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Best Gaming CPU: Entry-level

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: March 2012
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Best Gaming CPU for ~£50:

Pentium G630

Pentium G630
Codename: Sandy Bridge
Process: 32 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 2
Clock Speed: 2.7 GHz
Socket: LGA 1155
L2 Cache: 2 x 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Thermal Envelope:
65 W

It turns out that the budget-oriented Sandy Bridge-based Pentium family performs very well in games. Specifically, Intel's £50 Pentium G630 beat the FX-4100, -6100, and -8120 in our recent sub-£160 CPU gaming comparison. In fact, it finished right on par with the Phenom II X4 955.

As a result, Intel displaces AMD at the bottom rung of our recommendation list for the first time in a very long while. There's not much else to add, except that if you consider the Phenom II to be a capable gaming CPU, Intel's Pentium G630 is just as viable.

Best Gaming CPU for £70:

Pentium G860

Pentium G860
Codename: Sandy Bridge
Process: 32 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 2
Clock Speed: 3.0 GHz
Socket: LGA 1155
L2 Cache: 2 x 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Thermal Envelope:
65 W

An extra £20 buys you 300 MHz more compared to the £50 Pentium G630.

This makes enough of a performance difference to push today's £70 processor recommendation out in front of AMD's Phenom II X4 955 in our sub-£160 CPU gaming comparison. Because the LGA 1155-based Core i3s are unfortunately crippled by locked multiplier ratios, paying a little extra for more stock frequency could be worth the added cost in this case.

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    dubstep , 29 March 2012 02:59
    I have a 2500k@4.4 and it is the bottleneck in BF3 on maps like Gulf of Oman. The 2600k should be recommended.