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

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Please *stop* recommending dual core CPUs. Some current games won't even (officially) start on dual core CPUs and future games mostly likely won't start at all, without any magic fixes. Most people don't overclock their CPU as well.

Best budget CPU should be the Athlon x4 750K/760K/860K and the following in the budget line would be FX 6300.


You are doing people a disservice still highlighting the Pentium as a better option and the FX as a honorable mention.
 
And change your games already. It's 2015, you are using a game from 2010, one from 2011 and one from 2012. Two of those games are *only* dual core aware. Sheesh.
 
What are you talking about, Cryio?

Exactly which games "won't even officially start on dual core CPUs" ?

Here are some game benches that Tom's Hardware did with a Penitum G3258
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888-3.html

Even Star Citizen, arguably the most forward-looking games in terms of hardware, STILL supports dual core!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cig/star-citizen/posts/361848

Again, what in the BLAZING FLAMES OF HECK, are you talking about, CRYIO?
 
I also would never recommend a dual core CPU for a desktop unless it was almost free or if it was the best useful upgrade to an already owned box. It is very close price to get a 4 core even I have built systems with used cpu sense the cpu almost never fails if taken care of and there have been no lightning strikes on the house. Generally as power surge go it the parts go bad or power and motherboard.
 


Try either Far Cry 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition. Neither works with a dual core. An I3 is fine, but with the Pentium G, these games simply won't launch.
 
There's a reason they still use old games. That's not saying I wouldnt like to see a DA:I benchmark too.
 
A dual core cpu is a terrible pick in 2014, Even a High ipc with a high clock will struggle in the most basic multitasking scenario. Why would anyone use the computer as if we were in the 90's, one application at a time. Sorry but as fun as it's the pentium is not a gaming cpu, and seeing as how most new engines benefit from more threads it will be a very shortly lived investment. For intel the i3 are the bare minimum. And frankly I will for the same price take an fx 8320e and undervolt it. The 4690k is not the correct pick either the 4790k is a much better choice as some heavy cpu bound games like crysis 3, watchdogs or unity are only playable above 60 fps with an i7. And please include relevant benchmarks, inquisition, thief, shadow of mordor.
 
Assembling parts for a new build, and was looking at i5 "S" processors for low power and was considering a 4460S, but couldn't pass up NCIX US (yesterday) where I got a 4440 for just $165! Since I'm not OCing...
 
I think at the entry-level price point, the Pentium recommendation is still a good one. Why? Because the upgrade path is second to none. Build a PC with an Athlon x4 and well, that's all its ever going to be - there's no meaningful upgrade. Build with a 6300, well that's pretty much it, the upgrades are negligible. Build with a haswell pentium and you can upgrade all the way to a i7-4790k. So yeah, at the entry-level price point, a Pentium is still an excellent value due to the enormous potential of the underlying platform at such a low entry point.
 


Anyone building a new PC is likely to be building it to play one of the new games. At a minimum, TH should be up on things enough to insert a large caveat behind the Pentium G recommendation. The fact that this isn't even mentioned in this article is a complete fail.
 
"The 4690k is not the correct pick either the 4790k is a much better choice as some heavy cpu bound games like crysis 3, watchdogs or unity are only playable above 60 fps with an i7. And please include relevant benchmarks, inquisition, thief, shadow of mordor."

-eltidi-


I'm going to pretend that what you wrote was supposed to be a joke. I'm going to pretend that because you've made an account and post messages/responses on Tom's Hardware that you have an idea about computing and hardware and that what you write is meant to make sense.

Otherwise, the garbage you just posted wouldn't make much sense otherwise. Please tell me in what world an i7 has any more bearing on your aforementioned games or gaming in general? Please tell me you understand that hyperthreading is completely pointless and irrelevant when it comes to gaming and frame rate benchmarks? My little i5 3570k Ivy Bridge has the same exact frame rate as the $1050 dollar 5960x enthusiast i7.

Again, I'm going to assume you already know this though and your comment was meant to be facetious. I laughed anyway.
 
I've been following the "Best XXX for the money" for a while and quite enjoy them. I think what completely missing "Best CONTENT CREATION CPU for the money". I think we can all agree that CPU power for gaming is, for the most part, irrelevant up at the higher end.
 


Far Cry 4
 


Your i5 has the same framerate as an 5960x if you have a 100$ entry level graphic card, if not you are delusional my friend. An i5 even overclocked will have dips below 60 fps in the games I talked about even with a gtx 980, The i7 with the hyperthreading and higher cache will maintain the precious 60 fps. And I know it because I have an oc i5. Sure most games are gpu bound but the ones I gave you are not and require a powerful cpu, now knowing that is far less cumbersome to just upgrade the gpu I always maitain that a high end cpu is a good investment. People are still gaming with high end cards and an oc i7 920, can we say the same about the people that bought a phenom in 2008.

And to illustrate my point just watch this with a gtx 780 imagine the difference with a more powerful card.
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXZF7yUhgc"][/video]

and sorry but you don't have a 1000$ cpu

http--www.gamegpu.ru-images-stories-Test_GPU-Videocards-game_2014-video-CPU-proz_fps.jpg
 
"

Your i5 has the same framerate as an 5960x if you have a 100$ entry level graphic card, if not you are delusional my friend. An i5 even overclocked will have dips below 60 fps in the games I talked about even with a gtx 980, The i7 with the hyperthreading and higher cache will maintain the precious 60 fps. And I know it because I have an oc i5. Sure most games are gpu bound but the ones I gave you are not and require a powerful cpu, now knowing that is far less cumbersome to just upgrade the gpu I always maitain that a high end cpu is a good investment. People are still gaming with high end cards and an oc i7 920, can we say the same about the people that bought a phenom in 2008.

And to illustrate my point just watch this with a gtx 780 imagine the difference with a more powerful card.
[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXZF7yUhgc"][/video]

and sorry but you don't have a 1000$ cpu"

-eltidi-

I can't believe I'm still going to entertain you and actually respond again. First of all, the video you posted has about zero accreditation to it. There was absolute zero scientific method to the way the testing was conducted and let alone sink alot of faith in someone with the YouTube alias of "Tech Master Wiz".

Next the games you mentioned run just fine and at 60 FPS with no dips just fine on my measly i5 3570k paired with an older 7970 crossfire setup. Yes, I do have my CPU overclocked, but I have absolute no reason to do so. Why? It's because my GPUs are not bottlenecked at all by my CPU. Once again, hyperthreading has no impact on gaming as as advanced programming languages such as C++ do not utilize virtual cores. In fact, most games using a hyperthreaded CPU such as an i7 suffer a 2-3% decrease in framerate. Also the games you mentioned don't even use more than 2-3 cores tops. Crysis 3 is the only game you listed that truly benefits from a multi-core CPU with any CPU that offers 4 or more cores on the die.

Lastly, I never claimed to have a $1000 CPU. I was simply comparing my $200 i5 to the more expensive (and unnecessary for gaming) $1050 5960x i7 enthusiast CPU.
 


Any FX based 2-Module CPU is basically a dual core. You're contradicting yourself as such. The 6xxx series are basically 3 cores. Until you start seeing real quad cores under $100, you're going to have dual cores recommended. The 6xxx series have been hovering around $100 as well. Maybe they'll drop to $60 and knock the pentiums off the list.
 
Your info about hyperthreading is outdated, from the i7 920 years, where games didn't benefit from hyperthreading and you had a negative impact, all the new engines benefit from it, frost engine, cryengine 3 or unreal tech. There is virtually no games running those engines where an i5 is tied with an i7 at the same frequency. You can believe whatever you want but I have tested it. Anyway I'm leaving it here.

Regards.
 
It's worth mentioning on the hierarchy chart that overclocking can move your CPU up a tier or two. You listed the Pentium G3258 in Tier 5, which is fair for a base clock, but didn't mention that when overclocking it can outperform the Athlon X4 750k, which is in Tier 3.
 
I think it's time to retire the 3 games in your benching list for there articles. skyrim, civ5 and farcry 3 are all 3+ years or older.

There are lots of new, heavily demanding games released in the last year that probably should be looked at for cpu and gpu evaluation purposes.
 
Your info about hyperthreading is outdated, from the i7 920 years, where games didn't benefit from hyperthreading and you had a negative impact, all the new engines benefit from it, frost engine, cryengine 3 or unreal tech. There is virtually no games running those engines where an i5 is tied with an i7 at the same frequency. You can believe whatever you want but I have tested it. Anyway I'm leaving it here.

Regards.
Click to expand...
Hyperthreading is beneficial in games, look at comparisons between Pentium g and
i3 CPUs. The i3 is significantly faster due to hyperthreading, which is the only difference. This obviously has less effect with 4 core hyper thread because most games can't efficiently use more than 4 threads, but some can.
 
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