Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: June 2010

[cleeve]

Intel's new Core i5-680 and Pentium E5500 are already available, and while AMD's new Athlon II lineup hasn't quite reached the same retail presence quite yet, the existing Athlon II line recently dropped in price. Check this month's column for details!

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: June 2010 : Read more

 

[wintermint]

Good job. I always look forward to these kind of articles!

 

[black06]

"Its 3.6 GHz clock speed does give it the distinction of being the fastest Clarkdale-based CPU available. Actually, it has the highest clock speed of any Intel CPU ever released."

Weren't there some 3.8 GHz Pentium 4's? Wikipedia lists a Prescott core shipping at 3.8Ghz, and that sounds like what I remember from the time.

 

[basket687]

[citation][nom]black06[/nom]"Its 3.6 GHz clock speed does give it the distinction of being the fastest Clarkdale-based CPU available. Actually, it has the highest clock speed of any Intel CPU ever released."Weren't there some 3.8 GHz Pentium 4's? Wikipedia lists a Prescott core shipping at 3.8Ghz, and that sounds like what I remember from the time.[/citation]

We all know that we can't compare different processor families using clock speed as a measure, but even though you can argue that the i5 680 can turbo to 3.86 and that is higher than the 3.8 of the Prescott.

 

[HansVonOhain]

Agreed with Black. But those pentiums were able to cook a dinner for you, whereas this chip is very cool. I am expecting to see some world records for highest overclocks set.

As usual Toms, I enjoy reading these kind of articles. This is what I visit the site for, not some BS like 'a cat touched an iPad, and made it turn on." ZOMG

 

[thedreadfather]

[citation][nom]basket687[/nom]We all know that we can't compare different processor families using clock speed as a measure, but even though you can argue that the i5 680 can turbo to 3.86 and that is higher than the 3.8 of the Prescott.[/citation]
I believe the criteria is for highest base clock frequency, not Turbo and not actual speed.

 

[Guest]

Could you please create a non-gaming CPU hierarchy?
For those of us more interested in scientific, encoding, graphics applications and the like.

 

[johnbilicki]

No, 3.8GHz if the fastest stock speed CPU Intel has ever shipped; it's a single core and working with one for a week it was clear a balance of cores and frequency is important.

 

[dirtmountain]

Another excellent article in this continuing series. I know you're probably buried in work, but any chance a "Best Gaming Motherboards for the Money" may become a regular feature as well? I know i'd sure like to see a brief overview of available affordable gaming mobos.

 

[liquidsnake718]

Ahh its still refreshing to see my old trusty cpu here still for about 6months and running on this list! Are they still selling the e7500? I love this cpu so much that im still using it over my i7920.... (also bec I still dont have a good x58 mb yet)

 

[letsgetsteve]

Please add the Intel K series to your charts. I think they are ground breaking enough to include them. I just find it amazing that Intel is finally starting to see what enthusiast's want and are giving to us at much less rediculas prices. I can find an i7 875K for under $300, that one hell of an improvement from the i7 870 going for just under $700 last week.

 

[killerclick]

AMD again rules this list (up to the $200 price point).

 

[crazybaldhead]

It's hierarchy and not heirarchy. Please, fix this at last.

 

[Guest]

Where is Thuban? Not even a reference?

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]sosl[/nom]Could you please create a non-gaming CPU hierarchy?For those of us more interested in scientific, encoding, graphics applications and the like.[/citation]

can you also do an article about the Xeon/Opteron part of the CPU landscape ? I am trying to decide on a 2nd hand workstation, however finding any reasonable comparisons on Xeon and Opteron (especialy Opteron to Athlon/Phenom equivalency) is a mission impossible.

 

[haplo602]

[citation][nom]JofaTEST[/nom]Where is Thuban? Not even a reference?[/citation]

Thuban does not add anything to quadcore Phenoms for gaming.

 

[nforce4max]

I am going to stick with my 8250e that I got running at 2.6ghz even though I got the upgrade bug again. I am wanting to get a 16gb (4x4gb) DDR2 ECC (unbuff) kit and ditch the page file.

 

[JofaMang]

Thuban does not add anything to quadcore Phenoms for gaming.

But they are overclocking better than their quadcore contemporaries, and OC potential is a factor to be considered (as it has been thus far)

 

[joejamesatou]

I know this line has been in the last few gaming CPU round ups about the Core i7, but can we finally put this one out to pasture?

"The motherboards and DDR3 RAM that the i7 architecture requires will bring the total platform cost higher than other systems, but the resulting performance should be worth the purchase price. "

Budget X58 boards are pretty easy to find, and DDR3 is cheaper than DDR2.

 

[triplebug]

i5-750, your best bet.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]JofaMang[/nom]But they are overclocking better than their quadcore contemporaries, and OC potential is a factor to be considered (as it has been thus far)[/citation]

They're not worth it compared to an X4 in the Gaming arena, and extra overclocking headroom--if any--is not offset by the large price increase.

 

[khicharkumar]

CPU Heirarchy Chart places the CPU into tier what is the graphic setup used is it the same GPU with each Processor??

 

[ta152h]

Athlons have always had 128K L1 cache, not 64K.

 

[awood28211]

"Actually, it has the highest clock speed of any Intel CPU ever released" makes it sound like no other CPU has been labeled even 3.6 GHz... I have XEONS thats are 2 years old running at that speed. It's nothing new and it's common knowledge that the GHz number is much like HP in a car. Doesn't matter if you have 500HP, you gotta have the drive-train to back it up right down to the right set of wheels.

 

[ta152h]

I'm a little surprised at the E7500 recommendation. The Pentium E6600 has 1 MB less L2 cache, but runs 133 MHz faster, and costs $15 less. The E6500 just runs with 1 MB less cache (same clock speed) but costs $33 less. Both seem better priced than the E7500.

Also, using the i7 975 as a comparison point for a $1000 CPU is lame (I'm referring to the i5 750). No one will buy this except in VERY rare situations. The new standard bearer is the i7 980x. Comparing a product to the worst you can get at that price range isn't terribly informative.