Athlon II 640 or i3-540?

The 640 is faster in applications that are threaded for 4 or more cores, but the i3 is a LOT better for everything else. Honestly, I would get the i3. You can overclock it to be a lot faster than the Athlon II, and it's not really that much slower to begin with.
 
spynoodle said:
The 640 is faster in applications that are threaded for 4 or more cores, but the i3 is a LOT better for everything else. Honestly, I would get the i3. You can overclock it to be a lot faster than the Athlon II, and it's not really that much slower to begin with.
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What about for some mild gaming and video rendering?
I will be using a GTX 460 768MB
 
I do not believe games use the i3 hyperthreading so you would have a high overclock with 2 cores 2 threads vs an athlon x4 with mild overclock but with 4 cores 4 threads.... all in all I personally would go for the athlon x4 but both are good setups...
 
jasonn20 said:
I do not believe games use the i3 hyperthreading so you would have a high overclock with 2 cores 2 threads vs an athlon x4 with mild overclock but with 4 cores 4 threads.... all in all I personally would go for the athlon x4 but both are good setups...
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To the OS, a hyperthreaded dual-core is the same as a quad core. It will treat every thread as a core. It's still a close call between the CPUs, though. You'll probably see about the same performance in a modern game with either, but some games only take advantage of two cores.
 
BurningSkyline said:
I need a definite answer though. 540 + H55 or P55 board
640 + 870 or 880G board
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What are your plans with the GPU single or dual at some point...???

edit**

For an AMD setup I would recommend:

CPU - Athlon II 640 X4 Propus 3.0ghz "GMBOX" C3 stepping --- $99.99 -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871
MB - Gigabyte board - 8+2 power phase with VRM cooling -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128435
RAM - (2x2) 4Gb DDR3 G.skill Ripjaws 1600mhz - I will post a link if you need this
 
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case, psu, mb, cpu, ram, gfx, hdd (I have a 2.5" hdd and an IDE drive as well) keyboard.

case will probably be a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W, which is rather expensive with the given budget but try to fit it in without crap components. If you can't, I can deal with a HAF 912. (but don't go for the HAF 912 right away, lol.)
 
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I guess what it really comes down to is:
-Athlon II 640 is better at quad-threaded applications
-Core i3 540 is better for dual-threaded applications but is still good for quad-threaded applications
-At this point in time, the Core i3 will perform to its maximum in about all applications, while the Athlon II will perform to its maximum in a good lot of applications

CONCLUSION - I would get the Core i3. I don't game much, so a processor that can utilize its full potential without a quad-threaded application is important to me (Yeah, I know I have a Core 2 Quad. Long Story.) I also overclock, so I would like to experiment with the epic clarkdale overclocking potential. :D
 
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Agree with spynoodle, unless you can't afford the intel setup. otherwise go for it.

Oh and hyperthreading will help with bloated console ported games that require tonnes of CPU power. But the Athlon is a true quad.
 
I don't know why, But I've been able to put together a cheaper 540+P55 build than a 640+880G build.

Still not sure which to use though.
Some moderate-heavy gaming, video editing is all I'll be doing. (with a GTX 460, I'm going to purchase a cheaper temporary card for now If I'm doing that I should probably get a 640?
 
BurningSkyline said:
I don't know why, But I've been able to put together a cheaper 540+P55 build than a 640+880G build.

Still not sure which to use though.
Some moderate-heavy gaming, video editing is all I'll be doing. (with a GTX 460, I'm going to purchase a cheaper temporary card for now If I'm doing that I should probably get a 640?
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With the GTX 460, either CPU will probably pwn. :) Anyways, if you can put together an i3 build for cheaper, then that would definitely seal the deal for me. No way I would pay more for the 640 over the i3.
 
spynoodle said:
With the GTX 460, either CPU will probably pwn. :) Anyways, if you can put together an i3 build for cheaper, then that would definitely seal the deal for me. No way I would pay more for the 640 over the i3.
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The AMD Athlon x4 is usually a cheaper build but it all depends on the quality of the components being used between the two.
 
I3's typically easily clock to 4.4ghz on voltage thats able to be used 24/7. 640's can do ~3.8ghz.
It's a toss up, but I would still go for the I3 because you'll have the option of a future upgrade to an I7 with pwns all AMD cpu's at this point. Plus I3's kill Athlon II's in all single threaded apps, which is most things.

I had no issues with any games on an I3 at 4.4ghz. Black ops was far more CPU intensive than World at War, but still no issues. CPU usage for W@W was ~30% typically, black ops was more like 50-60%.

Games using 4 cores is a misconception. There is only about 2-3 games out right now that use 4 threads. 99% of games use 2 or less threads.

Take a look at this bench-

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/143?vs=106

I used a 620 and a 540 because they are 400mhz apart. So bare in mind that most likely the I3 would be 600mhz faster. The 540 loses only like 4-5 benches out of 30+
 
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