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Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: September 2014
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1. September Updates

If you don’t have the time to research benchmarks, or if you don’t feel confident enough in your ability to pick the right processor for your next gaming machine, fear not. We at Tom’s Hardware have come to your aid with a simple list of the best gaming CPUs offered for the money.

September Updates: 

We didn't have a lot to talk about in last month's CPU update, but we more than make up for it this time around.

Let's start with the big news: Intel's first eight-core desktop processor, capable of scheduling up to 16 threads concurrently with Hyper-Threading enabled. Based on the Haswell-E architecture, Core i7-5960X features 20 MB of shared L3 cache and a relatively low 3 GHz base clock rate able to hit 3.5 GHz by virtue of Turbo Boost. As our coverage shows, this is the new high-water mark for applications optimized for parallelization. It sells for a hefty $1050 price tag, though.

The Core i7-5930K and -5820K are both six-core derivatives that employ the same die with two cores and 5 MB of last-level cache disabled. But they operate at higher frequencies able to partly offset the loss in compute resources. Intel's -5930K has a 3.5 GHz base clock rate that accelerates as high as 3.7 GHz, and the -5820K starts at 3.3 GHz, ramping up as high as 3.6 GHz. All three CPUs are rated for 140 W and drop into the LGA 2100-v3 interface, which isn't compatible with LGA 2011. Because they come armed with a DDR4 memory controller, you'll also need new RAM. Intel further sets the Core i7-5820K apart by giving it 28 lanes of third-gen PCI Express, while the pricier models include 40 lanes.

At $390, the Core i7-5820K offers the best price/performance ratio in the Haswell-E-based line-up. If your application calls for as much PCIe bandwidth as possible, however, the $590 Core i7-5930K could be a better choice. I'm picking this mid-range processor as our replacement for the Core i7-3930K, making it the fastest recommended gaming processor for any price. To read more about the Haswell-E's capabilities, check our Chris Angelini's analysis: Intel Core i7-5960X, -5930K And -5820K CPU Review: Haswell-E Rises. For those of you interested in the server implementation of Haswell-E, check out Patrick Kennedy's Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 Review: Haswell-EP Redefines Fast.

Of course, AMD didn't want to be left out of the fun. It introduced the FX-8320e, -8370e, and -8370. All three processors are based on the same Piledriver architecture first seen two years ago. The two models with the 'e' suffix are energy-efficient options; they're the first 95 W eight-core FX models available outside of Asia. Now, owners of low-cost motherboards with limited thermal ceilings can upgrade to host processors with eight cores. That wasn't possible previously. For reference, the $155 FX-8320e has 3.2 base clock rate able to stretch up to 4 GHz through Turbo Core, while the $210 FX-8370e starts at 3.3 GHz and jumps as high as 4.3 GHz. Given that both models are unlocked, the lower-priced chip is the easier choice.

As for the $209 FX-8370, it is simply an FX-8350 with the same 125 W TDP and 4 GHz base clock. However, it offers a 100 MHz-higher Turbo Core frequency that hits 4.3 GHz. Its thermal envelope is identical, so we don't think it's worth a $30 premium over the FX-8350. If you're interested in learning more, check out AMD Updates Desktop FX Processor Line With Three New CPUs, Price Cuts

Those are the new CPUs, but some previously-announced APUs also made it to retail, such as AMD's $84 A6-7400K, the only dual-core offering with 256 shaders. The quad-core/384-shader A8-7600 is available at $120, and the quad-core/512-shader A10-7800 can now be found for $165.

Intel also released a few new Haswell-based models in the Celeron and Core i3 families, such as the $105 Pentium G3460 at 3.5 GHz, the $130 Core i3-4160 at 3.6 GHz, and the $160 Core i3-4370 at 3.8 GHz. All of these new processors represent the highest clock rates in their respective families.

Speaking of Intel, we saw a significant number of price adjustments, which is unusual. The Celeron G1840, Core i3-4130, Core i5-4590, and Core i7-4790 shed $5 to land at $47, $120, $195, and $310, respectively. The Core i5-4430 dropped $10, bringing it down to $180 and making it our new recommended processor under $200. The Core i7-4770 lost $15, and is now available for $295.

As for AMD's price changes, we saw the FX-4300 and FX-6350 get $5 cheaper, ending up at $105 and $135. Quite a few of the company's processors dropped by $10, including the $50 A4-6320, the $90 A8-5600K, the $110 FX-6300, the $120 A10-5800K, the $140 A10-6800K, the $150 FX-8320, the $180 FX-8350, and the $220 FX-9370.

On a final note, we learned a lot more about Intel's Broadwell-Y-based Core M processors over the last month, and even got to play with some pre-release hardware at IDF 2014. For general information, check out Intel's Broadwell Core M Processor: New Details, SKUs and Specifics.  And, if you'd like some hard numbers, look for our recent news piece: Intel's Broadwell Core M-5Y70: The First Benchmarks

Some Notes About Our Recommendations

This list is for gamers who want to get the most for their money. If you don’t play games, then the CPUs on this list may not be suitable for your particular needs.

The criteria to get on this list are strictly price/performance. We acknowledge that there are other factors that come into play, such as platform price or CPU overclockability, but we're not going to complicate things by factoring in motherboard costs. We may add honorable mentions for outstanding products in the future, though. For now, our recommendations are based on stock clock speeds and performance at that price. Remember to check out our new performance per dollar comparison page, where you can overlay the benchmark data we’ve generated with pricing, giving you a better idea where your ideal choice falls on the value curve.

Cost and availability change on a daily basis. We can’t offer up-to-the-minute accurate pricing information in the text, but we can list some good chips that you probably won’t regret buying at the price ranges we suggest (and our PriceGrabber-based engine will help track down some of the best prices for you).

The list is based on some of the best US prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary. Of course, these are retail CPU prices. We do not list used or OEM CPUs available at retail.               

2. Entry-Level: $115 And Under

Best Gaming CPU for $70: 

Best Gaming CPU for $110:

3. Mid-Range: $115 To $200

Best Gaming CPU for $120:

Best Gaming CPU for $180:

4. High-End: $210 And Up

Best Gaming CPU for $240:

Diminishing Returns Kick In:

CPUs priced over $240 offer rapidly diminishing returns when it comes to gaming performance. As such, we have a hard time recommending anything more expensive than the Core i5-4690K, especially since this multiplier-unlocked processor is easy to tune up to 4.3 GHz or so with the right cooler. Even at stock clocks, though, it matches or beats the old $1000 Gulftown-based Core i7-990X Extreme Edition in our benchmarks.

We have seen a small handful of titles benefit from Hyper-Threaded Core i7 processors, though. Because we believe this is a trend that will continue as developers optimize their software, we're including the Core i7-4790K as an honorable mention, now selling for $340. In a vast majority of games, the Core i7 won't demonstrate much advantage over the Core i5. But if you're a serious enthusiast who wants some future-proofing and values highly-threaded application performance, this processor may be worth the extra money.

In addition, there's certainly an argument to be made for using LGA 2011-v3 as the ultimate gaming platform. Haswell-E -based CPUs have more available cache and as many as four more execution cores than the flagship LGA 1150/1155 models. Additionally, more bandwidth is delivered through a quad-channel DDR4 memory controller. And with up to 40 lanes of third-gen PCIe connectivity available from Haswell-E-based processors, the platform natively supports two x16 and one x8 slot, or one x16 and three x8 slots, alleviating potential bottlenecks in three- and four-way CrossFire or SLI configurations.

Although they sound impressive, those advantages don't necessarily translate into significant performance gains in modern titles. Our tests demonstrate fairly little difference between a $240 LGA 1150 Core i5-4690K and a $1000 LGA 2011 Core i7-4960X, even when three-way graphics card configurations are involved. It turns out that memory bandwidth and PCIe throughput don't hold back the game performance of existing Sandy Bridge-, Ivy Bridge-, and Haswell-based machines.

Where we do see the potential for Haswell-E to drive additional performance is in processor-bound games like World of Warcraft or the multiplayer component of Battlefield 4. If you're running a three- or four-way array of graphics cards already, there's a good chance that you already own more than enough rendering muscle. An overclocked Core i7-5960X or -5930K could help the rest of your platform catch up to an insanely powerful arrangement of GPUs.

To summarize, while we generally recommend against purchasing any gaming CPU that retails for more than $240 from a value point of view (sink that money into graphics and the motherboard instead), there are those of you who have no trouble throwing down serious money on the best of the best, and who require the fastest possible performance available. If this describes your goals, the following CPUs may be for you:

Best Gaming CPU for $340: None
Honorable Mention:

Best Gaming CPU for $590: (or for any price)

5. Hierarchy Chart

What about this other CPU that’s not on the list? How do I know if it’s a good deal or not?

This will happen. In fact, it’s guaranteed to happen because availability and prices change quickly. So how do you know if that CPU you have your eye on is a good buy in its price range?

Here is a resource to help you judge if a CPU is a reasonable value or not: the gaming CPU hierarchy chart, which groups CPUs with similar overall gaming performance levels into tiers. The top tier contains the highest-performing gaming CPUs available and gaming performance decreases as you go down the tiers from there.

This hierarchy was originally based on the average performance each CPU achieved in our test suite. We have since incorporated new game data into our criteria, but it should be known that any specific game title will likely perform differently depending on its unique programming. Some games, for example, will be severely graphics subsystem-limited, while others may react positively to more CPU cores, larger amounts of CPU cache, or even a specific architecture. We also did not have access to every CPU on the market, so some of the CPU performance estimates are based on the numbers similar architectures deliver. Indeed, this hierarchy chart is useful as a general guideline, but certainly not as a one-size-fits-all CPU comparison resource. For that, we recommend you check out our CPU Performance Charts.

You can use this hierarchy to compare the pricing between two processors, to see which one is a better deal, and also to determine if an upgrade is worthwhile. I don’t recommend upgrading your CPU unless the potential replacement is at least three tiers higher. Otherwise, the upgrade is somewhat parallel and you may not notice a worthwhile difference in game performance.

IntelAMD
Core i7-2600, -2600K, -2700K, -3770, -3770K, -3820, -3930K, -3960X, -3970X, -4770, -4770K, -4790K, -5820K, 5930K, -5960X
Core i7-965, -975 Extreme, -980X Extreme, -990X Extreme
Core i5-4690K, 4670K, 4670, 4570, 4430, 3570K, -3570, -3550, -3470, -3450P, -3450, -3350P, -3330, 2550K, -2500K, -2500, -2450P, -2400, -2380P, -2320, -2310, -2300
                                                              
Core i7-980, -970, -960
Core i7-870, -875K
Core i3-4370, -4160, -3250, -3245, -3240, -3225, -3220, -3210, -2100, -2105, -2120, -2125, -2130
FX-9590, 9370, 8370, 8350, 8320, 8150, 6350, 4350
Phenom II X6 1100T BE, 1090T BE
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 980, 975
Core i7-860, -920, -930, -940, -950
Core i5-3220T, -750, -760, -2405S, -2400S
Core 2 Extreme QX9775, QX9770, QX9650
Core 2 Quad Q9650
FX-8120, 8320e, 8370e, 6200, 6300, 4170, 4300
Phenom II X6 1075T
Phenom II X4 Black Edition 970, 965, 955
A10-6800K, 6790K, 6700, 5800K, -5700, -7800, -7850K
A8-3850, -3870K, -5600K, 6600K, -7600
Athlon X4 651K, 645, 641, 640, 740, 750K
Core 2 Extreme QX6850, QX6800
Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9450, Q9400
Core i5-650, -655K, -660, -661, -670, -680
Core i3-2100T, -2120T
FX-6100, -4100, -4130
Phenom II X6 1055T, 1045T
Phenom II X4 945, 940, 920
Phenom II X3 Black Edition 720, 740
A8-5500, 6500
A6-3650, -3670K, -7400K
Athlon II X4 635, 630
Core 2 Extreme QX6700
Core 2 Quad Q6700, Q9300, Q8400, Q6600, Q8300
Core 2 Duo E8600, E8500, E8400, E7600
Core i3 -530, -540, -550
Pentium G3460, G3258, G3220, G3420, G3430, G2130, G2120, G2020, G2010, G870, G860, G850, G840, G645, G640, G630
Phenom II X4 910, 910e, 810
Athlon II X4 620, 631
Athlon II X3 460
Core 2 Extreme X6800
Core 2 Quad Q8200
Core 2 Duo E8300, E8200, E8190, E7500, E7400, E6850, E6750
Pentium G620
Celeron G1630, G1620, G1610, G555, G550, G540, G530
Phenom II X4 905e, 805
Phenom II X3 710, 705e
Phenom II X2 565 BE, 560 BE, 555 BE, 550 BE, 545
Phenom X4 9950
Athlon II X3 455, 450, 445, 440, 435, 425
Core 2 Duo E7200, E6550, E7300, E6540, E6700
Pentium Dual-Core E5700, E5800, E6300, E6500, E6600, E6700
Pentium G9650
Phenom X4 9850, 9750, 9650, 9600
Phenom X3 8850, 8750
Athlon II X2 265, 260, 255, 370K
A6-5500K
A4-6400K, 6300, 5400K, 5300, 4400, 4000, 3400, 3300
Athlon 64 X2 6400+
Core 2 Duo E4700, E4600, E6600, E4500, E6420
Pentium Dual-Core E5400, E5300, E5200, G620T
Phenom X4 9500, 9550, 9450e, 9350e
Phenom X3 8650, 8600, 8550, 8450e, 8450, 8400, 8250e
Athlon II X2 240, 245, 250
Athlon X2 7850, 7750
Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 5600+
Core 2 Duo E4400, E4300, E6400, E6320
Celeron E3300
Phenom X4 9150e, 9100e
Athlon X2 7550, 7450, 5050e, 4850e/b
Athlon 64 X2 5400+, 5200+, 5000+, 4800+
Core 2 Duo E5500, E6300
Pentium Dual-Core E2220, E2200, E2210
Celeron E3200
Athlon X2 6550, 6500, 4450e/b,
Athlon X2 4600+, 4400+, 4200+, BE-2400
Pentium Dual-Core E2180
Celeron E1600, G440
Athlon 64 X2 4000+, 3800+
Athlon X2 4050e, BE-2300
Pentium Dual-Core E2160, E2140
Celeron E1500, E1400, E1200

Summary

There you have it folks: the best gaming CPUs for the money this month. Now all that’s left to do is compare their performance to your budget before you decide which one is right for you. We even put in the work to help find the best prices.

Also remember that the stores don’t follow this list. Things will change over the course of the month and you’ll probably have to adapt your buying strategy to deal with fluctuating prices. Good luck!

Follow us on Twitter for more tech news, reviews, and exclusive updates!       

6. Performance Per Dollar

In an effort to further illustrate the performance you get for every dollar spent on our recommendations, we chart out the hierarchy of processors in our column. The green, blue, black, and red bars represent average frame rates in StarCraft II, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Far Cry 3, and an aggregate of all three titles. The orange line indicates cost. Mousing over the bars gives you a pop-up with performance statistics relative to Intel's Core i7-4930K, our 100% ceiling. Mousing over the dots on the orange line pops up a price that's easily attainable. Clicking a bar or dot gives you the option of shopping for a specific CPU, taking you to a link of our choice in that category. Often, our picks are priced lower than the number displayed.

Price and performance generally scale along a similar upward trend as we look down the chart, not including the pricey Core i7 options. Budget-oriented gamers should pay attention to the significant performance increase available when you step up from the $70 Pentium G3258 to the $125 Core i3-4130, though. The $180 Core i5-4430 looks great, offering performance close to more expensive options that cost well over $200.

After that, the speed-ups are more subtle, while the premiums are far greater (particularly as you look to the $590 Core i7-5930K). Frankly, if value is an important consideration, there's little reason to spend $180 on a Core i5-4430 (or even more on a Core i7) unless you want to overclock it for a better experience in some of your other apps. The Core i5-4430 is a clear performance-per-dollar winner, demonstrating no weaknesses in any of the games we've tested.

Price Starcraft Skyrim Far Cry 3 Average
Intel Pentium G3258 70.00 Amazon 75 58 76 69.7
AMD FX-6300 120 Newegg 73 61 87 74
Intel Core i3-4130 125 Newegg 85 74 84 81
Intel Core i5-4430 180.00 Newegg 99 97 95 97
Intel Core i5-4690K 240 Newegg 99 97 95 97
Intel Core i7-4790K 340 Newegg 100 100 100 100
Intel Core i7-5930K 570 Amazon 100 100 100 100