Introduction
If you don’t have the time to research the 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.
Our Second Gaming CPU for the Money Article
In our first Best Gaming CPU for the Money article, we tried to keep things as objective as possible by basing recommendations completely on comparison data instead of our opinions. Unfortunately, the best data we could muster was a fairly small sample size of four games run continuously in our own labs. In addition, it appears that our Athlon II X2 CPU performance data was a little pessimistic.
As a result, we'll be opening this month's column up to more subjective opinion and experience. Hopefully, this counterbalances the possibility of recommendations based on apps highly optimized for one architecture or another. Thus, you'll see us adding to and modifying some of the picks. Having said that, if you purchased a CPU using last month's article, then fear not. Those choices remain valid and defensible. This time around we're simply adding some price points and making extra recommendations for outstanding overclockers.
With regard to new additions, the past month saw AMD introduce its Phenom II 965 BE, though it doesn't offer too much excitement other than a slight clock speed bump over the 955 model in the company's Phenom II series. More interesting are the lowered prices across the rest of the Phenom II X4 line, making the Phenom II X4 955 and 945 models more attractive from a value standpoint.
As far as Intel, everyone is waiting for the new Core i5 CPUs to show up, which look like they are going to give the existing Core 2 Quad and Phenom IIs a good run for their money. We've already wrapped up our performance testing and are comfortable recommending that performance enthusiasts with mid-range budgets will want to see what Intel's latest efforts yield. It'll only be a week's wait, we promise!
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.
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 U.S. prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary. Of course, these are retail CPU prices while we do not list used or OEM CPUs.
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I have an E8500. Nothing wrong in an 'old fashioned' quick processor. When I bought it I couldn't justify the price increase for a 3Ghz+ quad core. I use it for simulating the physics of electrical components and systems as part of my uni work. These programs are old, referencing ‘cards’ and ‘stacks’ in the error codes, so have never heard of multi-threading. The E8500 provides a large amount of required brute force for those applications. It does see its fair share of gaming too! No complaints about the performance there either. Best of all, while going flat out on both cores, it won’t try to melt its way through the floor. (that could be because I threw the stock cooler away??)
Yes, you can buy a better/newer/expensive cpu but unless you really have to have the 4 cores I don’t think the expense is justified (yet). Especially for me when upgrading to Intel’s latest offering will mean a whole new motherboard and memory too. I’ll have to stick with the E8500 for a few more years.
It would take a Lottery win for a £300+ cpu.
Great review. I just bought a x2 5200+ for a client and I have no complaints whatsoever. I'd also like to add that despite a thermal pad, the retail cooler does an awesome job..it's barely even warm under load and you can hardly hear it. Couldn't ask for more.
Note: The Athlon II X2 250 is incorrectly listed as 2.8GHz in the chart, instead of 3GHz
Sorry to be pedantic, but I think some more data is wrong for the following CPU's:
Athlon II X2 250
. 2x 128K L1 cache (not 2x 64K)
Phenom II X2 545
. 2x 128K L1 cache (not 2x 64K)
. 2x 512K L2 cache (not 2x 1MB)
And the new X4-945 revision has been out for a while, so all the ones on the shelves currently are 95W TDP units, not 125W!
Funny how there are no "unfortunate mistakes" with the Intel CPU listings! Given Don did this article methinks one of the Intal-sponsored editors went around the article with the bullshitometer!
Not a bad article at all. I'm personally very happy with my Q6600 (B3, not G0 unfortunately), which is sitting at 3.2 GHz. I know the i7-920 could beat it at about 2.8GHz, maybe lower, but not by enough to justify the cost of an upgrade from my X48-based system.
I personally need a multi-core PC for 3D rendering that I let my flatmate do while I'm in work, and for my own personal Flight Sim enjoyment. Maybe I'll upgrade to an 8-core i9 someday.
Another good article Don. I think your def the best reviewer here now and the unbiased careful language you use is a big plus.
You could also do an article on the best cpu for the buck in terms of raw overclocking (that's doable, stable and on the stock cooler though)for gaming.
My thoughts are the E5xxx and low end Q9xxx series are probably the best bang for the buck in that department as I would leave out the 65nm parts are they are getting harder to get now.
Possibly the triple core 45nm AMD parts would also give them a run for the money with the extra core ... based on price / performance.
I'd concentrate on three games only and average the scores, and pick a few dual, triple and quads, and compare the 45nm penryn, 45nm AMD dual, triple and quad, and throw in a couple of i7's.
This should keep you busy in the lab and it would be a great little piece I think.
Probably need some charts and stay well below 4Ghz where the thermals become an issue for cooling ... remember stock coolers !!
I think it would be a shootout between the dual core 45nm E5's and the AMD tripples ... just a prediction.
The E5200 might just get there ?
Work on $ per frame eh?
I'm glad Tom's is doing this for CPUs as well as GFX cards now. Great job!
I think this article fails to mention one thing about the e8500, when ran at stock, expect temperatures of 80-90+ celcius. Seriously, the thing comes with a non copper heatsink, and was running at 90+ celcius. Im sure some people have a lot better cooling setup inside, but for a HTPC, im not so sure, because if you have to get a 3rd party heatsink and fan, goodluck fitting it inside one of those machines
what about the athlon 7750 be , I got mine for under £50 brand new and it outperforms the 5200 on nearly everything at stock and it overclocks to 3 ghz easily
Prices in $ and link to price comparison is to a US version.
Really starting to give up on THG. Bit-tech is far far superior at the moment.