Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012

[logainofhades]

For a 4590, this would be a solid choice.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $81.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-16 16:58 EDT-0400

 

[Drownzsurf]

I think the AMD FX 4350 should get some mention, it is 4.2mhz base (OC to 5) and it wavers in price around 70 dollars plus or minus some. I replaced it with an 8370e, don't see much difference playing BF4. (I use a GTX 750 gpu) and 8 g ram. I see the great graphics in Crysis 3, too.

This is on a 78 LMT mATX mobo, too. I'm cheap, and not too bright, because if I hadn't refitted some other pcs, and put all my eggs in one basket, I'd have had a better rig. The fun is in the building and reading about it like on this site.

Maybe I don't know what I'm missing. (Update: I now realize I can't get 'Ultra'.)

 

[logainofhades]

I think the AMD FX 4350 should get some mention, it is 4.2mhz base (OC to 5) and it wavers in price around 70 dollars plus or minus some. I replaced it with an 8370e, don't see much difference playing BF4. (I use a GTX 750 gpu) and 8 g ram. I see the great graphics in Crysis 3, too.

This is on a 78lmt matx mobo, too. I'm cheap, but not too bright, because if I hadn't refitted some other pcs, and put all my eggs in one basket, I'd have had a better rig.

Maybe I don't know what I'm missing.

You didn't see much difference because of your low end GPU. That 8370e was a waste of money, if your aim was gaming performance. Even with the bottleneck your CPU would have created, an upgrade to an R9 380 or GTX 960 would have been a better use of $180-$200.

 

[RedJaron]

I am thinking about purchase this one , how do you think abou it, help needed.
http://www.thecomputer.org/shop/computer-components/intel-core-i7-4790k-devils-canyon-processor-4-0ghz-5-0gts-8mb-lga-1150-cpu-retail/

It really depends on what you want to do with the computer, what hardware you already have, and your budget. It'd be best to make a new thread in the Home Built section of the forums. You'll get a lot of info tailored to your situation.

 

[Batfarve]

For a 4590, this would be a solid choice.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $81.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-16 16:58 EDT-0400

what about this? https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97anniversary
I don't see the real differences between the two, they both seem to have advantages over the other.

 

[logainofhades]

That board is ok too, if budget dictates it. The pro4 has better audio, and LAN.

 

[logainofhades]

Did you even bother to read the article?

 

[elcoxx]

Should I wait for Skylake or buy the current i5/i7 gen?

I have a FX-8350 with a r9 270 and I cannot play on ultra settings. I think a better GPU should do the trick without changing the cpu but... maybe chaging to Skylake will give me best gaming performance.

 

[RedJaron]

No, a new CPU will have marginal effects on graphics. You need a better GPU if you want to max out detail settings.

 

[Eggz]

@elcoxx - A good way to think about the CPU and GPU for gaming performance is that the CPU gives you potential performance, and the GPU gives you actual performance. CPUs generally set an upper limit on how much GPU power your system can effectively utilize. GPUs provide the power. So the question is whether your CPU can feed your GPU fast enough. With most modern CPUs, a system will be able to feed info to the GPU fast than the GPU requires. When that happens (which is probably your case), you can get a faster GPU without needing a fast CPU. When the CPU can't feed the GPU fast enough, it then becomes a question of how much. If your GPU can still get up to 90% utilization, then you won't see much benefit from an upgrade. But if your GPU hangs around the 50% mark in games that should be pushing it to 100%, then you'll see a large increase from a CPU upgrade.

 

[logainofhades]

A CPU upgrade would be helpful, but not until you get a better GPU.

 

[RedJaron]

He's on a 270, which is a good mid-range GPU, but not a top-shelf product. It'll handle med-high settings without much problem, but it was never meant to handle SuperMegaUltraMaxOHWOW! at 1080p. To do that right now you need a minimum of an R9 280X, but more likely a R9 290X or GTX 970 if you want absolutely smooth performance.

 

[elcoxx]

Thank you @Eggz. I see. So, actually my GPU is under 95-99% and the CPU in 50%-60% playing BF4 for example. So... unless I plan to buy a new GPU that maybe makes bottleneck, I don't have to change my 8350 for one i5/i7, is that your point? Anyway I would like to try an intel cpu and see how much enhances overall performance keeping my current gpu for a while.

@elcoxx - A good way to think about the CPU and GPU for gaming performance is that the CPU gives you potential performance, and the GPU gives you actual performance. CPUs generally set an upper limit on how much GPU power your system can effectively utilize. GPUs provide the power. So the question is whether your CPU can feed your GPU fast enough. With most modern CPUs, a system will be able to feed info to the GPU fast than the GPU requires. When that happens (which is probably your case), you can get a faster GPU without needing a fast CPU. When the CPU can't feed the GPU fast enough, it then becomes a question of how much. If your GPU can still get up to 90% utilization, then you won't see much benefit from an upgrade. But if your GPU hangs around the 50% mark in games that should be pushing it to 100%, then you'll see a large increase from a CPU upgrade.

 

[Eggz]

Thank you @Eggz. I see. So, actually my GPU is under 95-99% and the CPU in 50%-60% playing BF4 for example. So... unless I plan to buy a new GPU that maybe makes bottleneck, I don't have to change my 8350 for one i5/i7, is that your point? Anyway I would like to try an intel cpu and see how much enhances overall performance keeping my current gpu for a while.

Yes, that's exactly it. You are free to get whatever CPU you want, though, and (as you mentioned) you don't have to think so narrowly if you just want a better CPU for non-gaming uses. Gaming CPU needs fall short of other tasks. In my case, I regularly use 100% of my 6-core/12-thread CPU at 4.5 Ghz and fill up 32 GB of 2133 Mhz RAM while editing photos, but having that much CPU and RAM would be totally overkill just for gaming. Conversely, my GPU setup is totally overkill for photo editing, but I like to play games. Getting a do-it-all machine costs most, but it it is also very capable across a wider range of uses - not just gaming. It's really up to you what you want to make

 

[RedJaron]

So, actually my GPU is under 95-99% and the CPU in 50%-60% playing BF4 for example. So... unless I plan to buy a new GPU that maybe makes bottleneck, I don't have to change my 8350 for one i5/i7, is that your point? Anyway I would like to try an intel cpu and see how much enhances overall performance keeping my current gpu for a while.

Switching to an Intel CPU will do very little for you in terms of gaming. Consider the benchmarks here. When paired with a strong GPU ( in this case an R9 290X ), the maximum fps difference between an 8350 and 4770K is negligible.

Simply looking at CPU and GPU utilization levels doesn't tell the whole story, particularly when you start talking multiple cores and threads. Even a game like BF4 that can use eight threads won't peg a CPU at 100% because it simply doesn't have enough work to do. Also, be careful how you check your GPU utilization. Many programs just show the VRAM usage, which has more to do with texture storage and AA resolution than how hard the chip is working to render each frame.

Bottom line, with your current system, if you're dissatisfied with your current game framerates and detail settings, try a new GPU first. It's cheaper and easier than swapping over a mboard, CPU, and cooler, then reactivating Windows and reinstalling system, chipset, USB, and SATA drivers. It will also give you a much bigger performance boost. And if you're going to do that and want recommendations for a GPU ( and possibly PSU to drive it ), I recommend you visit the Home Build or Upgrades section of the forums and start a thread there.

 

[DinosaurSoldier]

I'm building my first gaming rig and have been looking at the I7-4790K. Am I making a good choice at that price point? Any feedback would be appreciated.

If your rig will not be for work (that's stuff like heavy video editing, or virtualization, not just word/powerpoint etc.) then an i7 is overkill, just for show. Pick an i5 or the FX-8000 series recommended here.

What are the rest of your parts?

Gaming/Music Production that's why i'm going for the i7 at the moment. Hoping for one build that'll stand up for two years before I start putting new parts in it.i Was considering the GTX 970 and Gtx 980 but not sure about that now with AMD's latest stuff. Below is my list out at the moment. Have a case in mind, still figuring out powersupply and cooling.,

GSkill Rip jaws 16gb-1866
ASUS Z97-P
Gtx 970/980 Nvidia
Asus Xonar Dx Soundcard

I'm building my first gaming rig and have been looking at the I7-4790K. Am I making a good choice at that price point? Any feedback would be appreciated.

If your rig will not be for work (that's stuff like heavy video editing, or virtualization, not just word/powerpoint etc.) then an i7 is overkill, just for show. Pick an i5 or the FX-8000 series recommended here.

What are the rest of your parts?

Gaming/Music Production that's why i'm going for the i7 at the moment. Hoping for one build that'll stand up for two years before I start putting new parts in it.i Was considering the GTX 970 and Gtx 980 but not sure about that now with AMD's latest stuff. Below is my list out at the moment. Have a case in mind, still figuring out powersupply and cooling.,

GSkill Rip jaws 16gb-1866
ASUS Z97-P
Gtx 970/980 Nvidia
Asus Xonar Dx Soundcard

I'm building my first gaming rig and have been looking at the I7-4790K. Am I making a good choice at that price point? Any feedback would be appreciated.

If your rig will not be for work (that's stuff like heavy video editing, or virtualization, not just word/powerpoint etc.) then an i7 is overkill, just for show. Pick an i5 or the FX-8000 series recommended here.

What are the rest of your parts?

Gaming/Music Production that's why i'm going for the i7 at the moment. Hoping for one build that'll stand up for two years before I start putting new parts in it.i Was considering the GTX 970 and Gtx 980 but not sure about that now with AMD's latest stuff. Below is my list out at the moment. Have a case in mind, still figuring out powersupply and cooling.,

GSkill Rip jaws 16gb-1866
ASUS Z97-P
Gtx 970/980 Nvidia
Asus Xonar Dx Soundcard

For what it's worth, I've done a *little*' bit of video encoding with both a 4590 and my 4770k. I was satisfied with my 4770k, while the 4590 wasn't quite enough. If the 4770k was good, then I think the 4790k should be ok. Just my two cents. You've probably bought your processor already, by now, though.

 

[Guest]

Good list I'd say. I don't agree with the Pentium being included for a gaming rig, though. The Athlon is a much better buy as it doesn't suffer from nearly as much stutter and the 4 cores will help you out in more modern titles. I've helped a few friends put together their rigs recently, all of them wanted that CPU. I told them to save a bit longer for an i3 or even an i5 if they can swing it, or just get the Athlon or an FX 6300 if they are stuck on a very tight budget. It makes no sense to me to buy a $70 CPU only to replace it within a year with another CPU when you can just save up a bit longer and get the higher end one, saving you a decent chunk of change overall. An i3 4170 is only $40 more and eats the Pentium for breakfast in games.

 

[Rcarlin]

Folks, the greatest bargain right now is the i7 870. You can pick one up on Amazon for $80, and it kicks the ass of anything AMD. Plus, with DirectX 12 supposedly using the full power of multiple core CPUs, I expect the performance of that processor to remain competitive for a long while still.

The hardest part is finding a working motherboard, but that's what eBay is for. I just happened to have an old Gateway DX4831 that I hadn't used in two years, and I turned it into a livingroom PC that runs AC, Tomb Raider, & Star Citizen smoothly for less than $400. (i7 870 [$80 - Amazon], stock Gateway DX4831 mobo, r9 285 [$160 - eBay], 600W power supply [$45], NZXT case [$60])

P.S. I could have kept it in the old Gateway and paired it up with a 750 TI for perfectly acceptable performance. That would have saved me $45 on the power supply, $60 on the case and $160 on the graphics card.

Regardless, for the price of an Xbox One, I have a PC that plays all modern games better than a console. For half the price of one, I could have built one that was roughly the same thanks to those processors/mobos being so cheap.

 

[Drownzsurf]

Folks, the greatest bargain right now is the i7 870. You can pick one up on Amazon for $80, and it kicks the ass of anything AMD. Plus, with DirectX 12 supposedly using the full power of multiple core CPUs, I expect the performance of that processor to remain competitive for a long while still.

The hardest part is finding a working motherboard, but that's what eBay is for. I just happened to have an old Gateway DX4831 that I hadn't used in two years, and I turned it into a livingroom PC that runs AC, Tomb Raider, & Star Citizen smoothly for less than $400. (i7 870 [$80 - Amazon],.

s

I'm confused, this link seems to show either a typo or a big price rise for that Intel cpu: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-870-Processor-Socket-LGA1156/dp/B002KQ5KEI

And, I might add, look at the prices for mobos here, too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_six_brow_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A1048424%2Ck%3Amotherboard+1156+socket%2Cp_n_feature_six_browse-bin%3A2057506011&keywords=motherboard+1156+socket&ie=UTF8&qid=1438189628&rnid=2057420011

Nah, an AMD setup would be cheaper and more upgradeable, imho. Or the Intel i5 setups.

 

[RedJaron]

Folks, the greatest bargain right now is the i7 870. You can pick one up on Amazon for $80, and it kicks the ass of anything AMD.
...
The hardest part is finding a working motherboard, but that's what eBay is for.

Right, because the best idea for someone building a new computer right now is to hunt down six year old used parts.

 

[Rcarlin]

Folks, the greatest bargain right now is the i7 870. You can pick one up on Amazon for $80, and it kicks the ass of anything AMD. Plus, with DirectX 12 supposedly using the full power of multiple core CPUs, I expect the performance of that processor to remain competitive for a long while still.

The hardest part is finding a working motherboard, but that's what eBay is for. I just happened to have an old Gateway DX4831 that I hadn't used in two years, and I turned it into a livingroom PC that runs AC, Tomb Raider, & Star Citizen smoothly for less than $400. (i7 870 [$80 - Amazon],.

s

I'm confused, this link seems to show either a typo or a big price rise for that Intel cpu: http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i7-870-Processor-Socket-LGA1156/dp/B002KQ5KEI

And, I might add, look at the prices for mobos here, too: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_six_brow_1?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A1048424%2Ck%3Amotherboard+1156+socket%2Cp_n_feature_six_browse-bin%3A2057506011&keywords=motherboard+1156+socket&ie=UTF8&qid=1438189628&rnid=2057420011

Nah, an AMD setup would be cheaper and more upgradeable, imho. Or the Intel i5 setups.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PXTGJWG/sr=8-2/qid=1438195262/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1438195262&sr=8-2

This processor can be overclocked to 3.9 Ghz without any effort, and it costs $80. Even stock, with proper cooling it gets to 3.6 Ghz.

Motherboards can also be had on eBay for $55 by searching 'LGA 1156 motherboard". http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Intel-P55-Micro-ATX-LGA1156-for-Intel-Core-i3-i5-i7-Computer-Motherboard-/252031216472?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aae3b2b58

As to the snarky person above me who adds nothing to the discussion, who cares if the processor is old. It still kicks the crap out of anything in AMD's current top-of-the-line and is cheaper to boot. I'd rather have the i7 980x over anything AMD has to offer, and it's even older and uses the 1366 socket.

What is this hunting for parts, business? I'm not tracking down wild computers, shooting them and skinning them for parts. It turns out wiggling my fingers and ordering parts on Newegg is just as easy/difficult as wiggling my fingers and ordering parts on Amazon or eBay.

 

[Drownzsurf]

I didn't want to sound like a smartass, so, I apologize if I sounded that way. I've bought older parts myself, like a Phenom X2 II, so that's not the total issue. It's price versus future updatability, imho.

Plus, I use my old cases (ones even thrown away), and for a while made do with ide hdds. But, considering used, might be a way to budgetize, in that you're right.

Of course, you and I diverge in my use of AMD cpus for budget builds.

 

[Rcarlin]

I didn't want to sound like a smartass, so, I apologize if I sounded that way. I've bought older parts myself, like a Phenom X2 II, so that's not the total issue. It's price versus future updatability, imho.

Plus, I use my old cases (ones even thrown away), and for a while made do with ide hdds. But, considering used, might be a way to budgetize, in that you're right.

Of course, you and I diverge in my use of AMD cpus for budget builds.

I wasn't referring to you being snarky, it was the other guy who responded.

The only thing you give up with the older boards is front-side case support for USB 3.0 and the boards are not super great for SLI setups. You end up using PCIe 2.0 but at 16x speed, you don't notice any difference. There are Gigabyte boards that support USB 3.0 in the back, and other than that you get what matters most is: Cores/Processor speeds.

The i7 870 runs at 2.93 Ghz and turbo boosts to 3.6 Ghz if the temps are low enough. With some decent air cooling, and some basic OCing, you can easily push that to 3.9-4.0 Ghz which means that you won't have any sort of bottleneck for a GPU for a good long while.

It just so happens, that in the past few years, that CPUs have plateaued and most modern games aren't pushing the CPU.

That being said, look at the Tom's CPU chart...the 870 is right across from the top end AMD FX processors...and it can be had for a fraction of the price.

This dude is playing Witcher 3 on his i7 860 (which isn't as powerful as the 870), vs. an i7 4770k: https://youtu.be/QgRwrFgCtPc

Which means he's about an overclock away from achieving something close to total framerate parity.

 

[Drownzsurf]

RCarlin, I think your i870 setup sounds like the best solution. I wished I'd known about it before investing in several FX cpus, and cheap mATX motherboards.

But, like the rebuttal below, there probably are benefits with newer technology. And, on the other hand, however, if one doesn't spend too much now, then that big breakthrough chip (Micron and Intel or MS) in the future, one can save up for.

Ironically, I've been in the middle ground, some used, some new, wait for promotional drops in prices.

 

[RedJaron]

I didn't want to sound like a smartass, so, I apologize if I sounded that way.

No, he's referring to me, though I find it hilarious he can't even call me by name.

Rcarlin, the first thing you miss in calling the 870 the "greatest bargain right now" is that it doesn't apply to anyone with a machine newer than 2009. And really, if someone has a machine from about 2007 and on, they probably want a more substantial upgrade, as well.

You haven't listed anything mind blowing or what I and others haven't said for a while. No, overall CPU per-core performance hasn't moved a lot in the last few years. What you fail to notice is that you're getting slightly more performance for significantly less power and heat. That's been the R&D direction lately as mobile and integrated device use has surged. I know some elitists complain about it, but I haven't been hurting for CPU power since I was finally able to upgrade my ancient XP machine back in 2011.

That example of the Witcher 3 likewise only affirms that a good GPU is king in gaming, also something that most of us have known for a long time. And the difference between an 860 and 870 is only 133 MHz, hardly noteworthy. As for whether the 870 will "bottleneck" a GPU, it's more accurate to say how much it bottlenecks. Every CPU has some kind of limit, especially when talking about top-shelf graphics. Don't believe me, check some benchmarks. What matters is if your CPU ( or GPU as the case may be ) actually limits your performance so it's below the level you expect.

Tech sites and reviewers have been saying the same thing about Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, and Devil's Canyon: it's a nice step up, but it doesn't offer such huge performance over Nehalem that upgrading for the CPU alone would be worth it. If you're coming from an older setup, like Core 2 Duo or earlier, then you'll see marked improvements. A big reason a person would want to upgrade from LGA1156 is for the new auxiliary features like better RAM and SATA controllers, M.2 slots, USB 3 and 3.1, PCIe 3.0, etc.

Biggest of all, I would never recommend someone get used parts for a whole system rebuild. It's incredibly easy to abuse CPUs and motherboards without showing any external damage to them, so you rarely have a visual indicator of whether it's about to die or not. They can be overclocked too aggressively, run too hot, and have any number of other problems. You get no warranty, no customer support, and possibly no future driver support. Unless you know who it's coming from and how they took care of it, or can get some kind of service agreement from an authorized refurbisher, I'd never buy used parts for a build.