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Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: December 2012

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: December 2012
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This month we discuss two new CPUs, Intel's Core i7-3970X and AMD's Athlon II X4 651K, neither of which gamers are going to get particularly excited about. We also discuss the disappearance of the Pentium G2120, along with a handful of price changes.

If you don’t have the time to research 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.

December Updates:

AMD

AMD's Athlon II X4 651K showed up at retail at some point over the last month. This Llano-based CPU for the Socket FM1 platform features a 3 GHz operating frequency, an unlocked ratio multiplier, and disabled on-board graphics. It sells for an affordable £65. That doesn't sound bad at all until you poke around and see that the multiplier-unlocked A6-5400K is £15 cheaper and Socket FM2-compatible. Now that the Trinity-based parts are available, we know that Socket FM1 is a dead interface and really see no reason to give it a second look.

The AMD processor we're really looking forward to is the Athlon II X4 750K, which employs the Piledriver architecture, drops into the more future-looking Socket FM2, runs at 3.5 GHz, accelerates up to 4 GHz via Turbo Core, and isn't saddled with the thermal output of an on-die Radeon graphics engine. Since we know gamers are going to buy discrete cards anyway, saving power on the CPU is a plus in our book. 

According to representatives of the company, the Athlon II X4 was supposed to launch alongside the Trinity-based A10, A8, and A6 processors. It never materialized in the U.S., though, and we're wondering why. Perhaps AMD is afraid that it'd cannibalize sales of some of the lower-end FX parts?

New and missing CPUs aside, AMD enjoys a couple of price changes. Notably, the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition is down to £70 on Scan, and the FX-8350 is down to £155.

Intel

Despite its comfortable lead, Intel rolled out a new flagship in the Core i7-3970X (we reviewed it in Core i7-3970X Extreme Review: Can It Stomp An Eight-Core Xeon?). In essence, this is a Core i7-3960X with a 200 MHz frequency increase and a 4 GHz Turbo Boost ceiling. Intel increases the -3970X's TDP to 150 W, too. We were never particularly bullish on the Core i7-3960X, and our opinion of the -3970X doesn't change. The real value in Intel's Sandy Bridge-E family comes from the Core i7-3930K, which has six cores as well, but operates at lower stock rates and doesn't come with as much shared L3 cache. Nevertheless, its £445 price tag is half as hard to swallow as the Extreme Edition's.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the 3.1 GHz Pentium G2120 has, according to U.S.-based Newegg, been discontinued. We're not sure what to make of this decision. There are rumors of a 3.2 GHz Pentium G2130 and a slower 2.9 GHz G2020 on the way. Perhaps the G2120 was axed to make room for those models. Regardless, our recommendation for that price range is suspended until we have a suitable replacement.

In other news, the Core i7-3770K is now priced at £255 while the Core i5-3570K is selling for just under £175. We're not sure if the i5's price is permanent, but it seems as though the FX-8350 is putting some pressure on Intel's most attractive mid-range part.

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 US prices from online retailers. In other countries or at retail stores, your mileage will most certainly vary. Of course, these are retail CPU prices. We do not list used or OEM CPUs available at retail.   

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  • 1 Hide
    sam_p_lay , 12 December 2012 04:35
    'Core i3-3450' on page 2.
  • 4 Hide
    MajinCry , 12 December 2012 17:53
    What? No 'Best gaming CPU for £70'? The 965 BE!
  • 1 Hide
    Blahman11 , 12 December 2012 22:04
    Agree with MajiinCry. The Phenom 965 can be had for £70 now. If not the FX4100 has dropped to that price and I think it's a really good buy at that money. Overclocked it can rival CPUs £30 more (the core i3s)
  • 0 Hide
    Anonymous , 21 December 2012 17:55
    For £150, the fastest CPU you can get is actually the i7-880, which is on the less popular LGA1156 socket. This absolute gem beats an i7-2600k in most benchmarks, despite its lower speed.
  • 0 Hide
    bigirishman , 23 December 2012 06:05
    Whats happened to the 975's. You cant get one anywhere?
  • 1 Hide
    ITFT , 30 December 2012 23:20
    The best gaming CPU for reasonable money is 2500K - and the reason for that is because it has good capabilities for overclocking! The Core i5-3570K is not that good for overclocking as 2500K, therefore not the best.

    However, running the standard clocks then of course 3570K is better, as well as colder with lower TDP.


    Paul
    ITFT Computers
  • 0 Hide
    bigirishman , 17 May 2013 10:30
    Quote:
    The best gaming CPU for reasonable money is 2500K - and the reason for that is because it has good capabilities for overclocking! The Core i5-3570K is not that good for overclocking as 2500K, therefore not the best.

    However, running the standard clocks then of course 3570K is better, as well as colder with lower TDP.


    Paul
    ITFT Computers

    @ 4.8ghz the 3570k is faster than a 2500k @ 5ghz. Most people have no need to go above these clocks so I'd say the Ivy is the better choice. Theres not much in it though and as you stated the ivy don't o/c as good as the sandy. I wouldn't go past 4.8 on ivy
  • 0 Hide
    ITFT , 17 May 2013 14:41
    Quote:
    Quote:
    The best gaming CPU for reasonable money is 2500K - and the reason for that is because it has good capabilities for overclocking! The Core i5-3570K is not that good for overclocking as 2500K, therefore not the best.

    However, running the standard clocks then of course 3570K is better, as well as colder with lower TDP.


    Paul
    ITFT Computers

    @ 4.8ghz the 3570k is faster than a 2500k @ 5ghz. Most people have no need to go above these clocks so I'd say the Ivy is the better choice. Theres not much in it though and as you stated the ivy don't o/c as good as the sandy. I wouldn't go past 4.8 on ivy


    You can push over 5Ghz on Sandy no problem - no point doing that, but it is possible! Ivy as well as new Haswell is a fail for desktop in my opinion, yes they consume less power, but only about 5% faster than Sandy if that!!! Ivy overheats very quickly under overclocking - loads of info about it online.

    For games it wouldn't make any difference anyway - no matter what CPU have you got IVy or Sandy - the i5 - 2500K or any i7...

    Paul
    ITFT Computers
  • 0 Hide
    bigirishman , 17 May 2013 18:31
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Quote:
    The best gaming CPU for reasonable money is 2500K - and the reason for that is because it has good capabilities for overclocking! The Core i5-3570K is not that good for overclocking as 2500K, therefore not the best.

    However, running the standard clocks then of course 3570K is better, as well as colder with lower TDP.


    Paul
    ITFT Computers

    @ 4.8ghz the 3570k is faster than a 2500k @ 5ghz. Most people have no need to go above these clocks so I'd say the Ivy is the better choice. Theres not much in it though and as you stated the ivy don't o/c as good as the sandy. I wouldn't go past 4.8 on ivy


    You can push over 5Ghz on Sandy no problem - no point doing that, but it is possible! Ivy as well as new Haswell is a fail for desktop in my opinion, yes they consume less power, but only about 5% faster than Sandy if that!!! Ivy overheats very quickly under overclocking - loads of info about it online.

    For games it wouldn't make any difference anyway - no matter what CPU have you got IVy or Sandy - the i5 - 2500K or any i7...

    Paul
    ITFT Computers

    My 3570k @ 4.5 max temp on a gaming load is 60c and full load prime test is 65c. I'm only using a Xigmatek Gaia cooler also. I don't get why people say ivy runs hot! It's not that much of an issue until you really push it. 2500k and 3570k are both a good choice for any gamer.