- Sep 17, 2010
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This is MY version of THW Best Gaming CPUs for the Money.
This is assuming you are buying NEW. Prices will vary according to your location.
$50 (Microcenter): Pentium 3258. Honorable mention only for retro gaming or fun overclocking, but not so great in today's heavier game engines that need more logical cores.
$79 (NCIX): Athlon 860K. Full recommendation. Great gaming CPU but struggles with recording/streaming since only 4 cores. Make sure you get a supported motherboard since many BIOS are still incompatible out of the box. This CPU is actually faster than most FX CPUs in most games because of much higher performance per core, and cache optimizations.
$99 (Microcenter) i3-4160. Full recommendation. Great gaming CPU but struggles with recording/streaming. Usually faster than the Athlon 860K in most games. Hyperthreading really helps this dual core CPU keep up with the quads.
$122 (Directron) FX-8320E: Honorable mention. Excellent for entry level streaming and recording games, but generally not as fast as the i3 in just gaming.
$179 (Superbiiz) i5-4460: Honorable mention, only about 15% faster than the i3 at full workload.
$200 (Microcenter) i5-4690K. Honorable mention for overclockers, but too close to Xeon price for full recommendation.
$241 (Superbiiz) Xeon E3-1231 V3. Full recommendation. 4 cores plus hyperthreading makes this CPU stronger than i5 for streaming and recording games. This is basically an i7 +some workstation features, but minus the igpu.
$299 (Microcenter) i7-5820K. Full recommendation. 6 cores + hyperthreading makes this strong for streaming and recording games. Overclockable, and competetively priced.
$899 (Microcenter) i7-5960X. Honorable mention. Ultimate solution for streaming and recording games...but so damn expensive. 8 cores and huperthreading, overclockable.
This is assuming you are buying NEW. Prices will vary according to your location.
$50 (Microcenter): Pentium 3258. Honorable mention only for retro gaming or fun overclocking, but not so great in today's heavier game engines that need more logical cores.
$79 (NCIX): Athlon 860K. Full recommendation. Great gaming CPU but struggles with recording/streaming since only 4 cores. Make sure you get a supported motherboard since many BIOS are still incompatible out of the box. This CPU is actually faster than most FX CPUs in most games because of much higher performance per core, and cache optimizations.
$99 (Microcenter) i3-4160. Full recommendation. Great gaming CPU but struggles with recording/streaming. Usually faster than the Athlon 860K in most games. Hyperthreading really helps this dual core CPU keep up with the quads.
$122 (Directron) FX-8320E: Honorable mention. Excellent for entry level streaming and recording games, but generally not as fast as the i3 in just gaming.
$179 (Superbiiz) i5-4460: Honorable mention, only about 15% faster than the i3 at full workload.
$200 (Microcenter) i5-4690K. Honorable mention for overclockers, but too close to Xeon price for full recommendation.
$241 (Superbiiz) Xeon E3-1231 V3. Full recommendation. 4 cores plus hyperthreading makes this CPU stronger than i5 for streaming and recording games. This is basically an i7 +some workstation features, but minus the igpu.
$299 (Microcenter) i7-5820K. Full recommendation. 6 cores + hyperthreading makes this strong for streaming and recording games. Overclockable, and competetively priced.
$899 (Microcenter) i7-5960X. Honorable mention. Ultimate solution for streaming and recording games...but so damn expensive. 8 cores and huperthreading, overclockable.
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