Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 (Archive)

[Memnarchon]

Hi Don,
the Gaming CPU Performance Per Dollar page and graph have gaming performance and dollar amounts, but never actually calculate Performance Per Dollar.

Using the average performance % vs price on the legend, 5/26:

Athlon II X4 640 0.8

Phenom II X4 965 .75

AMD FX-4300 120 0.63

Intel Core I3-3220 .62

intel core i5-3550P .51

Intel Core i5 3570K .44

Intel Core i7 3930K .18

The performance to price ratio does *not* scale evenly; for that to happen the ratio would have to remain the same at each pricepoint. Instead, even excepting the 3930K the ratio falls drastically 0.8 to 0.44 - not scaling well at all. The fall off is linear except for the 3930K which would have to be priced at ~$300 instead of $570 to stay on the line.

I like what you have done just wish toms could have done it for the whole cpu gaming lineup. Greatjob!

This is very good indeed. Techpowerup does the same thing with GPUs. It would be nice for Tom's to do this with CPUs and not only the ones that they are recommanded but for all of them based on monthly price . We might find sum hidden good offers with this!

 

[army_ant7]

Don, don't forget to look into the Athlon X4 750K for the budget segment of this upcoming Best Gaming CPU article. It's out here in the US already. (I have no idea if someone has already said this above or if I'm spouting out very late news, but just want to make sure.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113328&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL060713&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL060713-_-EMC-060713-Index-_-ProcessorsDesktops-_-19113328-L04B

 

[ingtar33]

Don, don't forget to look into the Athlon X4 750K for the budget segment of this upcoming Best Gaming CPU article. It's out here in the US already. (I have no idea if someone has already said this above or if I'm spouting out very late news, but just want to make sure.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113328&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL060713&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL060713-_-EMC-060713-Index-_-ProcessorsDesktops-_-19113328-L04B

the athlon II x4 760k just came out...

 

[Madn3ss795]

Long live Ivy Bridge!

 

[Mike Stewart]

so...the 4770K is out.....and it looks like im still going strong with my 4.8Ghz 2700K !

 

[Mike Stewart]

so...the 4770K is out.....and it looks like im still going strong with my 4.8Ghz 2700K !

 

[ojas]

Was reading Tech Report, the FX-6350 may be worthy of a recommendation instead of the i3, below the $180 i5.

http://techreport.com/review/24954/amd-a10-6800k-and-a10-6700-richland-apus-reviewed/6

 

[BoredErica]

My Haswell didn't even make it into the $220 segment. Sad face. 🙁

 

[voodoobunny]

I have to say: I love the new visual format of the article! The framerate benchmarks for each CPU make it very easy to see and appreciate the relative values.

 

[darkmendez]

Tom still didn't fix the typo of their Hierarchy Chart... If u want people to respect the chart, fix the errors....Look at the second tier of AMD, there is one version of FX-6350..not two

 

[Sakkura]

Was reading Tech Report, the FX-6350 may be worthy of a recommendation instead of the i3, below the $180 i5.

http://techreport.com/review/24954/amd-a10-6800k-and-a10-6700-richland-apus-reviewed/6

I disagree. The FX-6350 is only slighty faster than the FX-6300, but it costs $20 more. Not worth it.

 

[mousseng]

Where is Tom's seeing these prices for the FX-8350? You say they dropped from $185 to $160 - but the lowest price I can find is $195 at Amazon (not counting Microcenter's $180 in-store price).

 

[ojas]

Was reading Tech Report, the FX-6350 may be worthy of a recommendation instead of the i3, below the $180 i5.

http://techreport.com/review/24954/amd-a10-6800k-and-a10-6700-richland-apus-reviewed/6

I disagree. The FX-6350 is only slighty faster than the FX-6300, but it costs $20 more. Not worth it.

Lol not arguing along those lines! Saw those benchmarks on TR, and thought that the 6350 should be a better buy than the i3 or the FX-4000 part they've included in the list.

If there's little to split a 6300 and 6350, recommend the 6300! I have no problem with that. 😀

 

[Wisecracker]

The standard price of the 95w FX-6300 is $119.99

(not to be confused with $120 )

 

[ingtar33]

so... yet again, we have another chart with no fx6300... the 6300 was running for less then 115 most of the month at most retailers (including newegg), yet they are grabbing the 4300 off amazon for $120

unbelievable.

I'll bite my tongue about using 2 Intel optimized games (out of the 3 listed)... but it's inexcusable at this point for the fx6300 to not be on the list.

 

[slomo4sho]

Is there a reason why there isn't a new discussion thread each month for this article?

 

[logainofhades]

Why keep putting the FX 4300 in the list when the FX 6300 is the same price? The FX 6300 or 6350 should be on the list. Either is a more capable chip than an i3 in multithread games and will OC when the i3 does not. The FX 8320 deserves at least an honorable mention.

 

[ojas]

Is there a reason why there isn't a new discussion thread each month for this article?

Something about them re-using links, iirc. Irritating as hell. Comments are difficult to read as it is when not in forum mode. I've kind of become tired of complaining about it :|

 

[slomo4sho]

Something about them re-using links, iirc. Irritating as hell. Comments are difficult to read as it is when not in forum mode. I've kind of become tired of complaining about it :|

Its been like this since the forum "upgrade"and it only seems be an issue with the "Best Gaming..." CPU and GPU threads...

 

[Sakkura]

Something about them re-using links, iirc. Irritating as hell. Comments are difficult to read as it is when not in forum mode. I've kind of become tired of complaining about it :|

Its been like this since the forum "upgrade"and it only seems be an issue with the "Best Gaming..." CPU and GPU threads...

Because there aren't many (any?) other articles they update every month.

 

[babernet_1]

Okay Tom. It is REALLY stupid to have months of replies all listed here. What in the world are you thinking?

 

[jrstriker12]

Local Micorcenter is selling the i5-3570K for only $10 more than buying the i5-3350P online. I don't intend to overclock but are the extra 300 MHz worth it for $10?

Makes the choice much tighter at that price point.

I wonder if Haswell is even worth looking at since Microcenter is selling the i5-4670K for only $20 more than the online price for the i5-3350P.

I'm surprised the price on the i5-3350P hasn't dropped more considering that it doen't have HD Graphics. What's up with Intel's pricing?

 

[computertech82]

Don't think it would be smart going with a pga2011 board that might get discontinued soon, in favor with the new haswell cpus/motherboard layout. I, myself will get a haswell cpu. AMD still cannot get even beat the more 'crappy' intel i3 cpus. That's pretty bad.
Will be interesting to see new benchmarks that someone said will be up soon.

 

[slomo4sho]

Because there aren't many (any?) other articles they update every month.

Isn't that what I was implying? These are the only real recurring threads on this site.

 

[Sakkura]

Local Micorcenter is selling the i5-3570K for only $10 more than buying the i5-3350P online. I don't intend to overclock but are the extra 300 MHz worth it for $10?

Makes the choice much tighter at that price point.

I wonder if Haswell is even worth looking at since Microcenter is selling the i5-4670K for only $20 more than the online price for the i5-3350P.

I'm surprised the price on the i5-3350P hasn't dropped more considering that it doen't have HD Graphics. What's up with Intel's pricing?

That's not down to Intel's pricing, that's Microcenter having its own weird pricing. The cheapest Core i5-3570K apart from Microcenter is $220; the cheapest Core i5-3350P is $179.

I guess Microcenter know that the K models are the ones that will draw in the crowd, so they gouge the price on them and make up for it from the other stuff people buy.

In your situation, the Core i5-4670K and 3570K both make sense. The 3350P is a bit pointless when it barely costs any less than the 3570K.