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

[Guest]

This month, we talk about new Llano-based APUs with unlocked core and graphics clock multipliers, Intel's upcoming Atom CPU refresh, and a few notable price adjustments. Then, we bid farewell to a few favorite processors that are quickly disappearing.

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: May 2012 : Read more

 

[adamovera]

Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2176387/gaming-cpus-money-january-2012.html

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

we have unlocked i7's, i5's, now an unlocked Pentium... When do we have an i3? that would be awesome

 

[blackmagnum]

An unlocked i3 that would bite the heels of a stock i5? Not happening!

 

[CodeMatias]

The ridiculous chart at the end needs to be redone... The performance divided by price is the entire point of the article, yet the chart only shows performance and price...

And stop making it a curve for price, these are discrete components!

 

[Onus]

After reading the review of the unlocked Pentium, clearly it does pretty well. Might it absolutely choke on certain well-threaded games? Yes, it beats the 750K most of the time, but are there certain titles for which it is absolutely the wrong choice?

 

[sea monkey]

"I don’t recommend upgrading your CPU unless the potential replacement is at least three tiers higher."

Do you think Skylake will finally bring about a tier shift in your chart? My Phenom II X4 965 (C3) was released in November of 2009, yet there's still nothing three tiers above it.

 

[maddogfargo]

I would love to see a chart just sorting by individual game performance. This would be useful.

Tom's tests with games that are 2, 4 and 6+ core capable. Knowing how each CPU does in low, medium and high thread count environments will help people choose better based on the kinds of games thay play.

 

[vishalaestro]

still my core2duo E9400 paired with amd 7750 works perfectly on medium settings at 1600x900 .i couldn't believe that adding a gpu will make my pc faster than ever in gameplay.

 

[littleleo]

I have heard most of the 1150 motherboard chipsets besides the Z87/97 models can overclock. The motherboard companies can't advertise this or they will violate their marketing agreement with Intel. It would be great to see Tom's do some testing of this with some of the entry level motherboards perhaps we don't have to wait for that cheaper board after all. Perhaps we have them now and just don't know it.

 

[Lightbulbie]

So how come if the FX-6300 does better than the i3, it's in a lower grade? Same price can be found on both. C'mon Toms, you're lacking as of late.

 

[RedJaron]

After reading the review of the unlocked Pentium, clearly it does pretty well. Might it absolutely choke on certain well-threaded games? Yes, it beats the 750K most of the time, but are there certain titles for which it is absolutely the wrong choice?

My question as well, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming year. Watch Dogs is a good example of newer, bigger games that demand both CPU and GPU. At higher resolutions/details, Trinity chips are considerably slower than an i5 at 3.4GHz, even if paired with a 290X. It's still playable, but is this indicative of a change in games to come?

I have heard most of the 1150 motherboard chipsets besides the Z87/97 models can overclock. The motherboard companies can't advertise this or they will violate their marketing agreement with Intel. It would be great to see Tom's do some testing of this with some of the entry level motherboards perhaps we don't have to wait for that cheaper board after all. Perhaps we have them now and just don't know it.

Some of them can. I've heard Asus and ASRock are the main "culprits" here. The news I've read says we DO have them now as well.

 

[Onus]

It depends on the game. Poorly-threaded titles will run much better on the i3. Remember too that the table is for the CPUs at stock; overclocking I'd expect is good for a one-tier jump, maybe two in some cases.

 

[Deus Gladiorum]

Come on, AMD. I'm hoping that this new water-cooled CPU isn't just a rehash and is something new all together to at least put some mileage back into camp AMD. Considering the money they must be getting from having their silicon packed into every 8th gen console, they hopefully can put those funds into some R&D. Regardless of what side you belong to, I think everyone can recognize the need for AMD to start throwing out some brand new standalone CPUs to put some fire under its competition. The last thing we need is Intel to solidify that monopoly on the standalone CPU market.

 

[CaptainTom]

Ugh, the FX-4350 does not belong next to the 8-core CPU's, and the 8-core cpu's are as strong as i5's. Whatever this will become more clear over time just like when the Phenom II x4's jumped up 3 spots all of the sudden...

 

[TheEvolution]

What are the alternative entry level gaming budget CPUs ?
Intel Pentium G3258 & Athlon X4 750K not available in India and will never be available in future here.

 

[de5_Roy]

What are the alternative entry level gaming budget CPUs ?
Intel Pentium G3258 & Athlon X4 750K not available in India and will never be available in future here.

the article is mainly based on u.s. prices. other markets will have varying prices like the example below.

as for india, lower end amd cpus/apus tend to show up late. on flipkart.com, a10 7850k(out of stock atm) is priced higher than core i5 4440. even if 750k doesn't show up, the pentium g3258 is much more likely to show up. the new unlocked cpus only recently went on sale in the u.s., they'll show up later in other markets.

 

[jwesley]

AMD's Athlon 760K has been out for more than a year now. It costs $10 more than the 750K and has better performance. Why aren't we seeing it here?

 

[computertech82]

ouch no amds in the list at all. But i guess that's normal now. AMD did admit they will not compete against intel anymore.

 

[James Mason]

Where's the i3 4130?

 

[George Purcell]

I have a Dell XPS 420 with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. How do I know which versions of the i3-i7 chips represent a three tier upgrade?

 

[Deus Gladiorum]

I have a Dell XPS 420 with a Core 2 Quad Q6600. How do I know which versions of the i3-i7 chips represent a three tier upgrade?

Well practically every i3, i5, and i7 represents a three-tier or greater upgrade over your current CPU, but if you want to confirm, go to the Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart on the second-to-last page of the article.

 

[raptorkill]

So are all these CPUs ranked by stock speeds or are they taking the OC into account???

 

[de5_Roy]

So are all these CPUs ranked by stock speeds or are they taking the OC into account???

by stock clockrates, on the hierarchy chart. overclocking, exceptional non-gaming application performance, power/heat issues etc. are mentioned in the article where needed.

 

[Agera One]

Why doesn't Intel i5-4440 processor isn't added yet?