Gaming CPU 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 charts test suite using only four game titles: Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3, World in Conflict, and Supreme Commander. 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.
| Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart | |
|---|---|
| Intel | AMD |
| Core i7-2600, -2600K, -2700K, -3770, -3770K, -3820, -3930K, -3960X Core i7-965, -975 Extreme, -980X Extreme, -990X Extreme Core i5-3570K, -3550, -3450, 2550K, -2500K, -2500, -2450P, -2400, -2380P, -2320, -2310, -2300 | |
| Core i7-980, -970, -960 Core i7-870, -875K Core i3-2100, -2105, -2120, -2125, -2130 | |
| Core i7-860, -920, -930, -940, -950 Core i5-750, -760, -2405S, -2400S Core 2 Extreme QX9775, QX9770, QX9650 Core 2 Quad Q9650 | FX-4170 Phenom II X6 1100T BE, 1090T BE Phenom II X4 Black Edition 980, 975 |
| Core 2 Extreme QX6850, QX6800 Core 2 Quad Q9550, Q9450, Q9400 Core i5-650, -655K, -660, -661, -670, -680 Core i3-2100T, -2120T | FX-8150, -6200 Phenom II X6 1075T Phenom II X4 Black Edition 970, 965, 955 |
| 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 G860, G850, G840, G630 | FX-8120, -6100, -4100 Phenom II X6 1055T, 1045T Phenom II X4 945, 940, 920, 910, 910e, 810 Phenom II X3 Black Edition 720, 740 A8-3850, -3870K A6-3650, -3670K Athlon II X4 645, 640, 635, 630 Athlon II X3 460, 455, 450, 445, 440, 435 |
| Core 2 Extreme X6800 Core 2 Quad Q8200 Core 2 Duo E8300, E8200, E8190, E7500, E7400, E6850, E6750 Pentium G620 Celeron 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 X4 620, 631 Athlon II X3 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 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 A4-3400 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 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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i5-2550K is such a beast. I however miss the good old 2500K. I can't wait for what Ivy Bridge has to bring out.
still 2500k is a great cpu.
As much as I wanted to hold out for IB, I have zero complaints about my i5-2500K.
i totally didn't know that. i thought it had hd 3050 igpu.
also, every time i see the fx8120, 6100 and 4100 in the same tier as pentium g series, i chuckle. good times.
ps: why does the OP still reads 'Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2012 : Read more' ? it links to the correct article though.
I suspect that Trinity will be overpriced for the performance it offers. Hopefully next month's updates will be more interesting.
for my next PC ill use the FX 4100 ^- ... no Pentiums for me ty
An article like this could skip a couple of months and the data wouldn't change. Next month, though with IB around the corner, might get interesting. Or June, if IB is pushed back until then.
I though I'd heard the 2550K was sans integrated graphics?
they should have trolled us with some april fools
2550k doesn't have any graphics capabilities as hmp_goose suggested.
http://ark.intel.com/products/6564 [...] -3_80-GHz)
Still TH is way off base putting an FX 4100 CPU as top tier and the FX 8150 a full tier below it LOL TH TROLL MUCH !
Still TH is way off base putting an FX 4100 CPU as top tier and the FX 8150 a full tier below it LOL TH TROLL MUCH !
According to TH's benches, when it comes to gaming the FX 4100 is better than the 8150 since its clocked higher and games don't usually use more threads (console ports much?). However, while I appreciate the data, these graphs don't tell the whole story for me.
For example, If I play a huge multiplayer game, or if my AV decides to scan while I encode a movie and/or have 30 tabs open and would like to play.
For me it happens a lot and I've noticed that *any* 2 core cpu I dealt with *including the new pentium* was less capable than my 4 core cpu.
So by all means the 8150 is the better "gaming machine" for me, and probably many others.
And yeah 2550k doesn't have integrated gfx, plz fix that pronto.
Still TH is way off base putting an FX 4100 CPU as top tier and the FX 8150 a full tier below it LOL TH TROLL MUCH !
Do some homework. The FX 4170 is a 4.2 GHz chip. In single threaded or lightly threaded applications it will take the FX 8150's lunch. Honestly in my opinion the 4170 deserves to be a tier higher. I think it can hold it's own against a SB i3. Once again, my opinion. I have yet to see a direct comparison.
Do some homework. The FX 4170 is a 4.2 GHz chip. In single threaded or lightly threaded applications it will take the FX 8150's lunch. Honestly in my opinion the 4170 deserves to be a tier higher. I think it can hold it's own against a SB i3. Once again, my opinion. I have yet to see a direct comparison.
I did and FX 8120/8150 are 5ghz on air chips and the FX 4100/4170 ARE THE SAME chips as the 8150 just with MODUALS disabled and down clocked or up clocked in the case of the FX 4170. TH is WRONG ! and they failed to take OCing into concerderation somthing that AMD has shown needs to be done on these FX chip and is veru much encouraged by AMD to do hence why they are UNLOCKED CPUs.
I
I did and FX 8120/8150 are 5ghz on air chips and the FX 4100/4170 ARE THE SAME chips as the 8150 just with MODUALS disabled and down clocked or up clocked in the case of the FX 4170. TH is WRONG ! and they failed to take OCing into concerderation somthing that AMD has shown needs to be done on these FX chip and is veru much encouraged by AMD to do hence why they are UNLOCKED CPUs.
Tom's CPU graph does not take overlooking into consideration. Listed performance is at stock settings. I love AMD as much as anyone but pick a battle that the rules aren't against your main point. You are making AMD fans look bad.
Ugh. Damn tablet auto correct. Ignore my obvious typos. I meant overclocking.
And yeah 2550k doesn't have integrated gfx, plz fix that pronto.
I though I'd heard the 2550K was sans integrated graphics?
+1, its IGP is locked.
I know you guys simply copied and pasted the 2500k info and changed the name to 2550k
See here for more details.
Still hope there are more AMD stuff up there... competition is good... Intel is monopolizing!
I do hope AMD trinity cpu performs as well as sandy bridge and with IGP around the radeon 7750.