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

[ojas]

Core i7-860, -920, -930, -940, -950
Core i5-3220T, -750, -760, -2405S, -2400S

These are placed a tier too low, imo. Or, the Core i3s and the FX-6000, 4000 SKUs are placed a tier too high.

Also Don, the i3-3225 should be the honourable mention, not the other way around.

 

[someperson123]

Why does it seem that the Haswell processors are getting no love in the actual list?
A quick price check shows some newer alternatives that on the 1150 socket that won't be "old news" before you buy it... At it's going rate of about $170, the i5-4470 is a solid processor. For about $230, the i5-4670K is great for a solid level machine that likely would be comparible to the i7-3770K (aside from a slightly smaller L2) for about $100 less.
I do not know if the Ivy Bridge-E processors were actually released yet, but I see benchmarking articles for some of them, but the price may be to high even for extreme builds, so it's not a surprise they are missing.

 

[SkateZilla]

I can tell you with 100% Certainty, that FX9000 Series is Overpriced and worthless.

A. it targets System Builders,
B. it's overpriced by about $600

My FX-8350 Beats every benchmark Posted for the 9590, by a considerable amount

FX9590 Runs 25x200 (Bumping the MP from 20 to 25 on a higher binned chip, that constitutes a $700 Price hike?)

I Run my FX8350 at 5.15GHz (well 5148MHz)

I used to run 25x200, Then 24x214.5,
But I moved the Multiplier down and the FSB Up more to 238 once I got everything stable on a 238 MHz Bus at a Lower MP, then Slowly increased MP back up from 15 to 22, Adjusting voltage as well and from there I hit a wall, where the increase in mv was too much for a mere 55mhz clock increase.

So 5148Mhz at 238*22 (@1465mv), Higher Memory Speeds, Higher Bus Speeds, Higher HTT, and still under the 1.5v+ these FX9590 CPUs require to run full turbo.

Save $700 and get a FX-8350

The difference between 4Ghz and 4.7/5.0Ghz in games isnt enough to warrant $700.

 

[flyflinger]

Yay for Athlon X4 750K! Something new, finally! As much as I liked the Phenom X4 965, and Athlon II 640, they are 4 & 3 year old chips respectively and it's refreshing to finally see something new on the bottom end of the list. Looking forward to the AMD comparison article.

 

[slomo4sho]

These are placed a tier too low, imo. Or, the Core i3s and the FX-6000, 4000 SKUs are placed a tier too high.

Also Don, the i3-3225 should be the honourable mention, not the other way around.

Considering that the 8350, 9370, and 9590 are tiered together with the i3s, it isn't too difficult to conclude that the chart isn't very accurate.

 

[shawn808]

My 2600K build @ 4.8 GHZ from may of 2011 is still BEAST...

Looks like ill get 4 plus years out of this build before I even consider upgrading the chipset.

Hey chip makers, some of us could care less about 12 HT cores

We want more speed on the chip you can keep the cores and your eco friendly power usage.

GIVE ME SPEED

 

[ingtar33]

Wow how much does Intel pay for this chart and these benchmarks? there is simply no way any Intel CPU has better value than the 8350. You can talk till ur blue in the face but its just not true. the 8350 is the best bang for the buck out there. No to mention who actually just runs the game? i am running 3 programs at a time with a game thus i need AMD 8000 series

because the rankings are based on performance in 3 games. Skyrim, Civ5, and FarCry3... 2 of those 3 games run terrible on AMD chips (skyrim and civ5 both use x87 code which amd cpus don't support). The result is the FX processors won't compete in this roundup. The 8320 at $140 might earn a place in this lineup, but the 8350 selling for 190 won't.

 

[fkr]

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 - Page 10

every-time is see the headline for this forum it just cracks me up. I think you guys should start recommending some of the eol chips to because you can pick up a 2500k still someplace. If only when things change they would change for the better. such is life

 

[fkr]

I am glad you are not rec'd the Pentium G860 since they are out of stock on newegg

 

[Sakkura]

Core i7-860, -920, -930, -940, -950
Core i5-3220T, -750, -760, -2405S, -2400S

These are placed a tier too low, imo. Or, the Core i3s and the FX-6000, 4000 SKUs are placed a tier too high.

Also Don, the i3-3225 should be the honourable mention, not the other way around.

That's the 3220. The 3225 doesn't deserve any kind of recommendation for gaming.

 

[logainofhades]

is the 3350p really better than the 20$ cheaper FX 8320?

Not at all, the 3350p is only worth getting if you already have a SNB or IVB chip and want to upgrade cheaply without changing your motherboard. 8320 and 8350 both are better cpu's as they are capable of overclocking and the 3350p is quite limited in that area.

 

[fkr]

lets just down vote all the comments that are from 6 months ago so I do not have to keep reading the same comments for 6 months. Tuesday 15 January 2013 23:34:26

 

[Jackrzu]

You cannot put a sandy i5 on a different tier than fx 9000s and even 8300s

 

[jrstriker12]

Hmmmm.... Another reason not to go Haswell for right now:
A system based on Haswell platform, when waking from S3 sleep mode, will experience issues with devices connected through USB 3.0.
http://www.techpowerup.com/180906/intel-haswell-platform-faces-usb-3-0-issue-report.html

Chipsets with the fix will be out in Sept.
http://www.techpowerup.com/187392/motherboards-with-revised-intel-8-series-chipset-to-show-up-by-september.html

 

[daswilhelm]

Hmmmm.... Another reason not to go Haswell for right now:
A system based on Haswell platform, when waking from S3 sleep mode, will experience issues with devices connected through USB 3.0.
http://www.techpowerup.com/180906/intel-haswell-platform-faces-usb-3-0-issue-report.html

Chipsets with the fix will be out in Sept.
http://www.techpowerup.com/187392/motherboards-with-revised-intel-8-series-chipset-to-show-up-by-september.html

it "could". not "will". i never had that issue.

 

[Sakkura]

is the 3350p really better than the 20$ cheaper FX 8320?

Not at all, the 3350p is only worth getting if you already have a SNB or IVB chip and want to upgrade cheaply without changing your motherboard. 8320 and 8350 both are better cpu's as they are capable of overclocking and the 3350p is quite limited in that area.

It's a fine choice if you're not going to overclock. And an 8320 with an overclocking-capable motherboard and sufficient cooler will be much more expensive than a 3350P with a cheap B75 motherboard and the stock cooler.

 

[jrstriker12]

Hmmmm.... Another reason not to go Haswell for right now:
A system based on Haswell platform, when waking from S3 sleep mode, will experience issues with devices connected through USB 3.0.
http://www.techpowerup.com/180906/intel-haswell-platform-faces-usb-3-0-issue-report.html

Chipsets with the fix will be out in Sept.
http://www.techpowerup.com/187392/motherboards-with-revised-intel-8-series-chipset-to-show-up-by-september.html

it "could". not "will". i never had that issue.

Point taken. Would still hate to be the person the it "does" happen to. Could be annoying.

 

[Zenick]

210-180=$30 not 40 (difference in price between i5-3350P and i5-3570K)

 

[ballerslife]

How come there's no Haswell?

 

[masmotors]

well i just got the 4670k which is way chaper thant he amd 9xxx i still have the fx 6100 hd 650 and 8 gb 133 ram but my new haswell pc has msi z87 mobo hd 7850 and 16 gb 1866 ares so happy amd needs top pric ethyat cpu at 245 to be relavent

 

[flong777]

It is interesting that the 2500k and 2600k and 2700k still compete well with IB and Haswell even though they are no longer available. They definitely were the sweet spot in CPU value.

I am glad TH gave the I-7 3770 honorable mention because it is a rocket ship in overall performance when compared to the 3930 and 3970 (in cost/performance). Haswell in general has performance issues unless it is used in laptops. For desktops, Haswell is largely a waste of money.

A lot of gamers probably use their computers for other functions. When this is the case the 3770 and 3930 are options worth looking at. The sheer performance of the 3930 is pretty impressive; even Haswell's top chips don't really beat it.

 

[Memnarchon]

Haswell in general has performance issues unless it is used in laptops. For desktops, Haswell is largely a waste of money.

Would you mind telling us the performance issues of 4670K and 4770K?

 

[logainofhades]

Haswell in general has performance issues unless it is used in laptops. For desktops, Haswell is largely a waste of money.

Would you mind telling us the performance issues of 4670K and 4770K?

It is more like limited overclocking/thermal issues. An IVB chip can overclock higher and make up for the small performance gap of a Haswell chip.

 

[jrstriker12]

How come there's no Haswell?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-4770k-haswell-performance,3461-8.html

Long story short, probably not the chip you want if you are going to overclock and the addition of better on-chip graphics doesn't matter as much if you are running a discrete GPU as most gamers do. Plus you need to upgrade your mobo for the new socket.

 

[slomo4sho]

Plus you need to upgrade your mobo for the new socket.

Upgrading to the new motherboard socket is the primary reason to pickup Haswell over Ivy if you are building a new system. The new boards bring more to the table than the CPUs.