in the midrange as their new bulldozer FX architecture is forward-looking and something for them to build upon. They really need to get their clockspeed much higher and their roadmap indicates that they need 10 to 15% more each year just to remain competitive with Intel. For now, Phenom II will compete at the lower end of the enthusiast market and it can offer a real bargain for gamers who already have AM3 or AM3+ motherboards. And there is an upgrade path for AM3+ motherboards for Bulldozer with the next generation Piledriver processors.
Intel’s CPUs are powerful and even their entry-level Core i3-2105 offers a good value in gaming – at the low end with HD 3000 Graphics which is OK for light gaming – or paired with a powerful video card like GTX 580, it offers no practical disadvantage in gaming generally against the faster-clocked Phenom II quads. Best of all, there is a great upgrade path with Socket 1155 if you have the Z68 motherboard as Intel’s next generation Ivy Bridge will be a drop-in upgrade with a BIOS update. Or you can opt for one of the very overclockable 2500K, 2600K or 2700K when you decide to move to multi-GPU and extremely powerful graphics.
Core i3-2105 Pros and Cons
Pros
- Core i3-2105 offers a great experience for gaming when paired with a capable video card
- Intel’s HD 3000 IG is sufficient for light 720p gaming and very useful for a second display, or to troubleshoot PCIe graphics.
- HyperThreading is quite mature and very useful in applications and also for some PC games.
- Power consumption is fantastic at only 65W compared to nearly double that of its competition.
- Not much in the way of cooling fans are required to cool it and a Core i3-2105 would be the foundation of a great platform for a HTPC (home theater PC).
Cons
- No Overclockability
We believe that Intel’s Core i3-2105 by virtue of its included HD 3000 Graphics and a very powerful dual-core processor complimented by Hyper-Threading, great features and an excellent upgrade path, deserves our ABT “Good Value” Award. Recommended.
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Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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The scope of this article is excellent. Thank you for uncovering so much ground here!
I see that PhII is a far better value, especially for overclockers. It pretty much trumps the Core i3 in most multi-threaded applications, while dominating in 4 games and being equal in the rest.
A note about HD 3000 and gaming.. low settings are FUGLY, aren’t they? Really, really, really ugly, right? 😛
Thank-you!
Actually, some games look fairly good on low settings. Some games scale the visuals much better than others. Some DX10 games on minimum look way better than many DX7 and some DX8 games on maximum settings, for example.
Very nice article. I recently bought a 2105 for an htpc and my gaming computer has a PhII. The 2105 is a much better choice for htpc because at this price point, I’m saving $40 with built-in graphics. The chip also runs much cooler and the whole system is therefore far quieter, costs less in electricity, etc.
For gaming, PhII at this price is the way to go because I need a dedicated card anyway, and overclocking. Of course, a 2500k for $100 more is also a good option.
My only criticism of the article would be a breakdown of the 3dmark11 scores. Theres so much info in there, and scrolling between images is cumbersome. I particularly like that test’s “productivity” breakdown (windows startup, etc).
Thank-you. You conclusion agrees with mine almost exactly.
The easiest way to compare the PCMark Vantage details between the Phenom II and the Core i3, is to open each chart in a separate window in your web browser and place them side by side. They will then line up and are very easy to compare.
However, for next time, I will try to make a chart for the important comparisons like was done for Sandra 2012.
Just curious which one had the lowest low min fps?
Minimums varied by game.
In essence it looks like more and more games are supporting >2 cores. Finally. And the PhII architecture is basically adequate today but Intel’s superior IPC is rapidly pulling ahead (when a 2/4 core can match a true 4 core chip in games that utilize 4 cores…well, it’s not looking good for AMD).
Looking forward to seeing a comparison of 2600K HT/HT off to see if this scales beyond 4 cores.
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