Benchmarking 86 CPUs takes a while. After long last, though, we have 51 models from AMD and 35 from Intel tested in our current suite. If you want to know how your processor sizes up to its competition, you'll find plenty of comparison data inside!
86 CPUs Benchmarked: 51 From AMD And 35 From Intel
We've been hard at work updating our CPU Charts with a brand new benchmark suite. And, before 2012 comes to a close, we wanted to share the results of no fewer than 86 processors with you. The models we tested range from dual-core budget-oriented chips to eight-core flagships. Fifty-one models come from AMD, and 35 are Intel's.
In this overview, the CPUs are organized by micro-architecture, each covered on its own page. It’s a free-for-all once we hit the benchmarks. At that point, performance is all that matters. Let’s have a look at the contenders:
AMD
| AMD CPUs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family | FX Processors | A-Series APUs | Phenom II | Athlon II |
| Architecture and Model Number | Bulldozer FX-4100 FX-4170 FX-6100 FX-6200 FX-8100 FX-8120 FX-8140 FX-8150 FX-8170 | Llano A6-3650 A6-3670K A8-3850 A8-3870K Trinity A10-5800K | Stars Phenom II X2 550 Phenom II X2 555 Phenom II X2 560 Phenom II X2 565 Phenom II X3 705e Phenom II X3 710 Phenom II X3 720 Phenom II X3 740 Phenom II X4 830 Phenom II X4 840 Phenom II X4 905e Phenom II X4 910e Phenom II X4 955 Phenom II X4 965 Phenom II X4 970 Phenom II X4 975 Phenom II X4 980 Phenom II X6 1035T Phenom II X6 1045T Phenom II X6 1055T Phenom II X6 1065T Phenom II X6 1075T Phenom II X6 1090T Phenom II X6 1100T | Stars Athlon II X2 240e Athlon II X2 250 Athlon II X2 255 Athlon II X2 260 Athlon II X3 425 Athlon II X3 435 Athlon II X3 440 Athlon II X3 445 Athlon II X4 620 Athlon II X4 630 Athlon II X4 635 Athlon II X4 640 Athlon II X4 645 |
Intel
| Intel CPUs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Family | Core (First Generation) | Core (Second Generation) | Core (Third Generation) |
| Architecture and Model Number | Nehalem Core i3-530 Core i5-661 Core i5-670 Core i5-750 Core i5-750S Core i5-760 Core i7-860 Core i7-870 Core i7-875K Core i7-880 Core i7-920 Core i7-930 Core i7-960 Core i7-970 Core i7-975 Extreme Edition Core i7-980 Core i7-980X Core i7-990X | Sandy Bridge Core i5-2300 Core i5-2310 Core i5-2400 Core i5-2400S Core i5-2500K Core i5-2500T Core i7-2600K Core i7-2700K Core i7-3930X Core i7-3960X Pentium G620 Pentium G630 Pentium G630T | Ivy Bridge Core i5-3450 Core i5-3470 Core i5-3550 Core i5-3570K Core i7-3770K |
- Tom's Hardware: CPU Benchmark Charts, Updated
- AMD: Bulldozer
- AMD: A-Series APUs (Trinity/Llano)
- AMD: K10 (Stars)
- Intel: Nehalem
- Intel: Sandy Bridge
- Intel: Ivy Bridge
- CPU Charts: AMD Processor Overview
- CPU Charts: Intel Processor Overview
- Benchmark Hardware And Software
- PCMark 7
- SiSoftware Sandra 2012
- Adobe Creative Suite 6
- Professional Applications
- Audio/Video And File Compression
- 3DMark 11 And Games
- Power Consumption
- No Surprise: Intel Takes The Performance Crown, AMD Represents Value

I realise that this article was designed to show CPU performance and as such the resolution that was chosen for the testing is pretty low.
The thing is this is a really great collection of CPU's you have in this article, PLEASE Please tell me you tested them all at 1920 x 1080 etc as well for a future article about CPU gaming performance.
As you know the CPU is less and less important as you go up the resolutions and having had a collection of CPU's like this together, it would really have been short sighted to just test for this one article.
Great work on this article though.
Mactronix
The reason they were tested in low settings/resolutions was to help highlight any CPU differences. If you play, say battlefield 3 at Ultra in 1440p then the thing is so Graphics-bottlenecked that you can't really tell the difference between the CPUs.
If you want to see more about how each CPU does for gaming, then checking out the individual review for that CPU might be the best bet. Most of them have been done here.
A reputable and well connected review site will get given sample CPU's some times just plain given and others are leant out such as when they are rare or early engineering samples.
If you actually read my post you would see that the first part of your post is redundant as I have shown in my post that I understand the issues you are raising.
The reason for my interest in a second article using higher resolutions is also explained but to put it in even simpler terms.
A huge collection of CPUs like this listed against gaming performance at resolutions people use and not restricted to a lower resolution designed specifically for this article to highlight CPU performance, would be very very useful when trying to see if a CPU upgrade would actually benefit or not and where you should be looking for your upgrade.
The whole point is that you could easily compare across multiple CPU's, Individual reviews as you suggested are useless for this as you end up comparing different scenarios and hardware set ups.
Mactronix
it looks good for intel 1155 set for gaming and not overclock use. workstations too. Test it B75 , H77 and Z-77 boards. Its wery intresting cpu because its so cheap and faster than 3570k at stoc clocks. Test too if it can be overclocked in Z-77 motherboard.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E3-1230+V2+%40+3.30GHz&id=1189