{"id":27571,"date":"2011-11-12T04:06:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-12T04:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=27571"},"modified":"2011-11-12T18:14:54","modified_gmt":"2011-11-12T18:14:54","slug":"core-i3-2105-vs-phenom-970-x4-the-importance-of-hyperthreading-in-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/core-i3-2105-vs-phenom-970-x4-the-importance-of-hyperthreading-in-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Core i3-2105 vs. Phenom II 970 X4 &#8211; the Importance of Hyper-Threading in Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n                           google_ad_client = \"pub-7021221536180758\"; \/* 468x60, created 11\/11\/09 *\/ google_ad_slot = \"1949837292\"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Today we are going to examine Intel&#8217;s Core i3 dual-core architecture and we will focus on the importance of Hyper-Threading (HT) in PC gaming.\u00a0 We will compare the Core i3-2105&#8217;s performance against a similarly-priced AMD Phenom II Quad-Core CPU by using a GTX 580 for both platforms.\u00a0 We will also look at the performance of Core i3-2105&#8217;s integrated HD 3000 Graphics &#8211; Intel&#8217;s premium Integrated Graphics (IG) &#8211; to see if it is sufficient for light DX10 gaming at 720P.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_t.jpg\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_t.jpg?resize=240%2C240', '']);\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_t.jpg?resize=240%2C240\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/amd%e2%80%99s-fx-8150-and-crossfire-scaling-%e2%80%93-bulldozer-part-2-the-conclusion\">last CPU evaluation<\/a> introduced AMD&#8217;s new FX &#8216;Bulldozer&#8217; architecture as we focused on performance in 20 modern games.\u00a0 We compared AMD&#8217;s new 8-core flagship, the FX-8150, versus Intel&#8217;s overclocked Core i7-920 and the overclocked Phenom II 980 BE X4.\u00a0 We concluded that the FX-8150 required a lot of power and overclocking to beat the Phenom II and to approach the Core i7&#8217;s performance in gaming.\u00a0 This time, we are taking a look at Intel&#8217;s enthusiast entry-level enthusiast CPU, the dual-core, Core i3-2105, and comparing it in gaming against the similarly-priced quad-core, Phenom II 970 X4.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/images17.newegg.com\/is\/image\/newegg\/19-115-090-TS?$S300W$\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We notice that AMD&#8217;s new A-series APU is positioned against Intel&#8217;s enthusiast CPU line-up and A8-3850 is set directly against the Core i3-2105. However, the Phenom II is also current and we need to look at pricing to see that the 3.1GHz Core i3-2105 is 134.99 at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115090&amp;Tpk=intel%20i3%202105\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115090&amp;Tpk=intel%20i3%202105', 'Newegg']);\" >Newegg<\/a>, while the 3.5GHz Phenom II 970 X4 &#8211; 3.5GHz &#8211; is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727', '$139.99 at Newegg.']);\" >$139.99 at Newegg.<\/a>\u00a0 We could have also picked the $129 3.4GHz Phenom II Phenom II 965 X4 as 100MHz makes very little performance difference.\u00a0 Please note that these Phenom II quad-core CPUs regularly overclock to about 3.8GHz to 4GHz while the Intel Core i3-2105&#8217;s core cannot be overclocked; only the base clock can be raised to perhaps around +3-5% (which overclocks everything including the PCIe and memory buses).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Core i3-2105&#8217;s built-in HD 3000 Graphics<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One important new feature of Intel&#8217;s new Core i3 CPU &#8211; like its big i5\/i7 brothers on the LGA 1155 platform &#8211; is that Intel&#8217;s latest DX10.1 HD 3000 graphics is integrated directly into the CPU.\u00a0 Since lower priced systems are the ones depending on integrated graphics, it makes sense to make this feature available to Core i3.\u00a0 AMD&#8217;s new APUs also provide Integrated Graphics (IG), but the older Phenom II processors do not.\u00a0 That means that you must buy a discreet video card or spend more for a motherboard with IG just to run your PC at all.<\/p>\n<p>The Core i3-2105 is a dual-core processor with HT enabled and with a 3MB L3 cache very much like the Core i3-2100. There is no turbo boost found on any Core i3 CPU, but you still get Quick Sync. The only differences between these two parts is that the Core i3-2105 is priced a little higher and has an Intel HD Graphics 3000 core vs HD 2000 Graphics 2000 in the i3-2100.\u00a0 This is a big deal as the Intel HD Graphics 2000 only has six execution units while the Intel HD Graphics 3000 has twelve execution units that operate at the same clock speeds.\u00a0 If you need GPU performance and play games, the Intel Core i3-2105 is a better buy as the price difference is less than most entry-level discrete video cards that you would need to supplement the non-IG Core i3-2100 or the Phenom II.<\/p>\n<p>Buying a discrete video card is never an issue for PC gamers as IG (integrated graphics) performance is never sufficient for them.\u00a0 However, we will benchmark our Core i3-2105&#8217;s integrated graphics at 720P so that you will know what to expect in light gaming.\u00a0 IG is also very useful for watching HD video and\/or to troubleshoot your discrete video<\/p>\n<p><strong>Phenom II architecture is Old<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Phenom II architecture is old and relatively unchanged for about the past 6 years, and it has recently been supplanted by AMD&#8217;s new FX architecture (Bulldozer).\u00a0 We are looking to see how Phenom II holds up against Intel&#8217;s newest Sandy Bridge Core i3 architecture in gaming and if the Phenom II&#8217;s higher clockspeed and two &#8216;extra&#8217; cores can compensate for Core i3&#8217;s architectural refinements, Hyper-Threading (HT), and better IPC (instructions per clock).\u00a0 We are also going use our 20-game benchmark suite at 1080p with a GTX 580 to see how Core i3&#8217;s dual-core 3.1GHz with Hyper-Threading (HT) compares to AMD&#8217;s quad-core Phenom II at +400MHz higher stock clock.\u00a0 Then we will disable HyperThreading to compare performance of the Core i3 with HT on versus HT off.<\/p>\n<h3>The Core i3 Architecture<\/h3>\n<p>AMD has been working on its new FX CPU architecture since long before Phenom II. Phenom II reached its performance peak in gaming with the <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/introducing-the-new-phenom-ii-980-be-vs-core-i7-920-value-meets-performance-again\">980 Black Edition (BE) which we reviewed here<\/a> a few months ago. It is AMD&#8217;s fastest 4-core processor and it sports a stock CPU speed of 3.7GHz. We underclocked our 980 BE using its unlocked multiplier down to 3.5GHz as that is the stock speed of the Phenom II 970 X4 which is priced about the same as the Core i3-2105.<\/p>\n<p>We are using the GTX 580 on both platforms to give you a comparison of our two CPUs scaling in games at the most popular 1080p resolution and at the maximum details that gamers play at.\u00a0 This video card is the most powerful single-GPU stock card available and it will minimize the effects of both &#8220;GPU bottlenecking&#8221;, and its use will lessen potential issues with demonstrating the effects of Hyper-Threading on gaming performance by our Core i3-2105.<\/p>\n<p>The Core i3-2105 has a pair of identical 3.1GHz Sandy Bridge cores, and is rated at a TDP of 65W. As with the other Core i3 CPUs, they have a 3MB pool of shared L3 cache, along with a pair of 256KB L2 cache pools (one for each core) and a pair of dedicated 64KB pools of L1 cache (again, one per core).<\/p>\n<p>Probably the main advantage offered by the Core i3-2105 is Hyper-Threading. HT generates two logical cores from their pair of physical cores, with all four cores appearing in the operating system. HT gives the processor a boost in multi-threaded tasks, although it is not as efficient than having four physical cores like the Phenom II Quads (and the A-series APUs), as we shall see.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Chipsets &#8211; Z68 versus AM3+<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Z68 chipset is the premium chipset for Core i3 which supports both CPU multiplier and IGP overclocking (for unlocked Intel CPUs), Quick Sync, and SATA 6.0Gbps as well as PCIe 3.0 when Ivy Bridge is released. It also supports Intel Virtu Technology, which uses the IG for less demanding tasks and the discrete GPU for more intensive applications, saving energy.\u00a0 With this chipset, Intel introduced their Smart Response (SSD caching) which is exclusive to it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_b.jpg\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_b.jpg?resize=236%2C232', '']);\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.intel.com\/support\/processors\/procid\/pix\/fclga1156_b.jpg?resize=236%2C232\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Chipset is LGA 1155 and this is its simplified block diagram.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/ark.intel.com\/inc\/images\/diagrams\/diagram-18.gif?resize=235%2C332\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Below is ASRock&#8217;s Z68 motherboard.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.asrock.com\/mb\/photo\/Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3.jpg\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.asrock.com\/mb\/photo\/Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3.jpg?resize=280%2C213', '']);\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.asrock.com\/mb\/photo\/Z68%20Extreme3%20Gen3.jpg?resize=280%2C213\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We are using the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271', 'ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Generation3']);\" >ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Generation3<\/a> LGA 1155 motherboard which we purchased from Newegg for $125.\u00a0 It is very full-featured and easy to use and setup.\u00a0 It is excellent bang-for-buck and highly recommended!\u00a0 Like most LGA 1155 motherboards, it supports 8x+8x PCIe for SLI and CrossFire.\u00a0 We hope to have a review of it at ABT as well as of our ASUS AM3+ CrossHair V motherboard soon.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.asus.com\/websites\/global\/products\/Ntfy5ioh5wbNOXsP\/P_500.jpg?resize=350%2C350\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For the Phenom II X4 Quad, we are using <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.newegg.com\/Product\/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131735', 'ASUS&#8217; flagship AM3+ Crosshair V']);\" >ASUS&#8217; flagship AM3+ Crosshair V<\/a> motherboard which costs over $100 more than the ASRock board.\u00a0 We got ours as a review kit from AMD\/ASUS for evaluating the FX-8150 last month.\u00a0 It is a awesome and fully-featured AM3+ board that is a joy to use &#8211; especially for its superb overclocking functions.\u00a0 It also supports 16x+16x PCIe bandwidth and PCIe 3.0 as well as SATA 3.0 specifications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Specifications<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here are the i3-2105 specifications from <a href=\"http:\/\/ark.intel.com\/products\/55448\/Intel-Core-i3-2105-Processor-%283M-Cache-3_10-GHz%29\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/ark.intel.com\/products\/55448\/Intel-Core-i3-2105-Processor-%283M-Cache-3_10-GHz%29', 'Intel&#8217;s web site']);\" >Intel&#8217;s web site<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27673\" title=\"ieSpecs-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-1.jpg?resize=360%2C346\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-1.jpg?resize=360%2C346 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-1-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27674\" title=\"ieSpecs-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-2.jpg?resize=360%2C430\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-2.jpg?resize=360%2C430 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-2-250x300.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27675\" title=\"ieSpecs-3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-3.jpg?resize=360%2C512\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-3.jpg?resize=360%2C512 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ieSpecs-3-210x300.jpg 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>AMD&#8217;s Phenom II X4 Quad core versus Intel&#8217;s Sandy Bridge dual Core i3<\/h3>\n<p>AMD is positioning their top Phenom II quad-core CPUs against Intel&#8217;s lower midrange &#8211; specifically against the Core i3.\u00a0 The Phenom II looks great on paper with 4 cores against Intel&#8217;s Hyper-Threaded two cores, but its weakness against Intel&#8217;s Core processors have always been their single- and lightly-threaded performance. And with the recent release of Intel&#8217;s Sandy Bridge i5 2500K and i5 2600K, the performance gap has widened in Intel&#8217;s favor.<\/p>\n<p>We are going to be looking to see what AMD has done to close the price-to-performance gap by pricing its top still-current generation Phenom II quads against the newer Core-i3s and we shall again attempt to determine value for PC gamers &#8211; from entry level gaming to beyond upper-midrange with the GTX 580.<\/p>\n<p>Head over to the next page and we&#8217;ll find more out about the Core i3 architecture and Hyper-Threading.<\/p>\n<p><!--pagetitle:Core i3 Introduction &#038; Architecture--><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Core i3 Dual-core vs. Phenom II Quad-core in Gaming--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Core i3 Dual-core vs. Phenom II Quad-core. <em>in gaming<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This evaluation is focused on the Core i3-2105 in gaming with and without Hyper-Threading.\u00a0 And since there is integrated HD 3000 Graphics built into the CPU, we will also bench it using it at low details and a low 720p resolution.\u00a0 As in previous similar testing, we will continue to prove a point in gaming &#8211; that the video card makes the most difference as long as it is paired with a capable CPU.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at just about every other tech site, they compare the Intel CPUs to the Phenom IIs using low to medium details and at low to medium resolutions with 3 or 4 games &#8211; something that no gamer can relate to. Instead, let&#8217;s give you <em>practical<\/em> gaming results at the 1080p resolution that most gamers play at and with the highest details and highest levels of Anti-aliasing the game allows.\u00a0\u00a0 And let&#8217;s use twenty (20) modern games to give you a good feel for what to expect from our two test CPU platforms.<\/p>\n<h3>Overclocking<\/h3>\n<p>Phenom II X4 CPUs are multiplier unlocked and can easily be overclocked to close to 4GHz.\u00a0 On the other hand, the Core i3-2105 is locked and cannot be overclocked in the traditional manner.\u00a0 Only the base clock may be overclocked which overclocks the entire system.\u00a0 Overclocks of 3-5+% with stability are reported and there can be a small performance boost.<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here is CPU-Z information of our stock Core i3-2105<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27676\" title=\"CpuZ-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C385\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C385 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-i3-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Next check out the cache information.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-CACHE.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27677\" title=\"CpuZ-CACHE\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-CACHE.jpg?resize=400%2C390\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-CACHE.jpg?resize=400%2C390 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CpuZ-CACHE-300x292.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s look at the HD 3000 Graphics and as you can see CPU-z is misidentifying the graphics as 2000; it is HD 3000 and you will see its performance in light gaming.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-hd30002.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27680\" title=\"cpuz-hd3000\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-hd30002.jpg?resize=480%2C271\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-hd30002.jpg?resize=480%2C271 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-hd30002-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s check out the Phenom II CPU-Z ID information.\u00a0 Notice that power draw &#8211; Maximum TDP &#8211; is almost double that of the Core i3-2105!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-ph2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27681\" title=\"cpuz-ph2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-ph2.jpg?resize=400%2C384\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-ph2.jpg?resize=400%2C384 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cpuz-ph2-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>As you can see, we picked the 17.5 multiplier &#8211; the same 3.5GHz clock and multiplier as the Phenom II 970 X4.\u00a0 Effectively we are testing with a Phenom II 970 X4 BE.<\/p>\n<h3>Power Draw<\/h3>\n<p>We kept an eye on power and the Core i3-2105 kept within its specified TDP of 65W.\u00a0 It is a very cool-running CPU and any cooler should be able to keep it cool.\u00a0 We received an engineering sample of our Core i3-2105 from Intel and we had to search for our Cooler Master Hyper N-212 CPU cooler which we reviewed <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/high-performance-gaming-on-a-budget-building-a-value-pc-with-cooler-masters-hyper-n212-plus-cpu-cooler\/all\/1\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 We also had to scramble for a CPU cooling fan, however, as we are running 4 PC systems simultaneously.\u00a0 We settled on a <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/noctua-nh-u12p-se2-cpu-cooler-and-nf-p14-flx-140-mm-case-fan\/all\/1\">140mm ultra-silent Noctua NF-P14 FLX fan<\/a> which we paper-clipped (securely) to the Cooler Master cooler.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/fan_notches-300x286.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/12\/fan_notches.jpg?resize=300%2C286\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This Core i3-2105 is ideal for a Home Theater PC (HTPC).\u00a0 With such a light power draw of only 65W, it would not need much in the way of cooling and it is quite powerful for any HTPC task.\u00a0 On the other hand, the Quad-core Phenom II X4 draws about double the power at 125W!<\/p>\n<p>Please continue on to the next page for the complete hardware and software setup of our platforms \u2013 Core i3-2105 versus Phenom II 970. We shall see what happens with performance again in PC gaming when dual-Core i3 with HT meets Phenom II X4 quad-core in the Autumn of 2011.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Test Configuration--><\/p>\n<h3>Test Configuration<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Hardware <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Intel Core i3-2105 (engineering sample, reference 3.1GHz, HyperThreading is also tested on versus off as disabled or enabled in the BIOS), supplied by Intel.<\/li>\n<li>AMD Phenom II 980BE underclocked to 3.5GHz to give Phenom II 970 performance (17.5X multiplier) supplied by AMD<\/li>\n<li>ASRock Extreme3 Generation3 motherboard (Intel z68 chipset, latest BIOS, PCIe 2.0\/3.0 specification; CrossFire\/SLI 8x+8x)<\/li>\n<li>ASUS CrossHair V AM3+ RoG motherboard (PCIe 3.0 Specifications; CrossFire\/SLI 16x+16x), supplied by ASUS\/AMD<\/li>\n<li>4 GB DDR3 PC1600 Kingston RAM (2&#215;2 GB, at PC1600 speeds for Intel&#8217;s dual-channel; supplied by Kingston)<\/li>\n<li>4 GB DDR3 PC1600 Kingston RAM (2&#215;2 GB, at PC1600 speeds; RAM supplied by Kingston)<\/li>\n<li>Nvidia GTX 580 (1.5GB reference clocks) supplied by Nvidia<\/li>\n<li>Two identical 500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 hard drives configured and set up identically from drive image; one partition for Intel drivers and one for AMD drivers<\/li>\n<li>2 x Thermaltake ToughPower 775 W power supply units supplied by Thermaltake<\/li>\n<li>Thermaltake Element G Case supplied by Thermaltake for the Intel platform<\/li>\n<li>Cooler Master Elite 430 Case, supplied by Coolermaster for the AMD platform<\/li>\n<li>Cooler Master CPU cooler (for Intel CPU), supplied by Cooler Master<\/li>\n<li>Thermalright UltraExtreme120 CPU cooler (for AMD platform)<\/li>\n<li>Philips DVD SATA writer\/Sony DVD SATA writer<\/li>\n<li>HP LP3065 2560&#215;1600 thirty inch LCD.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Test Configuration &#8211; Software<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GeForce WHQL 285.62 drivers used for the GTX 580; latest Intel drivers for HD 3000 Graphics and Chipset from Intel website.<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates<\/li>\n<li>DirectX July\/November 2010<\/li>\n<li>All games are patched to their latest versions.<\/li>\n<li>vsync is forced off in the control panel.<\/li>\n<li>Varying AA enabled as noted in games<em><\/em>; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied if possible; 16xAF forced in control panel for <em>Crysis.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>All results show average rates as noted.<\/li>\n<li>Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.<\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 64, all DX9 titles were run under DX9 render paths, DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths and DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><strong>The Benchmarks<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Synthetic and Real World Tests<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Super Pi<\/li>\n<li>Fritz Chess<\/li>\n<li>SANDRA 2012<\/li>\n<li>PCMark Vantage<\/li>\n<li>Custom PC<\/li>\n<li>Cinebench<\/li>\n<li>x264<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Game benchmarks<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em> Batman: Arkham Asylum<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Serious Sam, Second Encounter HD (2010)<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Wolfenstein<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Left 4 Dead<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Mafia II<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Crysis<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>World in Conflict <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Far Cry 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Just Cause 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Resident Evil 5<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Alien vs. Predator<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Battleforge<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> STALKER, Call of Pripyat<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>F1 2010 <\/em><em> <\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Metro 2033<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> Lost Planet 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em> H.A.W.X. 2<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Civilization 5<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Total War: Shogun II<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Dirt 3<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Deus Ex: Human Revolution<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Synthetic Gaming Benchmarks<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Heaven 2<\/li>\n<li>Vantage<\/li>\n<li>3DMark11<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have got an interesting project going. First we look at synthetic and real world benches before we head for gaming results.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Synthetic Benchmarks--><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Synthetic Tests<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Super Pi<\/h3>\n<p>Here is Super Pi on the Core i3-2150<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27653\" title=\"pi-1-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C465\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C465 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-i3-258x300.jpg 258w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And now the FX-8150 Phenom II.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-ph1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27655\" title=\"pi-1-ph\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-ph1.jpg?resize=400%2C472\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-ph1.jpg?resize=400%2C472 513w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pi-1-ph1-254x300.jpg 254w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Phenom II 970 X4 is way slower in this bench. We will see this again. Unless an application is heavily-threaded or optimized, it will run faster on the Core i3-2105.\u00a0 Continue on to Fritz Chess Bench.<\/p>\n<h3>Fritz Chess Bench<\/h3>\n<p>Fritz Chess Benchmark is found within the game&#8217;s program files and basically it crunches numbers to test your processor&#8217;s speed. Deep Fritz takes advantage of massive calculations and multi-threaded performance to work any CPU fully. It loads all threads 100% and will drive your CPU temperatures way up.<\/p>\n<p>Besides showing relative speed when compared to a P3 1.0GHz CPU, it also shows the nodes completed. The faster your CPU, the more nodes completed. First up is the i3<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27656\" title=\"Fritz-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C422\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C422 435w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-i3-283x300.jpg 283w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next the Phenom II<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-ph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27657\" title=\"Fritz-ph\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Fritz-ph.jpg?resize=400%2C410\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here in a multi-threaded benchmark, the Phenom II with its four cores is faster than the Core i3 with its 2 cores and two logical cores (HT).<\/p>\n<h3><strong>CustomPC Benchmark<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>CustomPC benchmark use widely available open-source applications to carry out the tasks that most of us perform on a regular basis. There are three tests, each of which measure different aspects of a PC\u2019s performance. These tests themselves are not synthetic benchmarks but instead they use real world image, video and multi-tasking tasks to test the performance of your computer.<\/p>\n<p>The tests are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>GIMP Image Editing<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>H.264 Video Encoding<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Multi-tasking<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As usual we test with the Core i3-2105 first.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cuatomPC-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27658\" title=\"cuatomPC-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cuatomPC-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C385\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cuatomPC-i3.jpg?resize=400%2C385 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cuatomPC-i3-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Now the same tests are repeated on the Phenom II 970 X4.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/customPC-ph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27659\" title=\"customPC-ph\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/customPC-ph.jpg?resize=400%2C390\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/customPC-ph.jpg?resize=400%2C390 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/customPC-ph-300x292.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s compare the three benches side-by-side in a chart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CustomPC.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27660\" title=\"CustomPC\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CustomPC.jpg?resize=482%2C412\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CustomPC.jpg?resize=482%2C412 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/CustomPC-300x256.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The Phenom II partly by virtue of being +400MHz faster and with 4 cores versus the Core i3-2105 with two with Hyper-Threading, scores slightly better in multi-tasking. However, clearly the Core i3-2105 is easily much faster in image editing and video encoding where the applications are not heavily multi-threaded.\u00a0 Overall, this test is solidly in favor of the Intel architecture.\u00a0 If you do video encoding or image editing, you will want Intel &#8211; even with two less cores.\u00a0 The only hope that the Phenom II has of catching the stock i3 is to overclock &#8211; or if the application is heavily multi-threaded.<\/p>\n<h3>CINEBENCH<\/h3>\n<p>CINEBENCH is based on MAXON&#8217;s professional 3D content creation suite, CINEMA 4D. This latest 11.5 version of CINEBENCH can test up to 64 processor threads accurately and automatically.<\/p>\n<p>First up, the Core i7 with Intel HD 3000 Graphics<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27662\" title=\"cinebench-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3.jpg?resize=380%2C415\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3.jpg?resize=380%2C415 380w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3-274x300.jpg 274w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Now the i3-2105 with the GTX 580 and with HT enabled<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3withGTX-htOn.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27682\" title=\"cinebench-i3withGTX-htOn\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3withGTX-htOn.jpg?resize=380%2C412\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3withGTX-htOn.jpg?resize=380%2C412 350w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-i3withGTX-htOn-277x300.jpg 277w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>In the above benchmark, Core i3&#8217;s HT is enabled. With it disabled, the CPU score is cut to 2.32 points while OpenGL remains the same. Now the Phenom II with the GTX 580:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-Ph2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27661\" title=\"cinebench-Ph2\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-Ph2.jpg?resize=380%2C488\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-Ph2.jpg?resize=380%2C488 380w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/cinebench-Ph2-233x300.jpg 233w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>The Phenom II is faster in the CPU test than the Core i3 by virtue of its 4 cores.<\/p>\n<h3>X264<\/h3>\n<p>Basically this test encodes a HD video clip into a x264 video file. The first pass is very quick and the second one is much slower and much more demanding of a task as it does the actual encoding. This benchmark is heavily mult-threaded and should favor more cores over HyperThreading.\u00a0 First up is the i3-2105.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27663\" title=\"x264-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-i3.jpg?resize=480%2C349\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-i3.jpg?resize=480%2C349 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-i3-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And now the Phenom Quad.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-ph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27664\" title=\"x264-ph\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-ph.jpg?resize=480%2C448\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-ph.jpg?resize=480%2C448 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/x264-ph-300x280.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>As we can see, both passes are quicker on the Phenom II.\u00a0 It is far more important to have the second pass encode quickly as it is far more time-consuming. The first pass simply calculates and doesn&#8217;t use 4 cores whereas the second pass will use all 4 for the actual encoding. Here is another solid win for the quad-core Phenom II X-4 in a heavily-multi-threaded task.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:The Benchmark Suites--><\/p>\n<h3>The Benchmark Suites &#8211; PC Mark and SANDRA<\/h3>\n<p><strong>PCMark Vantage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>PCMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed for Windows Vista and 7 that offers one-click simplicity for casual users and detailed, professional grade testing for industry, press and enthusiasts. A PCMark Vantage score is a rough measure of a computer\u2019s performance across a variety of common tasks. We have used this bench for 3 three years and will soon be upgrading to PC Mark&#8217;s latest suite, PCMark 7.<\/p>\n<p>The HDD Test suite in PCMark Vantage consists of the following 8 tests:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>HDD 1-<\/strong> Windows Defender<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 2- <\/strong>Game HDD<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 3-<\/strong> Importing pictures<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 4-<\/strong> Windows Vista start-up<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 5- <\/strong>Video editing<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 6- <\/strong>Media Center<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 7- <\/strong>Adding music to Windows Media Player<\/li>\n<li><strong>HDD 8- <\/strong>Application loading<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First we run the standard PCMark Vantage benchmark suite using our Core i3-2105 and GTX 580 and note that it scores the lowest overall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27692\" title=\"pcMark-i3GTX-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-1.jpg?resize=450%2C899\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-1.jpg?resize=450%2C899 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-1-150x300.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27693\" title=\"pcMark-i3GTX-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-2.jpg?resize=450%2C873\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-2.jpg?resize=450%2C873 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-2-154x300.jpg 154w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27694\" title=\"pcMark-i3GTX-3\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-3.jpg?resize=450%2C806\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-3.jpg?resize=450%2C806 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-3-167x300.jpg 167w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27695\" title=\"pcMark-i3GTX-4\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-4.jpg?resize=450%2C823\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-4.jpg?resize=450%2C823 450w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/pcMark-i3GTX-4-164x300.jpg 164w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Next up is the Phenom II and it will score better because it has four cores.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27686\" title=\"ph-PCmark-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-1.jpg?resize=450%2C793\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-1.jpg?resize=450%2C793 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-1-170x300.jpg 170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27687\" title=\"ph-PCmark-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-2.jpg?resize=450%2C818\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-2.jpg?resize=450%2C818 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-2-165x300.jpg 165w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27688\" title=\"ph-PCmark-3\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-3.jpg?resize=450%2C753\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-3.jpg?resize=450%2C753 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-3-179x300.jpg 179w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-41.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27690\" title=\"ph-PCmark-4\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/ph-PCmark-41.jpg?resize=450%2C813\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Phenom II X4 is faster with PCMark Vantage than with the Core i3 platform. You may look over the individual scores to see the strengths and weaknesses of each processor and platform.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">And now on to SANDRA 2012, another comprehensive benching suite.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ffff00;\"><strong>SANDRA 2012<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>SANDRA, short for the <strong>S<\/strong>ystem <strong>AN<\/strong>alyser, <strong>D<\/strong>iagnostic and <strong>R<\/strong>eporting <strong>A<\/strong>ssistant is an information and diagnostic utility. It provides a tremendous amount of information about every hardware and software component in your PC. It also provides various benchmarks including for measuring and reporting disk performance. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sisoftware.co.uk\/?d=&amp;f=home&amp;l=en&amp;a=\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.sisoftware.co.uk\/?d=&amp;f=home&amp;l=en&amp;a=', 'SANDRA 2012']);\" >SANDRA 2012<\/a> was just released last week, and it has a lot of new functionality for the new APUs and the FX processors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aggregate Arithmetic Performance<\/strong> (GOPS)<\/p>\n<p>First up is the Core i3-2105 and we see the GOPS is made up of several scores followed by a very detailed analysis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-i3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27691\" title=\"SANDRA-i3\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-i3.jpg?resize=480%2C446\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-i3.jpg?resize=480%2C446 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-i3-300x278.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Here is the detailed summary chart of SANDRA 2012 Core i3-2105 vs. Phenom II 970-X4<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-2012.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27705\" title=\"SANDRA-2012\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-2012.jpg?resize=482%2C499\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-2012.jpg?resize=482%2C499 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/SANDRA-2012-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Let&#8217;s head for synthetic game testing.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Synthetic Game Benchmarks--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gaming Synthetic testing<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Vantage<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at Core i3-2105 running Vantage with its integrated HD 3000 Graphics.\u00a0 Hyper-Threading is On.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-IG.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27666\" title=\"Vantage-i3-IG\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-IG.jpg?resize=480%2C278\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-IG.jpg?resize=480%2C278 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-IG-300x174.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Now let&#8217;s rerun Vantage with our Core i3 and now with the GTX 580 (HT on).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HT-on.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27667\" title=\"Vantage-i3-HT-on\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HT-on.jpg?resize=480%2C279\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HT-on.jpg?resize=480%2C279 976w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HT-on-300x174.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We next run Vantage with the GTX 580 and HT off.\u00a0 Note the drop in the CPU Test 1&#8217;s score and in the framerates.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HToff.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27668\" title=\"Vantage-i3-HToff\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HToff.jpg?resize=480%2C276\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HToff.jpg?resize=480%2C276 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Vantage-i3-HToff-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Finally. check out the Phenom II 970 X4 with the GTX 580<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27669\" title=\"vantage-ph\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/vantage-ph.jpg?resize=480%2C276\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/vantage-ph.jpg?resize=480%2C276 800w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/vantage-ph-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We see Intel&#8217;s Core i3 beating the AMD Phenom II platform.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s look at Futuremarks&#8217; latest graphics benching suite, 3DMark11.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>3DMark 11<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This is Futuremarks&#8217; latest test and it makes more use of multi-core than Vantage does.<\/p>\n<p>First up is the Core i3-2105.\u00a0 It will not run at all with its IG as 3DMark11 is a DX11 only test.\u00a0 So we used our GTX 580:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27670\" title=\"3dMark11-Ph-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-1.jpg?resize=450%2C856\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-1.jpg?resize=450%2C856 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-1-157x300.jpg 157w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27671\" title=\"3dMark11-Ph-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-2.jpg?resize=450%2C798\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-2.jpg?resize=450%2C798 500w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-Ph-2-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next up is the same test with the 3.5GHz Phenom II 970 X4 Quad-core.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27696\" title=\"3dMark11-ph-GTX-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-1.jpg?resize=450%2C1043\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27697\" title=\"3dMark11-ph-GTX-2\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-2.jpg?resize=450%2C986\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-2.jpg?resize=450%2C986 400w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/3dMark11-ph-GTX-2-137x300.jpg 137w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>As you can see, the Core i3-2105 &#8220;scores&#8221; lower again because having only two cores. Let&#8217;s look at 20 modern game benchmarks to see if we can draw any conclusions. We are especially interested in looking at Hyper-Threading results in gaming.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Game Performance Summary Charts--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Core i3-2105 vs Phenom II 970 X4 <\/strong>Performance in 20 games<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the summary charts of our 20 games and 3 synthetic tests. In the first three columns, the GTX 580 is tested together with Core i3-2105 with HT On versus HT Off, and also versus the Phenom II 970 X4.\u00a0 The highest settings are always chosen and it is DX11 when there is a choice; DX10 is picked above DX9, and the settings are ultra or maxed (except for <em>Shogun II<\/em> on &#8220;high&#8221;).\u00a0 Exact settings are listed in last week&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/catalyst-11-10-performance-analysis-vs-geforce-285-62\">Catalyst 11.10 versus GeForce 285.62 driver comparison<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth (last) results column shows the Core i3-2105&#8217;s IG tested at 720p without AA and at the lowest possible settings &#8211; except for <em>Batman<\/em> and <em>Left 4 Dead<\/em>, set to maximum &#8211; as noted on the chart.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27628\" title=\"GameBench-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-1.jpg?resize=490%2C466\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-1.jpg?resize=490%2C466 700w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-1-300x285.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 490px) 100vw, 490px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>All results, except for Vantage and 3DMark11, show average framerates and higher is always better. In the first 3 results columns tested with the GTX 580, in-game settings are fully maxed out and they are identically high or ultra across all platforms except for <em>Shogun II<\/em> where it is tested at the benchmark&#8217;s generic &#8220;high&#8221; DX11 1080p settings.<\/p>\n<p>Now let&#8217;s look at the same information expressed in two graphs.\u00a0 First up is 1080p testing of the GTX 580 across the 3 platforms on ultra settings &#8211; Phenom Quad-core versus Intel Dual-core; HT On versus HT Off.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameChart-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27639\" title=\"GameChart-1\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameChart-1.jpg?resize=482%2C1703\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>Next we test the integrated HD 3000 Graphics on minimal settings, no AA and all games at 720p.\u00a0 Only <em>Batman<\/em> and <em>Left 4 Dead<\/em> are tested at maximum in-game settings, 1xAA.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-IG.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-27641\" title=\"GameBench-IG\" src=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-IG.jpg?resize=482%2C1589\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"http:\/\/i0.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-IG.jpg?resize=482%2C1589 482w, http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/GameBench-IG-91x300.jpg 91w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a>We see the Core i3-2105 holding its own in gaming &#8211; fair results with IG at 720p\/low details, and good results when paired with the GTX 580 &#8211; and of course when HT is left on as it should be by default.\u00a0 And yet we see the aging Phenom II quad, by virtue of its higher clockspeed and extra cores, hanging on &#8211; well-positioned by AMD as to price against the newer Intel i3 architecture.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the biggest surprise was about the usefulness of Hyper-Threading in gaming in some of the games that we tested.\u00a0 It made a real difference as to performance in some games and very little negative impact when it was not useful.\u00a0 Later on, we will look at the effects of Hyper-Threading in games with Quad-Core Intel CPUs, but that is for a future article.<\/p>\n<p>After this evaluation, we feel we can give you some conclusions.\u00a0 Head to the last page.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><!--pagetitle:Conclusion--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It is clear to us that the Phenom II solution is nearing the end of it&#8217;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 <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/amd%e2%80%99s-fx-8150-and-crossfire-scaling-%e2%80%93-bulldozer-part-2-the-conclusion\">our last article<\/a>.\u00a0 Here we see AMD price-positioning their second-fastest Quad-core processor against Intel&#8217;s lowest enthusiast dual-core CPU line with good reason.\u00a0 The newer Intel i3 architecture can overcome its clockspeed disadvantages and use HT to compensate for having only two physical cores.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And there is an upgrade path for AM3+ motherboards for Bulldozer with the next generation Piledriver processors.<\/p>\n<p>Intel&#8217;s CPUs are powerful and even their entry-level Core i3-2105 offers a good value in gaming &#8211; at the low end with HD 3000 Graphics which is OK for light gaming &#8211; 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.\u00a0 Best of all, there is a great upgrade path with Socket 1155 if you have the Z68 motherboard as Intel&#8217;s next generation Ivy Bridge will be a drop-in upgrade with a BIOS update.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Core i3-2105 Pros and Cons<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Pros<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Core i3-2105 offers a great experience for gaming when paired with a capable video card<\/li>\n<li>Intel&#8217;s HD 3000 IG is sufficient for light 720p gaming and very useful for a second display, or to troubleshoot PCIe graphics.<\/li>\n<li>HyperThreading is quite mature and very useful in applications and also for some PC games.<\/li>\n<li>Power consumption is fantastic at only 65W compared to nearly double that of its competition.<\/li>\n<li>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).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Cons<\/strong><\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>No Overclockability<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>We believe that Intel&#8217;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 &#8220;Good Value&#8221; Award.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/goodvalue-png.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/goodvalue-png.png?resize=150%2C251\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Make sure you follow us on our ABT forum. You will get the very latest news about FX-8150 watercooling and CrossFire versus SLI scaling and you can help guide us in future testing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Mark Poppin<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">ABT Senior Editor<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><p>Please join us in our <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/abt\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Forums<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Become a Fan on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/AlienBabelTech\/123268467142', 'Facebook']);\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/twitter.com\/alienbabeltech', 'Twitter']);\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>For the latest updates from ABT, please <a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?feed=rss2\" target=\"_blank\">join our RSS News Feed<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Join our Distributed Computing teams<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Folding@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 164304<\/li>\n<li>SETI@Home &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech &#8211; 138705<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1\" onclick=\"_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.worldcommunitygrid.org\/reg\/viewRegister.do?teamID=3P39R3SRV1', 'World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech']);\" target=\"_blank\">World Community Grid &#8211; Team AlienBabelTech<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/?p=27571\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=top title=\"Author: Mark Poppin\" src=\"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/i3vsPhII-imagelink.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":27705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,7814,5,7],"tags":[4950,4953,1142,34,4952,4753,4951],"class_list":["post-27571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abt-news","category-articles","category-gaming","category-technology","tag-amd-core-i3-2105-phenom-ii-970","tag-ht","tag-hyperthreading","tag-intel","tag-pc-games","tag-performance-evaluation","tag-quad-core-versus-dual-core"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/alienbabeltech.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}