I'm thinking of building a pc for race sims and wondering if intel core i3 will be good enough to run live for speed and maybe iracing at decent frame rates etc- (I play on a regular laptop at the moment and am getting and average of about 45 fps on live for speed on lowest settings).
Is i3 enough?
- Thread starter Gdog96
- 12 comments
- 5,643 views
- 528
- oohhh8yeah
I don't recommend you play on a laptop. It will overheat and cause frame rates to drop very quickly. I recommend at least i5 to have a good experience on desktop, even i7 on laptop isn't enough.
- 2,547
- Vancouver, BC
oohhh yeah
Hmmm my laptop seems to be doing just fine. After 3 hours of gaming I was still getting 90 fps on iracing, running BF3 alpha, and playing pretty much anything out there right now.
Laptops can be used for gaming but I don't recommend an I3. It'll be okay for most games today if paired with a very good graphics card but with most laptops it's not really possible to upgrade the processor later on. With the I3 your already 2 steps behind and it will quickly become obsolete in no time.
- 28,407
- Brooklyn, NY
- KR_Viper
- I Renown I
You'll find games are more GPU reliant than CPU, even today. But if you're building a custom rig (what's your budget) I'd suggest starting with i5 at the very least as there are more and more games being optimized for four or more cores.
Everything other than your i5 recommendation: No. Just...just no.
plate88
Premium
- 889
- plate88
Would definitely go for the i7. If you're building something don't go cheap. At least get mid grade components and a high end graphics card.
Wrong.👎
As far as laptops, no reason why you can't play games on them. I'm running a custom built Alienware m15x with more than enough power for any game out there right now and its two years old. Nice thing about Alienware laptops is you CAN upgrade them. They have panels on them to easily get to the components for future upgrading. It runs iRacing at full graphics with 150-250 fps on road courses and 300+ fps on most ovals. More than enough fps with no heating issues.
Alienwares are expensive and there are alot cheaper alternatives out there. I have owned them since the beginning and thats only what I'll buy. Getting ready to buy another laptop from them with alot more power to run a triple screen set-up for iRacing.
- 8,485
- Rockay City
True if you want to be future-proof for a while.
If your goal is to run older games mostly, any CPU will actually do, as no older game is CPU-bound unless you're using a multi-GPU setup. This article shows a few benchmarks with different CPUs (though granted, it's over a year old, but still very much applies when playing anything but the latest games). So spending money on a better GPU will yield more results than spending it on a better CPU.
So to answer the original question: yes, an i3 will be enough, though that may change in the future. For reference: I'm using an i3 2100T/Radeon HD5670 1GB/4GB and I can play Race07-based games at 1920x1080, everything maxed at anywhere between 100-150FPS. I can run a recent game like S2U at 1280x720, everything maxed at around 45-60FPS (and even then it's GPU-bound, not CPU-bound).
- 528
- oohhh8yeah
Strange, I have an HP Envy 14 (very expensive laptop) and it overheats in like 5 minutes...
- 11,969
- Christchurch
Really? I have Radeon 5770s in CF - so 2GB theoretical VRAM - and an i5 750 (2.66GHz quad core, I run it at 3.04) backed up by 4GB system memory and Race 07 maxed out still manages to bring my system to its knees on occasion. It easily runs at 100+ fps when I'm the only car but chuck in some AI and the framerate takes a nosedive - I've seen 15-20fps with a train of AI vehicles in front of me
rFactor is just as bad, 150+fps solo but add in more cars and that drops to around a third. My performance in S2U is a lot better than what you get though, easy 40+ @ 1920x1080As for the OP, while an i3 might suffice, you still shouldn't get one if you have room in your budget - if you're going to build a computer you should always do it properly and not cripple it by skimping on core components for no reason. Always get the best components you can afford, if your planned budget allows an i7 870 (for example), get it.
re: gaming laptops and Alienware... Alienware is overpriced rubbish and "gaming" laptops are ridiculed for a reason. Full-size components > portable versions
- 8,485
- Rockay City
Yes, really, I have never seen Race07 run at 15-20 FPS, ever. But perhaps these are specific conditions? S2U doesn't surprise me though, with the dual GPU setup and the quad core to support it.Really? I have Radeon 5770s in CF - so 2GB theoretical VRAM - and an i5 750 (2.66GHz quad core, I run it at 3.04) backed up by 4GB system memory and Race 07 maxed out still manages to bring my system to its knees on occasion. It easily runs at 100+ fps when I'm the only car but chuck in some AI and the framerate takes a nosedive - I've seen 15-20fps with a train of AI vehicles in front of me
Over here, the difference between a fast i5 and the i7 870 is around 80 euros. In most games this will yield you exactly 0 FPS extra, unless you are using a dual GPU setup. Spend the same 80 euros on a better GPU however, and you will definitely get some extra FPS (or eyecandy) in most games. It's all about the balance, I always throw my cash at the component that is the bottleneck first.
But really, to give a decent advice, we need to know more about the PC the OP wants to build. If he wants a budget GPU, there's no need for a high-end CPU, but if he wants a fast GPU (or dual), he will definitely need one.
- 11,969
- Christchurch
It's usually when there's a lot on screen to render, ie when there's a large part of the field in front of you. Starting up the back of the field with a reasonably sized grid at max detail is quite painful
Took a Catalyst patch and game update to do it though >_>NLxAROSAS2U doesn't surprise me though, with the dual GPU setup and the quad core to support it.
Sound advice, and to each their own - I'd personally splash out on the component that is harder to upgrade further down the track, namely the CPU. I actually did just that, built my computer with a single 5770 and plonked another in some months later in a search for better framesNLxAROSA
👍 Given he wants to run race sims at decent frames I'd expect it to be something mid-range, but that's just an assumption!NLxAROSA
- 86
Funny you said that. I run Race07, RFactor and Grand Touring Legends on my HP G60 634a laptop without a glitch.It runs on i-3 dual core. I do my league racing with it. My girlfriend and play Race07 for 3/4 hours at a time and no problems what so ever and i've been playing with the same laptop for a year now. I run my graphics settings on medium and graphically it is pretty enough for me.
nick09
(Banned)
- 6,169
- NY
- nlck09
By the looks of Race 07 it does not take much to run the game on a very old system:
So yes a system with a i3-2100 cpu with it's integrated graphics alone can run this game fine. If you only plan on playing older games then you would not have to worry about getting a higher spec computer. Most race sims available do not require much to run these days. If he wanted to get more fps out of his system then he can get a cheap $70-$100(HD 6670 can be had for $80 and you won't need to have a powerful power supply to power it) low power graphics card to increase the fps. From what I see from what the OP wants to play, he does not need an expensive cpu or gpu. He can easily get high fps with a i3-2100 and an HD 6670 graphics card with 4GB of system memory running a racing sim.
Sharky, have you tried running the game in XP mode?
Edit: Ran the Race 07 demo on my Core 2 Duo E7500 overclocked to 3.83GHz, GeForce 9300 integrated graphics(512MB of ram taken from system ram), and 4GB of DDR2 ram and I would say the game ran as fine as silk. This is a Mini-PC(3"x10"x12" case size) I made myself that runs on a 200watt PSU. Even with the settings at max(near 720P due to my old HD Ready TV) I never saw any fps loss.
So yes a system with a i3-2100 cpu with it's integrated graphics alone can run this game fine. If you only plan on playing older games then you would not have to worry about getting a higher spec computer. Most race sims available do not require much to run these days. If he wanted to get more fps out of his system then he can get a cheap $70-$100(HD 6670 can be had for $80 and you won't need to have a powerful power supply to power it) low power graphics card to increase the fps. From what I see from what the OP wants to play, he does not need an expensive cpu or gpu. He can easily get high fps with a i3-2100 and an HD 6670 graphics card with 4GB of system memory running a racing sim.
Sharky, have you tried running the game in XP mode?
Edit: Ran the Race 07 demo on my Core 2 Duo E7500 overclocked to 3.83GHz, GeForce 9300 integrated graphics(512MB of ram taken from system ram), and 4GB of DDR2 ram and I would say the game ran as fine as silk. This is a Mini-PC(3"x10"x12" case size) I made myself that runs on a 200watt PSU. Even with the settings at max(near 720P due to my old HD Ready TV) I never saw any fps loss.
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