Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: August 2011

[cleeve]

August gives us a number of price cuts, especially across AMD's Phenom II X4 and X6 families. We consider the impact of lower prices, in addition to how all this may fit into the imminent release of Bulldozer, AMD's next-generation desktop architecture.

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: August 2011 : Read more

 

[jdw_swb]

2500K....awesome gaming chip.

Got mine running at 4.5Ghz, so easy to overclock and maintain low temps.

Another month gone, where is AMD/Bulldozer?

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

[citation][nom]JDW_SWB[/nom].Another month gone, where is AMD/Bulldozer?[/citation]
September 18

 

[wribbs]

Now that we have mobile GPU's in the GPU hierarchy chart it would be nice to see some mobile CPU's in the CPU hierarchy chart.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

this list is growing smaller indeed. This is good in a way, a top end cpu only costs $200, that is insane when many, lower end CPU's i have bought in the past cost much more than that. AMD, you need to drop your prices or noone will buy your old tech.

 

[alhanelem]

i hope bulldozer will at least be up to par with the 2nd generation core i chips.
i would love to replace my e850 with a cheap yet high performing chip from AMD

 

[Guest]

Heres to hoping this is the last list without bulldozer.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]iam2thecrowe[/nom]this list is growing smaller indeed. This is good in a way, a top end cpu only costs $200, that is insane when many, lower end CPU's i have bought in the past cost much more than that.[/citation]
AMD's entry level dual-core processor (Athlon 64 X2 3800+) I bought back in summer 2005 cost me around $370. And now you can buy the fastest quad-core processor on the market (i7 2600K) for $315... amazing.

 

[bombat1994]

remember the 2600k is the equivilent of the core i7 920 or 860 the real high end chips have yet to be release as of yet

 

[traumadisaster]

As long as these high end chips stay on 1155, fine. Dont make me buy a new mobo.

 

[ojas]

What really amazes me is the price drops in AMD processors. The Phenom II X6 1100T BE was originally a $265 (company estimate) chip. Today it sells for around $100 less, about 9 months from release (online rates are lower than the company estimated price). The X4 980 prices haven't moved so much during the last 8 months though.

Compare that to any Sandy Bridge processor. I think all of them are selling for more than what the company prices them at, which is still the same as they were at the release date. The various SB i5s and i7s have been around for 8 months as well.

We need to Bulldoze some Intel prices i guess...

 

[flclkun]

while i hope BD is successful. I'm gonna laugh my ass off if/when it falls right on its face when it wont be the game changer that AMD fans are hoping it will be or put an end to Intel's rein.

Intel is a multi-billion dollar company for a reason.

 

[hameem 1]

they should chose the phenom ii x3 720BE as the best cpu for $75 ..right ?

 

[quicksilver98]

[citation][nom]traumadisaster[/nom]As long as these high end chips stay on 1155, fine. Dont make me buy a new mobo.[/citation]

ROFL - That's what you get when buying an Intel CPU...

 

[Onus]

There's another tiny reason to choose a X4 970BE over a 955BE or 965BE: power consumption. For whatever reason, the 970BE uses less power at stock, even though it is faster. OC the other two to match it, and the difference will be even greater. Here's just one chart; I think there were others, but I can't find them: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/64
There are performance differences, certainly, but any modern CPU can play any game. Yes, you've shown that CPU makes a difference (a lot more than expected in some games), but GPU still generally makes more, and someone willing to lower just a few settings will not experience a decrease in the quality of the game play. With that said, for the same money, I'll take a slower AMD CPU on a full-featured, high quality mobo over a faster Intel CPU on a stripped-down mobo any day.

 

[Guest]

I feel like you could have saved yourself some time and just posted a link to any of the last 5 "Best CPU" articles. The only change is the price, and in the technology world a price drop is not exactly a surprise to anyone.

 

[dragonsqrrl]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]What really amazes me is the price drops in AMD processors. The Phenom II X6 1100T BE was originally a $265 (company estimate) chip. Today it sells for around $100 less, about 9 months from release (online rates are lower than the company estimated price). The X4 980 prices haven't moved so much during the last 8 months though.Compare that to any Sandy Bridge processor. I think all of them are selling for more than what the company prices them at, which is still the same as they were at the release date. The various SB i5s and i7s have been around for 8 months as well.We need to Bulldoze some Intel prices i guess...[/citation]
... the irony is that the AMD price drops you're referring to occurred because of Sandy Bridge. There's really no immediate reason for Intel to enact a price drop on their Sandy Bridge processors, but even if they did, it would only mean that AMD would have to follow suit with an additional price drop of their own to remain performance competitive at a given price point.

AMD is in desperate need of higher performance processors that they can price against Intel at the $200+ price points. The good news is that the FX-8150P seems to be targeted at the $300 price point. If this is true then in all likelihood AMD's highest-end Bulldozer processor will be performance competitive with the i7-2600K.

http://www.guru3d.com/news/amd-eightcore-fxseries-bulldozer-cpus-cost-300/

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]hameem 1[/nom]they should chose the phenom ii x3 720BE as the best cpu for $75 ..right ?[/citation]

Doesn't come with a cooler, so add at least $15 on top of that. Then it doesn't look as good, especially since the OEM models come with a reduced warranty...

But it can still be decent if you know what you're getting and are hoping for one that unlocks to four cores.

 

[cleeve]

With that said, for the same money, I'll take a slower AMD CPU on a full-featured, high quality mobo over a faster Intel CPU on a stripped-down mobo any day.

The GPU is important, yes, but some modern games can be held back significantly by a Phenom II.

If you're thinking an AMD 980 vs i5-2500K, then you're losing out on a big chunk of performance in some cases. A cheap 1155 mobo will that CPU be *significantly* faster in some games. But if you look past games, you're losing an even more significant amount of performance with everything else if you go with a Phenom II.

Don't get me wrong, I've been recommending AMD CPUs for years. But Sandy bridge is just that good. Bulldozer needs to arrive soon, and it needs to be decent enough to reach the GPU bottleneck again.

 

[eddieroolz]

Here's hoping that Zambezi can turn this chart on its head next month!

 

[fyasko]

AMD's future is key to keeping prices where they are or potentially dropping for mid-mid/upper class chips. i was an AMD fanboi, now i realize the relationship amd has with intel is what keeps our price/performance ratio where enthusiast want it. hopefully amd's BD has a flawless release and is a great chip.

 

[s4fun]

The hierarchy chart needs to updated to include the X4 840.

 

[buzznut]

[citation][nom]hameem 1[/nom]they should chose the phenom ii x3 720BE as the best cpu for $75 ..right ?[/citation]
I see no reason to not recommend this as the best sub $100 CPU. Sure, you need to pay for a cooler but for enthusiasts who uses the oem???

 

[bustapr]

a mobile gpu chart is a great idea.

 

[bpdski]

Has anyone heard any rumors if AMD might produce a 32nm version of it's current Phenom X6 or maybe even a new Phenom X8 for all of us with existing Phenom systems that might want to upgrade? There sure are a bunch of Phenom owners that I bet would enjoy one last upgrade...