CPU Heirarchy 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’ve got your eye on is a good buy in its price range?
Here is a resource to help you judge if a CPU is a good buy 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.
However, a word of caution: this hierarchy is based on the average performance each CPU achieved in our charts test suite using only four game titles: Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, World in Conflict, and Supreme Commander. While we feel this represents an acceptable cross-section of typical gaming scenarios, a specific game title will likely perform differently. 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 gospel one-size-fits-all perfect CPU comparison resource.
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.
| Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart | |
|---|---|
| Intel | AMD |
| Core i7-965, -975 Extreme Core i7-860, -870, -920, -930, -940, -950 Core i5-750 Core 2 Extreme QX9775, QX9770, QX9650 Core 2 Quad Q9650 | |
| Core 2 Extreme QX6850, QX6800 Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9450, Q9400 Core i5-650, -660, -661, -670 | Phenom II X4 Black Edition 955, 965 |
| Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Core 2 Quad Q6700, Q9300, Q8400, Q6600, Q8300 Core 2 Duo E8600, E8500, E8400, E7600 Core i3 -530, -540 | Phenom II X4 945, 940, 920, 910, 910e, 810 Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition Athlon II X4 635, 630 Athlon II X3 440, 435 |
| Core 2 Extreme X6800 Core 2 Quad Q8200 Core 2 Duo E8300, E8200, E8190, E7500, E7400, E6850, E6750 | Phenom II X4 905e, 805 Phenom II X3 710, 705e Phenom II X2 555 BE, 550 BE, 545 Phenom X4 9950 Athlon II X4 620 Athlon II X3 425 |
| Core 2 Duo E7200, E6550, E7300, E6540, E6700 Pentium Dual-Core E6300, E6500, E6600 Pentium G9650 | Phenom X4 9850, 9750, 9650, 9600 Phenom X3 8850, 8750 Athlon 64 X2 6400+ |
| Core 2 Duo E4700, E4600, E6600, E4500, E6420 Pentium Dual-Core E5400, E5300, E5200 | 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 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 | 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 to find and purchase them.
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!
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Please add Core i7-980X to the Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart
Ok, you've decided what tier you want to be on. Which platform do you choose, and why? A comprehensive comparative review of the currently available platforms (including the older AM2 and LGA775 for upgraders) would be useful.
I picked up an X3 440 3.0Ghz based on this article. Great CPU. Managed to get 4 cores out of it even.
Core i7-860, -870, -920, -940, -950
is missing the , -960
Core i7-860, -870, -920, -940, -950
is missing the ", -960"
For those anonymous readers with trouble figuring products out;
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=42915
http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollec [...] lyID=42912
Good to hear the i3s are becoming better value, but have yet to find a article comparing its performance to a true quad
Ok, you've decided what tier you want to be on. Which platform do you choose, and why? A comprehensive comparative review of the currently available platforms (including the older AM2 and LGA775 for upgraders) would be useful.
Including older platforms would make this article way too long. I'm sure you can find the kind of reviews you're talking about in the forums.
Umm is it just me or do they still have the i7-920 up there?
hmm it seems to me like that is a worthless recommendation unless you live near a microcenter. as the i7-930 has a higher core clock by about 200mhz and has a higher multiplier, for just $5-ish more. please change your list to reflect this or give a reason why it isn't on the list.
I'm hoping the new hexa cores will be able to push everything else down a tier or maybe even see AMD fill in that empty first tier.
Good to see 9 AMD Processors mentioned as best (for that price point) and only 5 intel Processors
Good to see 9 AMD Processors mentioned as best (for that price point) and only 5 intel Processors
Typical Fanboy
I knew AMD was successful in the low end market, but I didn't they were THAT successful!
The Athlon II X4 620 is a great bargain!
couple suggestions:
a) Be consequent in the specs! For instance the i3 series boards have mentions of cores/threads wheras the 1366 based i7 systems only state cores. Also teh i5 is missing qpi data.
b) None of the core i series processors have a mention of turbo mode speed nor is fsb listed for processors where it is relevant. Perhaps even add an 'unlocked multiplier' spec to the processors where applicable (black and extreme ed processors).
c) Maybe also mention the amount of pcie lanes and wether or not the processor has ecc support (if any of the recommended even support that? xeon w3520 does, and opterons do - both run in [some] desktop boards). You may argue that ecc support slows performance and therefore isn't wanted - but ecc support means cheaper access to 4gb memory modules.
4) that's perhaps a stretch, but add a spec that mentions which chipsets are supporting the cpu. Particularily important for the two core 2 processors as someone with lga775 won't nessecarily be able to run the processors just because the socket fits. Same goes for older am+ systems hoping to upgrade to a phenom x3. Don't really expect this last request to be within the reasonable limits of what can be expected from a 'quick list of processors'
couple suggestions:a) Be consequent in the specs! Fo
Good points, Neiro. I'll update the format for next month.
If you are within driving distance or a microcenter store, or know anyone who is, check their prices.
A friend got an i7 920 for 199.99 on Saturday (March 13, 2010).
http://www.microcenter.com/search/ [...] byopc_proc
In fact, while they do not carry every processor on this list, for the one's they do carry, they are usually lowest in price, often by large margins, e.g., i7 975 for 799.99.
If all processors they carry are cheaper than here, what's your problem? the ratios are still going to match up then.
Here in Denmark all the prices are higher, but since the ratios are similar the list is quite useful.
it seems like there were a lot of honorable mentions this month.
Good to hear the i3s are becoming better value, but have yet to find a article comparing its performance to a true quad
Check Anand's article on them. Particularly the launch article.
Short form:
1-2 threads they do great. However, it should be noted that an i7-860 comes within 5% of the single-thread performance of an i5-661 and beats the i3s. The i3s are comparable to a high-end C2D here.
Light multithreading they still beat the Athlons and show very well for themselves. In other words, they game very well with a good GPU.
At 4 heavy threads though, the limitations of HT start to show. It lets otherwise wasted cycles be used productively, that's it. Athlon X3s and X4s meet and beat them respectively. The PII quads and i5/i7 quads just eat them alive on heavily threaded benchmarks.