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+--- Thread: Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge (/showthread.php?tid=2084)
Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge - Bigpapa42 - 12-14-2011
I'm trying to put together a system recommendation for a buddy. He wants something in the $500-$600 range and mainly so he can play Star Wars: The Old Republic. I would ideally like to keep the CPU/mobo comb under $250 combined, so I'm looking at either the AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz chip or the Intel Core i3-2120 Dual-Core 3.3GHz. I'd like to bench compare them but haven't seen any numbers (andandtech doesn't have the Zambezi yet). I read that the Zambezi is a step behind the higher level Sandy Bridge chips but I would think it would likely out-perform the 2120...?
Also, would going with a video card like a GTX 550 or 560 end up being a bottle-neck on this kind of system?
Thanks.
RE: Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge - Brian - 12-14-2011
I'm guessing it WON'T outperform the 2120, at least not in games.
RE: Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge - ichigeki - 12-14-2011
The i3 2100 not 2120 beats the X4 980 at all but 2 games.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=362
and here,
http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-fx-8150--8120-6100-and-4100-performance-review/10
the X4 980 beats the fx 4100 in both games.
According to these, i3 2120>i3 2100>X4 980>fx 4100
Your game will determine your bottleneck. For example, in SC2 the bottleneck tends to be the CPU. In most FPS, GPU usually bottlenecks first.
RE: Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge - Bigpapa42 - 12-15-2011
I'd best steer him away from that 4100 then. Thanks guys.
RE: Zambezi vs Sandy Bridge - Final692 - 12-15-2011
(12-15-2011, 12:52 PM)Bigpapa42 Wrote: I'd best steer him away from that 4100 then. Thanks guys.
If you live near Microcenter, you could pick up the 2500k and a Z68 cheap mobo for like around 250+ or - 10