When comparing Intel i5-4460 vs AMD FX-8350 Black Edition, the Slant community recommends Intel i5-4460 for most people. In the question“What are the best CPUs for desktop gaming?” Intel i5-4460 is ranked 5th while AMD FX-8350 Black Edition is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Intel i5-4460 is:
Being that this is a Haswell chip that uses the LGA 1150 socket, it is quite easy to find cheap motherboards and cheap RAM (DDR3) to use in those motherboards. This makes a good option as it is still a powerful chip comparable to even newer ones but allows for a wide selection of compatible parts. It also is a good choice for those that are already using a LGA 1150 compatible motherboard and would just like to upgrade from a less powerful CPU.
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Pros
Pro Easy to find cheap components
Being that this is a Haswell chip that uses the LGA 1150 socket, it is quite easy to find cheap motherboards and cheap RAM (DDR3) to use in those motherboards. This makes a good option as it is still a powerful chip comparable to even newer ones but allows for a wide selection of compatible parts. It also is a good choice for those that are already using a LGA 1150 compatible motherboard and would just like to upgrade from a less powerful CPU.
Pro Efficient power use
When comparing to CPUs in a similar price range such as the AMD 8350, this Intel chip is more efficient for power use. That means less heat and a lower power bill. While newer generation Intel chips may have a slight advantage here, they will be more expensive as well, so this makes a good choice if heat, power and efficiency are a concern in this price range.
Pro Good choice for budget builds
At under $200 the 4460 makes a for a good mid range build. It will handle any casual game or even most AAA games without issue, though some that are really CPU intensive (such as Civ 5) may see some bottleneck.
Pro Easy to overclock
For those interested, this CPU is easily overclockable, which allows for more performance. A third party cooler is recommended, but can be worth it in order to squeeze a bit more out of this chip.
Pro High amount of cores
This is good for games that can utilize multithreading using more than 4 cores in a CPU, meaning better performance. While there are very few games that take advantage of this, the few that do should work quite well.
Cons
Con No hyperthreading
Even though this is a quad-core device, there is no hypethreading built into the chip meaning any apps or games that can take advantage of the multiple cores through hyperthreading will be unable to see that performance using this chip.
Con Can not overclock
For those that would like to squeeze a little more power out of their CPU by overclocking, that is not an option with this CPU.
Con Power hungry with high heat
This chip uses quite a bit of power when compared to a similar performing chip from Intel, which could mean a higher power bill in the long run. The high power consumption also leads to a lot of heat generated from this chip. While a third party cooler can help with this (and is recommended as the stock cooler is loud and does a poor job of cooling), it is an extra cost to using this chip efficiently.
Con Not the best at single threaded tasks
Considering most games are single threaded using a CPU that does not work as well with them as Intle may be a detriment to ones experience. While this CPU can handle plenty of games it may come down to price for performance whether it is worth it in a hardcore gaming rig.