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

[adamovera]

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-2558188/gaming-cpus-money-january-2012.html

 

[xbizzaroz]

It's nice to see the Athlon on the charts. I'm a bit curious to see how that Pentium performs though whether it be games from 1-4 years ago or games coming out today. I understand that it is a fun chip to overclock but does that improve performance in games by a large measure? After all this is an article based on gaming CPUs.

 

[damric]

Finally, a revised list, and one that I can't complain (too much) about.

1) The Xeon E3-1231 should be mentioned. Costing as much as the i5-4690K but performing like any other Haswell i7, this is a great game recording CPU (and yes this is a popular thing now).

2) The hierarchy chart: Once you get the 860K in the lab, it will be very apparant that it outperforms the FX-4350 and FX 6350 in just about all gaming titles. The 860K often outperforms the FX-9590 when only 4 threads are used. Don't believe me? See mdocod's extremely thorough test results here:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1493307/relative-access-to-execution-throughput-comparison-chart

3) The Athlon 860K should be given a warning. Despite having been on the market for quite a long time now, very few motherboards ship with a working BIOS for this CPU. Right now we only know of 2. All the other FM2+ boards must be BIOS flashed ot they won't even POST. This may require an older CPU if the mobo does not have a USB flashing tool that can be used without a CPU installed.

That is all.

 

[ralanahm]

I think the 1150 socket xeon should be included as they work and any 1150 socket like i-357 and come in lots of version to match a price/performance need,,,

also for the x99 boards I would personally consider the xeon v3 for a home build I see the e5-1620v3 is $285 and i think you get 40 lanes pci the only thing I am not sure about is if you can use the xeon with non-ecc ram and the speed of the ram would have to be lower,

i also surprised that the system builds haven't used some xeons to save and get better performance value.

 

[NightAntilli]

Wow. They finally listened, sort of Good job TH.

 

[Cryio]

Kinda surprised Tom's has yet to review the 860K. I want to see some official, proper number, for the APU unburdened by the iGPU.

 

[Guest]

A 70 buck cpu that uses the same socket as a 340 dollar monster cpu is VERY attractive for a budget build. The i7 4790 is a popular high end chip. Popular chips end up on sale as dirt cheap refurbished chips.

 

[silverblue]

Kinda surprised Tom's has yet to review the 860K. I want to see some official, proper number, for the APU unburdened by the iGPU.

Something tells me it's not going to be any faster...

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/amd_athlon_860k_black_edition_cpu_review/1

 

[bwcbwc]

Nice to see you come around to the Core i7-5820K. The original TH review of the Haswell E's spent so much time bemoaning the loss of PCIe lanes vs. the preceding generation that it didn't really get a fair shake. With the new Titan X getting close to 4k gaming on a single card, the need for 40 PCIe lanes for gaming is even more tenuous.

 

[Karsten75]

Omission of some low-priced Xeons E3-1231 V3 and E3 1241 V3) is a serious oversight. Why pay for the IGPU in the equivalent Haswell i7 line if you are going to run discrete graphics?

 

[BulkZerker]

Kinda surprised Tom's has yet to review the 860K. I want to see some official, proper number, for the APU unburdened by the iGPU.

Something tells me it's not going to be any faster...

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/amd_athlon_860k_black_edition_cpu_review/1

however, its cheaper. And the lets invest in a better cooler, for hopefully better overclocking results.

 

[logainofhades]

Wow. They finally listened, sort of Good job TH.

Yup, now if only they would include an honorable mention for the 1231v3.

 

[Fr33Th1nk3r]

still no xeon v3 or 4350 (which the latter is recommended for Elite Dangerous) Just saying. All this paid intel promotion created a monopoly that really has no merit. I love my intel chip dont get me wrong, but a market with no competition is a terrible market.

 

[WildCard999]

Why is the I5-4460 the best cpu under 190$ when the I5-4590 has a higher frequency (3.3-3.7)?

 

[Gurg]

If you were building a higher end PC why would you even consider an 1150 CPU? The minimum I would consider would be a 5820K so that it would run a SLI and a M.2 PCIe x4. With 2160 monitors starting at around $400, 4K is here without the previous astronomical pricing and any higher end build should be aimed toward that goal.

 

[alextheblue]

Wow. They finally listened, sort of Good job TH.

It's a step in the right direction. Now they just need to spruce up their game title selection.

 

[Karsten75]

Did anyone else notice or care about the title of this thread? 2012??

 

[CaptainTom]

It's nice to see the Athlon on the charts. I'm a bit curious to see how that Pentium performs though whether it be games from 1-4 years ago or games coming out today. I understand that it is a fun chip to overclock but does that improve performance in games by a large measure? After all this is an article based on gaming CPUs.

Anyone who gets that Pentium is doomed within a year. Half of the AAA games out now don't even support dual cores. Sometimes I do wonder what TH's smoking when they "Recommend" something...

 

[CaptainTom]

An i3 at $130 is a waste of money when you can get an FX-6300 for $100.

 

[logainofhades]

An i3 at $130 is a waste of money when you can get an FX-6300 for $100.

Not sure what i3 you are talking about, for $130.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($103.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $103.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 09:45 EDT-0400

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $109.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-13 09:45 EDT-0400

 

[TNT27]

It's nice to see the Athlon on the charts. I'm a bit curious to see how that Pentium performs though whether it be games from 1-4 years ago or games coming out today. I understand that it is a fun chip to overclock but does that improve performance in games by a large measure? After all this is an article based on gaming CPUs.

Anyone who gets that Pentium is doomed within a year. Half of the AAA games out now don't even support dual cores. Sometimes I do wonder what TH's smoking when they "Recommend" something...

Only one game refuses to run on dual core, and thats dragon age inquisition. the cpu could easily run it if developers moved the heavy thread to cores 0/1.

 

[xbizzaroz]

It's nice to see the Athlon on the charts. I'm a bit curious to see how that Pentium performs though whether it be games from 1-4 years ago or games coming out today. I understand that it is a fun chip to overclock but does that improve performance in games by a large measure? After all this is an article based on gaming CPUs.

Anyone who gets that Pentium is doomed within a year. Half of the AAA games out now don't even support dual cores. Sometimes I do wonder what TH's smoking when they "Recommend" something...

Only one game refuses to run on dual core, and thats dragon age inquisition. the cpu could easily run it if developers moved the heavy thread to cores 0/1.

Regardless, I don't think developers of future games will design something that will work on dual cores anymore. Times are changing, games are getting prettier, and they'll require more power out of computers to play. Sooner or later I'll need to invest in a 6-core or even 8-core processor to keep up. It's a sad truth that is tough to accept.

 

[TNT27]

It's nice to see the Athlon on the charts. I'm a bit curious to see how that Pentium performs though whether it be games from 1-4 years ago or games coming out today. I understand that it is a fun chip to overclock but does that improve performance in games by a large measure? After all this is an article based on gaming CPUs.

Anyone who gets that Pentium is doomed within a year. Half of the AAA games out now don't even support dual cores. Sometimes I do wonder what TH's smoking when they "Recommend" something...

Only one game refuses to run on dual core, and thats dragon age inquisition. the cpu could easily run it if developers moved the heavy thread to cores 0/1.

Regardless, I don't think developers of future games will design something that will work on dual cores anymore. Times are changing, games are getting prettier, and it requires more power out of computers to play. Sooner or later I'll need to invest in a 6-core or even 8-core processor to keep up. It's a sad truth that is tough to accept.

Far Cry 4, dual core used to be unsupported, until developers released a patch moving heavy thread to core 0. Now FPS is on par with i3/i5/i7s with occasional dips in fps.

Nothing is preventing taxing games from running on dual cores, except for developers. Dual Cores are still very capable of running taxing games just fine.

 

[MeteorsRaining]

*Just another comment requesting for Xeon v3's inclusion*

At around $250, the popular 1231 v3 is a real good deal for people who stream content, since streaming softwares can eat a lot of CPU at times.