Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: April 2010

[cleeve]

March saw the introduction of the world's first hexa-core desktop CPU, Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processor. We talk about the monolithic juggernaut and some of the CPU world's latest pricing developments in this month's column.

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: April 2010 : Read more

 

[Guest]

Core i7 920 phased out?

 

[dlpatague]

The 930 replaced the 920. This was not a sudden move. Intel said they were going to do this a while ago. I bought a 920 for my new computer at first. My plan was to buy the 930 when it came out and sell the 920 to my friend...which I did and it's a great chip.

 

[lemonade4]

yeah.. it's all aboot the 930 now

 

[surda]

930 has replaced the 920 from 2.66 to 2.8 at the same price! im surprised that Intel didn't bump that price up, this is something unusual from Intel, but i like it, keep it up.

 

[7amood]

[citation][nom]surda[/nom]930 has replaced the 920 from 2.66 to 2.8 at the same price! im surprised that Intel didn't bump that price up, this is something unusual from Intel, but i like it, keep it up.[/citation]
is called marketing... that's how u keep a product flying off the shelves.

 

[Tindytim]

[citation][nom]surda[/nom]930 has replaced the 920 from 2.66 to 2.8 at the same price! im surprised that Intel didn't bump that price up, this is something unusual from Intel, but i like it, keep it up.[/citation]
They replaced the 940, with the 950, then the 960 at the same price points. And the 965ee was replaced by the 975ee also at the same price point.

The i7-930 was actually release at an MSRP $10 higher than the processor it replaces.

 

[liquidsnake718]

Yet again for the 4th month in a row I am amazed that the core 2 duo e7500 is still at least an honarable mention, I hope this stays here until at least July!!!!

 

[shubham1401]

Yet again for the 4th month in a row I am amazed that the core 2 duo e7500 is still at least an honarable mention, I hope this stays here until at least July!!!!

E7500 will remain the honorable mention until dual cores become obsolete for gaming.

It is a decent performer and there are still many people who have LGA 775 Mobo

 

[xizel]

still wondering if i do a simple upgrade to the honorable mention q9400 Now or wait a few months and do a full upgrade to PII X6.

 

[eddieroolz]

As much as I like this article, I think people should wait until the Phenom II X6 comes out, which will (almost certainly) result in massive price cuts!

 

[mad_typist]

The i7-930 can actually be snagged at a much lower cost if you watch sites like slickdeals.net you know. I got mine for $189 at Microcenter.

 

[abhishekk89]

agree with eddieroolz... will wait and see if it turns out to be gr8 will buy one or else go for the good old i5 750...

 

[hixbot]

Nice job!
I'm suprised you didn't mention that the core i3 can overclock to well over 4ghz on air.

 

[Onus]

Considering the findings in the article about i3 for games, I think the emphasis on "gaming" needs to be dropped from this comparison. Unless results from specific CPU-dependent titles can be cited, it was clear that all modern CPUs are sufficiently powerful that which one you choose doesn't matter much. The question becomes, will the bottom recommended chip, the Regor 245, handle modern games at typical resolutions (e.g. 1680x1050) with ANY GPU?
I think it would be useful to see the GAMES on the tiers, with the minimum CPU needed to play them well.
In the meantime, it looks like it will take productivity apps, not games, to distinguish a difference between a machine running an Intel i7 and one running an Athlon X3.

 

[Guest]

The table of info on the Core i7-930 has "Core i7-920" in the header row, but the rest of the table appears to be correct (i.e., 2.8 GHz).
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2599-6.html

 

[bongobrain]

Considering the findings in the article about i3 for games, I think the emphasis on "gaming" needs to be dropped from this comparison. Unless results from specific CPU-dependent titles can be cited, it was clear that all modern CPUs are sufficiently powerful that which one you choose doesn't matter much. The question becomes, will the bottom recommended chip, the Regor 245, handle modern games at typical resolutions (e.g. 1680x1050) with ANY GPU?
I think it would be useful to see the GAMES on the tiers, with the minimum CPU needed to play them well.

The i3 article shows that, given an HD 5850 and the subsequent resolutions/options (you don't buy a 5850 for a 1280*1024 monitor) , any processor upwards of or equal to an i3 will do.
IMO it is hardly relevant to indicate what cpu you need for a game: the question is what gpu (class) at typical resolutions you need (the best graphic card series already gives an indication of playable resolutions in most games). The next question is: what is the minimum cpu to drive that class of gpu. So what I would like to see in the "cpu for your money"-series is an indication along the lines of "this cpu will drive gpu's up to (specify class/tier) without becoming the bottleneck". But perhaps this is what you mean?
I do agree that gaming will no longer be the factor for choosing a cpu: that will be what you want your pc to do in the background while you're gaming....

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]cgramer[/nom]The table of info on the Core i7-930 has "Core i7-920" in the header row, but the rest of the table appears to be correct (i.e., 2.8 GHz).http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 599-6.html[/citation]

Thanks, fixed!

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Good to see the slight price reductions. Building a new system is getting to be expensive.

 

[Onus]

...
The next question is: what is the minimum cpu to drive that class of gpu. So what I would like to see in the "cpu for your money"-series is an indication along the lines of "this cpu will drive gpu's up to (specify class/tier) without becoming the bottleneck". But perhaps this is what you mean?
....

Yes, essentially. A column could be added to the GPU chart (or two, one for Intel, one for AMD), "minimum CPU to NOT bottleneck this card;" although also whether or not a specific game is CPU- or GPU-dependent may affect the result. THIS crowd is always going to go at least one more level than we need anyway

 

[saint19]

Good, at least in this guide my X4 955 still in the list.

 

[whiteodian]

Has anyone noticed that the prices provided by Tom's really suck. For example, the i7-930 is listed at 379.99 from CDW. It sells for 289.99 on Newegg. Most (I checked the x2 245, i5-750 and 980x) of the processors are $30-100 more expensive at the locations listed. Are they sponsors or something? Amazon's prices are also good. Anyhow, Newegg FTW!!

 

[Onus]

I call BS on the "Best prices for tested products" links. An Athlon II X2 245 for $90???? Preposterous; Newegg has it for $61. Phenom II X4 965 for $242? Toad pooh; $184 at Newegg.

 

[neosoul]

To properly show value here, you have to account for the higher mobo (and memory!) costs if you go with a different platform like LGA1156 / LGA1366. I deliberately bought a new LGA775 (about $60 bucks) board recently to use a free e6300 I had laying around. Overclocked it to 3.1xGHz using an Xigmatek rifle cooler with some cheap ram. Then used the savings to get a nVidia GTX260 (was $150 at microcenter!). Sure some of you will say, "for a few bucks more you could get..." but in this case, those few bucks more got the video card instead!

 

[terr281]

Neosoul, sounds like what I recently had to do. My primary gaming computer, with a e6750, has a Nvidia 680i lt MB that is going bad. Solution? Keep the processor, save money on a new MB versus buying a new MB & CPU and invest it in a mainstream SSD boot drive. (The computer will keep its single 9800GT GFX, the old boot drive will become an Application drive. A new data "music/files" drive was purchased as well.)

For the games I play, I saved quite a bit of money and have a much faster system versus a complete new system.