Best CPUs (Archive)

[cangelini]

Here are the best gaming CPUs for the money. These processors offer the best performance at their price and are suitable for overclocking.

Best CPUs : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3311967/cpus.html

 

[Supahos]

Not going to drop any of the ryzen CPUs in the hierarchy chart?

 

[adamovera]

Not going to drop any of the ryzen CPUs in the hierarchy chart?

Updates to both articles should be live by now, try refreshing the page.

 

[atavax]

The problem is for gaming CPUs only really matter for streaming or for the future. In streaming, the 16 threads of Ryzen is great And we don't know whether the Ryzen 1700 or the 7700k will be better in the future. Right now the 2500k is worse than the FX 8370 in a lot of modern games, but benchmarks at the time that used ultra low resolutions to try to predict the future had the 2500k way way ahead.

 

[Slesreth]

Here are the best gaming CPUs for the money. These processors offer the best performance at their price and are suitable for overclocking.

Best CPUs : Read more

Just wanted to say, @cangelini, that I read and appreciated your update on the state of the 1700 and 1700x benchmarking. In response to your comment on comparing performance, this link that Avro Arrow's post gives in U Mert BRO's thread 1700 vs 1700x is pretty good info on the history of octa-core computing, and its potential.

 

[ajac09]

Intel love letter this basically is.

 

[anubis44]

This Intel pandering has got to stop. With the obvious success AMD is having with Ryzen, and the fact that both existing consoles already use 8 cores, and the next generation consoles are both going to use 8 core Ryzen CPU cores, all of these CPUs are already obsolete. Within 12 months, the 7700K will be trailing badly in games coming out then.

 

[Thomas_180]

I smell an assumption of success. Truth across all reviewers is Zen is great for most business but NOT so much for games. All due to Zen 4 core clusters meeting current software threading models.

Currently Zen CPUs perform almost as if each 4 core cluster was a separate 10G ethernet linked server. Fine for business where individual tasks are not tightly linked in time sensitive order. Not so much for games when closely related threads must do time sensitive communication across much slower links between 4 core clusters.

It will get better as game makers adapt software threading models to Zen.

First AMD figures out how to keep the most sensitive and tightly linked clumps of related tasks together in the same 4 core Zen cluster. That is distribute the task clumps to different clusters before distributing individual threads within a cluster. Two tier task distribution (clumps then threads).

Unfortunately before Zen will really shine, the gaming industry will take about 3+ years to create and adopt new threading models to do that in a way more easily recognizable to OS thread schedulers. Probably take some involvement by OS makers too to implement a 2 tier task distribution model.

 

[Thomas_180]

Ryzen works best for applications when the job breaks down into independent tasks and which at most simply need to be completed within a certain time frame. Thus great for business and streaming tasks. Note that this is the same criteria as for Xeon CPUs with huge numbers of slower cores.

But games are currently written with lots of critical paths (specific sequences of tasks done in order) which must also wait or check for certain other tasks outside the path to complete. This is why single core performance is usually still important to games in a multi-core world.

It might be that Ryzen games should be written more like streaming applications. Break game timing along frames then break that "frozen in time" frame job into subtasks that must complete in less than 1 frame time. Then dynamically reallocate cores/threads to ensure all subtasks complete before frame end. Subtasks completely early would be OK. Then a brief coordination phase followed by next frame preparation.

 

[po90266]

The gaming industry needs to wake up and smell the roses. They've been stuck in an intel rut.

 

[Ammar 1]

Wrong socket number (LGA 2011) for Intel Pentium G4560 in table.
It is LGA 1151.

 

[ayushfunlover]

I hope Ryzen 5 will make up to this list

 

[king2345]

intel fanboy alert

 

[king2345]

intel FANBOY a the ryzen cpu should be in this list for its great performance per dollar having more cpu and threads is advantage on its own. how does the 7700k got included it is overpriced . just wait for bios updates and this chip performance will be superior for its price

 

[Fr33Th1nk3r]

I find it hilarious that Ryzen 5 isn't in the list. It's more than adequate for gaming and has like 2-3 times the thread count of i5. At 1440p CPU doesn't matter anyways, but from what I've seen it's literally less than 10 FPS difference in most games.

What happened to the price/performance? Used to have like i5 4460, etc now it's just "BUY KABY LAKE" etc. *shakes head*

 

[RanKing7]

Do you people even read the article or do you just look at the recommended CPUs and have an AMD fanboy attack?

 

[Fr33Th1nk3r]

Do you people even read the article or do you just look at the recommended CPUs and have an AMD fanboy attack?

The point is, they used to recommend things at different price points. Then all of a sudden it's just Kaby Lake is the best. (which it is) But it's very expensive. I built my father in law an 8320 system and it plays Battlefield 1 at 60fps on High with a R9 270X. I'm just saying there's some bias lately on Tom's Hardware that started in the last year or so.

 

[genz]

Wow, just wow.

7700k is better than R5 ONLY if you ignore XFR.... so you do.
7700k is cheaper than R5 ONLY if you ignore the cost of a cooler matching the 212 that comes bundled... so you do.

R7 cannot be beat by any Intel chip simply because Intel charges a rip-off on everything over 4 cores... THEN charges a premium for the motherboard socket.... THEN wants you to buy a cooler too.... SO YOU REMOVE THE EXTREME SECTION OF THE PAGE!!!! WTF!!!

Don't act like you didn't have an enthusiast section here with socket 2011 chips since at least Sandy Bridge because I bought mine on your recommendation.

 

[Brian Valdez]

::doublepost::

 

[Brian Valdez]

Tom's Hardware used to be my sh*t, but now it reeks of hardcore Intel Bias. Who the hell buys a $300 cpu for the purpose of gaming and plays at 1080P? You'd have at least a gtx 1070, at which point you'd probably be Super Sampling if you played at 1080p/60fps anyway.

 

[senseijtitus]

Whay in the heavens name are you guys not including AMD Ryzen 5's in the list?

If it is for the lowest coasting, why not the good old Athlons?

 

[senseijtitus]

I am not saying there is any Bias or anything. But fact is fact. Ryzen is a new arch and will improve in gaming performance as updates and patches rolls out.
Also at its current stage, Ryzen is handling it pretty well against comparative Intel CPU's. Price for Price, I feel the AMD's new CPU Line up is pretty damn awesome.

 

[Jeffrey_1339]

This kind of article will hurt the websites credibility over time.

 

[Neuspeed]

I currently own an AMD system and have owned multiple systems for many years in the past. Their products are marketed as "budget" gaming option, but regardless of what AMD says they are gonna do, their best comes across as mediocre when it comes to gaming. Very disappointed with Ryzen. AMD was only able to come close to Intel for gaming performance and even with their latest and greatest.