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

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I think you misunderstood. Zibri didn't said anything at all about what kind of programmes he will use.
I actually have a core i7 950 clocked stable at 4ghz. I wonder what would be a candidate for my next system. I don't need integrated hd video since I have dual geforce cards in SLI. I won't upgrade until I find a CPU that will perform, overclocked as fast as double my current setup.
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Do you see something that I don't?
 
Hmm... I though about a 990X just to start and wait some more time. You confirmed my theory. Unfortunately a lightning strike blew my marvell yukon ethernet adapter embedded in the P6X58D-E motherboard. Very strange. Nothing else seems damaged. The adapter just disappeared as if it never was there. I bought a new ethernet card for now.. but I'm starting to look around.

This is my actual rig that I build 2 years ago (and it's still kicking some butt). http://www.modsrigs.com/detail.aspx?buildid=28342
 


990X is nice, but only if you can find it at $400 or lower. Which is difficult I think. If you will find it at $600-700 or more (like $999 intel's MSRP), I think its better to go for a 6core LGA2011 (like 4930K), which the whole system (CPU, M/b (and maybe RAM)) will not cost you more than $800-900.
 
To answer memnarchon, I heavily use multiple windows programs so you can say I use heavily multithreaded apps. I have a lot of services running, i usually have no less than 50 tabs open in chrome, a few servers and often some virtual machines. So, yes, a 6 core would be enough for now. It just seems I can't find a 990X for a FAIR price on ebay. For the price of a 990X I could easily get a very good mainboard and a 4930k or similar cpu.
 
LOL. We posted the same thing at the same time. We are totally on the same page I think. 🙁 I'll wait then.
 

Haha :).
Probably you will wait forever as I did with the price of Q9650 or QX9770. Never found it so cheap that will justify its money for the upgrade. After 5 years of waiting, I bought an i7 😛.
 
Really were up to page 15! Wow!

I don't feel you should upgrade until the system won't run the program or game you want to. Then get the best you can afford that is available at that time. Regardless of the brand AMD or Intel, unfortunately AMD has fallen behind on providing a good performance CPUs since Intel came out with their iCore models.
 
^Agreed. My current systems exceed my needs for the foreseeable future. I don't play the latest shooters, so I'm actually not running my best graphics card in my primary system. I don't think I'd be happy with a dual-core, but even an i3 would almost certainly have been sufficient for "good" settings on all my games. A SSD makes the biggest difference for office-type applications.
 


If you don't need any of the quick sync upgrades than you should be fine for a bit. You have a pretty good CPU and should be fine. The only thing that you would benefit from is a bit lower power consumption during idle or near idle states.
 
most people go by hear say but it all comes down to the bench marks one person may have a particular cpu but hardware setup varies between each person and people sometimes fail to mention other technical aspects used to determine the performance outcome because even if you have a lot to invest in a cpu your hardware configuration and how you pair things together plays a big part I say compare the hardware in your build you will be using with the CPU you are looking to buy look on youtube/google for people that have similar setup and base your decision to buy on the price to performance Ratio until you find one you are satisfied with you may buy a CPU and not get the same performance as the other guy Just because of the rest of his setup the performance of your pc can be compared to the combustion timing of a vehicle all parts must work together for best performance and to prevent stalls the cpu doesn't carry the weight alone
 
Bottom line the best CPU for the money depends on how much money you want to spend. Unfortunately AMD hasn't been a factor in the hard core gamer enthusiasts market. AMD loyalist will point to the FX-6350 and FX-8350 as good alternatives. In some case they can perform well enough to compete with Intel i5s, but in most cases the i5 are better all around. i7 are another whole level above them. I have sold a lot of AMD in the past and I'm very disappointed with what I'm currently seeing from them. So to be honest the best CPU for the money tends to be a Intel CPU. You can settle for an AMD but you are settling for less. Of course if what your doing doesn't really need the best then AMD is fine.
 


your hitting on AMD but your forget AMD doesn't need to be the best they are something more important they provide competitive prices since Intel is so expensive I don't know what you could possibly do that would make AMD suck ? I am able to Run My games on max settings at 1920x1080 I don't kow wahat the B****ing is bout these processor do what they are suppose to so what if Intel is better if you have the money But better for what overclocking and getting performance you wouldn't need unless your doing some extreme stuff no complaints here got my 1045T for 100 and I am happy with my experience without dropping 400 most of this talk is hear say bull crap it comes down to the person using it My games run amazing on my computer and I couldnt be more happy I thank AMD for putting some quality CPUs on the market at a reasonable price so I can have a PC that matches my budget there are no sacred cows to me just like I hate apple way overpriced crap when an Android is just as good
 
What games do you play?I doubt you are maxing out very many with a 7770 @1080p.

 


I max out a lot of games at 1920x1080 Skyrim being one of them I am very happy with my setup don't ask what games I am playing like my pc is cheap Phenom II x6 is a great gaming processor for the money People blame the cpu too much if you have a quad core cpu and your games lag then it's not the cpu it's the Vdeo Card now if you want to future proof your system go right ahead and buy the best but new technology is always coming out lets just face it most of bad game performance comes from bad design I have played some games smooth as butter amazing graphics and some with less graphics and it runs crappy and people think they need better Hardware bull crap Developers need to get there Games worked out instead of Fans fixing it for them all the time and blaming the hardware is it fair the industry lies to us that we need better hardware pushing it down our throats when really it is bad design I can tell yo this My Pc does a good Job I get what I need out of it I even can run Texture mods I am not rich enough to have an i7 so I bought a combo from Tigerdirect will I upgrade in the future ? yea when i feel I really need to but right now it's not necessary it comes down to the games design there is not one quad core that isn't good enough for today's gaming needs it comes down to the video card and the games design for hardware demand nothing wrong with wanting the best if you can afford it but people should no the difference between what is required and what is extra sure if you have the money and want to buy an i7-4960HQ sure your gaming experience will be amazing but that much performance is not a necessary to meet today's gaming demands unless your a hardware enthusiast buff if you want to get technical ask yourself what the game demands out of the CPU I will not deny Intel makes the best if you have the money but it depends on how technically demanding the game is how much AI needs to be processed Ect...........
 


I'm pretty realistic about this stuff. I have a 7770, it's overclocked nicely, but i'll be the first person around to say it's not some super gpu.

That said i can play the games i play in 1080p and ultra graphics settings and max it out at 60fps. Its plenty of gpu for my needs (mass effect 1, 2, 3). I was even able to get 50fps out of it for tombraider, with some graphic tweeking. Of course tressfx had to be off, but really all i did was set it to high, and clicked off a few settings i couldn't even tell what they did. (looked the same to me).

Now as i said... this isn't some super/magic gpu... but it's also quite capable at 1080p. I played civ5 on full ultra settings in 1080p (i got like 15fps, but in civ 5, apparently 15fps is good enough to look smooth as silk... not enough animations for it to look choppy).
 
what do you mean not enough ? you performance jocks want over 50-60 fps to be happy the card does exactly what it's suppose too i get awesome graphics and it sure beats console
 
even at 40 fps your doing good I am sick of hardware buffs you need an i7 ect....... bull crap I know what my 7770 can do and my phenom II X 6 the way i see it if the game looks awesome and I get good fps 40-50-60 I could care less about 100 + frames first of all you need a monitor with a higher refresh rate than 60 to get more frames do i need to spend more money ? No i don't because my games run great and smooth even my gt 630 got decen fps on high settings in most games thats how i based my upgrade i knew if it could do that without dedicated power then the 7770 would be a heck of a jump and i was correct
 

Everyone has a different definition of how good is good enough so this is one area where people need to learn to agree to disagree and just leave it at that.

I'm still using a HD5770 (reused from my previous PC) and while half the people here would probably call me crazy for sticking with such an ancient GPU, that is still good enough for me. Same goes with people who preach overclocking... for me, a 10-20% bump makes no meaningful difference (if performance at stock speed is unacceptable, a 20% bump simply makes it 20% more tolerable) so I much prefer leaving the $100+ difference between OC-oriented i5/i7 hardware and non-OCable hardware in my bank account for a more significant upgrade further down the line.
 
I'm still liking my GTX 295 that I got in 2009. Coupled with an i7 3770, it does very well. I just started playing BioShock Infinite and I set all the video controls up as high as they would go and it is picture perfect as always with this GPU. But that's what I would expect with a cloud based game for just about any higher end GPU.
 
I think the other member misunderstood what i meant.The R7770 is a decent enough card to game with that being said i was curious what games they played as i know a R7770 cannot max out 1. Crysis 2-3, and Crysis Warhead
2. Metro 2033,Metro: Last Light
3. ARMA II.
4. Hitman: Absolution
5. STALKER Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat
6. Far Cry 3
7. Alien VS Predator
8.witcher 2
9.BF3
 
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