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Best Gaming CPU: High-end

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: August 2012
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Best Gaming CPU for £180:

Core i5-3570K

Core i5-3570K
Codename: Ivy Bridge
Process: 22 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 4
Clock Speed (Max. Turbo): 3.4 GHz (3.8 GHz)
Socket: LGA 1155
L2 Cache: 4 x 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Thermal Envelope:
77 W

The Core i5-3570K is only 300 MHz faster than the Core i5-3450 at stock speeds, but the K-series' unlocked ratio multiplier is a must-have for overclockers looking to unleash significant performance improvements. It is for this reason alone that a gamer should shell out the extra £35 over Intel's slower model. After all, the pricier chip's HD Graphics 4000 is hardly relevant when you plan to use a discrete card anyway.
If you don't plan to overclock at all, then we think that there's little reason to look past the Core i5-3450.

Read our review of the Ivy Bridge-based CPUs here.

Diminishing Returns Kick In:

CPUs priced over £200 offer rapidly diminishing returns when it comes to game performance. As such, we have a hard time recommending anything more expensive than the Core i5-3570K, especially since this multiplier-unlocked processor can be overclocked to great effect if more performance is desired. Even at stock clocks, it meets or beats the £800 Core i7-990X Extreme Edition when it comes to gaming.

But now that LGA 2011 is here, there's certainly an argument to be made for it as the ultimate gaming platform. LGA 2011-based CPUs have more available cache and as many as two more execution cores than the flagship LGA 1155 models. Additionally, more bandwidth is delivered through a quad-channel memory controller. And with 40 lanes of third-gen PCIe connectivity available from Sandy Bridge-E-based processors, the platform natively supports two x16 and one x8 slot, or one x16 and three x8 slots, alleviating potential bottlenecks in three- and four-way CrossFire or SLI configurations.

Although they sound impressive, those advantages don't necessarily translate into significant performance gains in modern titles. Our tests demonstrate fairly little difference between a LGA 1155 Core i5-2500K and a LGA 2011 Core i7-3960X, even when three-way graphics card configurations are involved. It turns out that memory bandwidth and PCIe throughput don't hold back the performance of existing Sandy Bridge-based machines.

Where we do see the potential for Sandy Bridge-E to drive additional performance is in processor-bound games like World of Warcraft or the multiplayer component of Battlefield 3. If you're running a three- or four-way array of graphics cards already, there's a good chance that you already own more than enough rendering muscle. An overclocked Core i7-3960X or -3930K could help the rest of your platform catch up to an insanely powerful arrangement of GPUs.

To summarize, while we generally recommend against purchasing any gaming CPU that retails for more than £200 from a value point of view (sink that money into graphics and the motherboard instead), there are those of you who have no trouble throwing down serious money on the best of the best, and who require the fastest possible performance available. If this describes your goals, the following CPU is for you:

Best Gaming CPU for £450: (or for any price)
Core i7-3930K

Core i7-3930K
Codename: Sandy Bridge-E
Process: 32 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 6/12
Clock Speed (Max. Turbo): 3.2 GHz (3.8 GHz)
Socket: LGA 2011
L2 Cache:   6x 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Thermal Envelope:
130 W

Take the £800 Core i7-3960X, remove 3 MB of L3 cache, and drop the base clock rate by 100 MHz. What do end up with? Three hundred and fifty pounds left over, and an Intel Core i7-3930K.

The 100 MHz difference in clock rate is hardly relevant, given unlocked multiplier ratios benefiting both CPUs. And you'd be hard-pressed to quantify the advantage of 15 MB of shared L3 cache over 12 MB. Moreover, a greater-than-£300 savings lets you buy a nice motherboard and cooler, while still getting the same four-channel memory subsystem and 40-lane PCI Express 3.0-capable controller.

Read our review of the Sandy Bridge-E based CPUs here.

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  • 0 Hide
    brianthesnail , 31 August 2012 04:42
    ive just upgraded from the pentium E5700 to the pentium G620.. and for the price (£40) i am impressed.... granted its limited with no hyperthreading or turbo but along with 4gb of 1333mhz ram and a GTX550ti im running the latest games without any probs......
    its great to see toms hardware recommending these low end cpu,s ,however they may be low end but they have mid range performance... as the review above stated they can take on the FX4100 and even the 8 core bulldozers.. and can keep up with a quad core phenom..... i dont know how intel have acheived this but this allows guys like myself with limited budgets to build budget gaming rigs on a shoestring.....
    its nice to watch these channels on youtube with quad crossfire and overclocked i7,s but unless you have a 40K+ yearly salary or your folks are mega rich this kind of hardware is way out of your reach...
    theres many decent sites that can recommend good budget hardware but "toms hardware" is the best source of information anywhere online.... the best cpu and gpu monthly reports are second to none and this was the basis of my choice to go with the G620.....
  • 2 Hide
    MajinCry , 31 August 2012 23:50
    Eh. I upgraded from an E6700 to an AMD Phenom II X4 965 and it's awesome. It has literally doubled my frame-rates, and I can now play things like Skyrim and Fallout 3 with max render distances, loads of NPCs and shizzle with no slow-downs. Got everything throttled at 40FPS, and it's silky smooth. Cost me £80, £170 if you include Mobo and RAM.
  • 0 Hide
    jemm , 3 September 2012 06:08
    Good to see people confirming in real world the tips from Tom´s!
  • 0 Hide
    jay_nar2012 , 5 September 2012 04:04
    I love how the picture for this thread (when you are about to click on it) has just AMD cpus in it....