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

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If you can recommend a Core i5-3350P, you can recommend a Intel Core i5-4440 too. It costs slightly more, but is also a little faster and brings the Haswell advantages (supports new instructions and the motherboard brings improved features).
Picking Ivy Bridge over Haswell for overclocking is reasonable, but when you're not overclocking, Haswell performs better.
 

The 760K and 750K have the same microarchitecture - Piledriver. The Richland/Trinity distinction doesn't matter for the Athlons, even more so because they're both specced for DDR3-1866.
 





+1 for all these.
Actually I see no reason to suggest the ivybrige and sandybridge-e.
They should be replaced by the haswell/ivy-e products...
 


Please stop spreading misinformation. i3- two physical cores, with hyperthreading (four virtual); i5- 4 physical cores, no hyperthreading.
 
And remains teh mistery of TH: best CPU gaming CPU's remain the 3570k/3770k/3930k, while system builder marathon use Haswell chips that cost more and overclock less. Go figure a site where the editors can not produce articles with sensible conclusions congruent with each other.
 
I was in a dilemma between the FX 6300 and i5 3350p until I saw this. In my local store here in Singapore, a Asus H61M-A + i5 3350p costs SG$265 . But a FX 6300 + Asus M5A78L-M LX costs SG$236. I read many articles and I had a hard time deciding which to buy. But it seems the i5 3350P is better than the FX 6300.

The features that attracted me to the FX 6300 was that the socket type was still going to be used in future , and that it has an unlocked multiplier . So I thought the FX 6300 was more future proof . But then I figured that in future , I should just buy another CPU ( maybe another MOBO ) rather than to overclock the FX 6300.

A heavy load has been removed from my shoulder now. No more wasting time on this.

i5 3350P it is ! ( with a HD 7770 )
 

Haswell may overclock less but with ~7% better IPC, you need 200-300MHz less on Haswell to reach the same performance as IB. Same goes between IB and SB. So most of the OC headroom loss is offset by improved IPC and you get something close to net-zero change for overall performance.

But Haswell has two major advantages over IB: AVX2 extensions that can double throughput of algorithms optimized for it and double the IGP performance for people who may need to use it and games, apps, drivers, etc. that may leverage it for GPGPU in the future. Ex.: games can spend around 10% of their CPU time on audio mixing that they could fairly easily dump on IGPGPU if they wanted to.
 
As far as the price drop for the FX-9590 goes, anyone dumb enough to have bought that processor for the price they were charging out of the gate, deserves the sinking feeling they are getting in their stomach right now. There was no way that thing was worth the asking price, no... way... the current price is actually a lot closer to what it is worth
 
i'd like to see the Xeon 1230V2 in here as well, trades blows with the 4770K and is like $100 cheaper, cannot be OC'd but the returns on that alone are so small the 2 extra cores could be a nice incentive for it
 


Yes, the 1230v2 and v3 are great gaming cpu's for those that don't want to overclock but want i7 performance.
 

The Xeon 1230v2 has the same 4C8T as the i7-4770 but the Xeon has 200MHz slower boost clock.

If you compare MSRPs between retail 1230v2 and retail non-k 4770 (non-OCable CPU VS non-OCable CPU), you save ~$80 by sacrificing the i7's 200MHz extra boost.
 


Yea and that $80 could be put towards a better GPU. :)
 



not to mention can use a cheaper motherboard as well, so even more can be slung towards GPU, no need for a super expensive cooler, yet more towards GPU, its really a great processor lol
 
Yea if I wasn't interested in overclocking, that would be the CPU I would probably choose. Motherboard I would probably still not skimp too much on. I would want one that is capable of SLI and CF. The way I fall into deals, I wouldn't want to limit myself to a single card or CF only setup.
 


I wouldnt say this.
1230V2 is a generation before and at the same time is 200Mhz slower. But while it doesnt trade blows, its an excellent choice for $100 less.
 


Its not that they're poor for gaming rigs, its that the price/performance ratio isn't there yet. As a cpu a quad cored a8 or a10 is good enough to get you 60fps in pretty much any game when paired to a discrete gpu. the problem is price.

Why suggest an a10-6800k which sells for $140, when you can get an FX6300 for $120, which will have 2 more of the SAME cores and likely overclock as well or better.

APUs are poor BUDGET choice in a gaming rig when you plan to buy a discrete graphics card. Until the single core performance on an AMD APU is significantly higher, and the performance vs an i3/i5 is on par, and the price lower, it won't be a good buy.

the rumors out there place kaveri close (close not the same, likely it will still be a little slower) to the per core performance on a clock for clock basis of a sandybridge cpu. those rumors also place the igpu in the 7730-7790 range of performance (depending on the rumors it supposedly will be somewhere between those two, that's a big spread but the more credible rumors seem to tab it in the middle, somewhere faster then a 7750 and a little slower then a 7770).

if those rumors are true and AMD can place their top end kaveri quad core out there for 150 or less it will suddenly become a very viable budget option.

Thats the type of thing that will have to happen for an APU to be considered in a roundup like this.
 

It's because you can get the same CPUs without integrated graphics for a lower price. So in terms of CPU performance per dollar, APUs are never going to be worth it - the derived Athlons are always going to be superior.
 

No. None of that matters, because they can still sell you a cheaper version with disabled graphics. Note that there is already such a CPU on the list - the Athlon x4 750K.
 
Funny how fan boys try to bs amd has 4 cores and 4 threads, when it's really 2 cores and 4 threads, since the '4 core' are really SHARED cores, therefore really being a 2 core. Not surprised if the 8 cores cpus are really 'shared' cores as well.
 


not to step into an impending flame fest, but seriously... its a core module with 2 integer cores and 1 shared floating point core. it shares certain parts but basically it comes down to your definition of a core and how you look at it. Unlike hyptherthreading which is basically an awesome scheduling trick, there are physical parts that make up multiple cores in a bulldozer/piledriver cpu. There ARE two integer cores. Generally speaking that's the part that makes a cpu. So by almost ever definition of a cpu core 1 bulldozer module has 2 cores. they're just paired cored that share parts.



if they come out with that for Kaveri, you're right, that will be the much better buy. Depends though, i'm not sure Kaveri will come in that type of format because this will be the platform that launches hUMA for AMD, and they're really banking their future on the performance gains that will give their chips.

the real question is if the FX/AM3+ format is getting steamroller or not. as that will probably be the better buy then the APU.
 
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