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Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: July 2013

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: July 2013
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We recently saw AMD introduce the flagship FX-9000 series and the Athlon X2 370K. Moreover, the company's three-module FX-6300 dropped by quite a bit. Read along as we document a handful of price cuts on other AMD CPUs and Intel's Haswell-based processors

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.

July Updates: 

AMD just released its FX-9000 series, which is now the company's flagship processor family. The FX-9590 ships with a 4.7 GHz base clock able to hit 5 GHz through Turbo Core. Dabs currently wants £720 for it (or roughly the price of a Core i7-3930K plus a motherboard). The FX-9370's stock clock is 4.4 GHz, able to hit 4.7 GHz via Turbo Core. It's substantially cheaper; Dabs is asking £250. Both are sold as OEM solutions without coolers, and purportedly intended for system builders who understand what it takes to keep a 220 W CPU running stably. Both chips are based on the existing Piledriver architecture currently being used in the FX-4300, -6300, and 8300 line-up, so it's unclear why AMD chose to shift to the -9000 series. Without benchmarks, it's difficult to say how each model will perform in games. However, based on the company's pricing, we can't imagine any situation where there are going to outperform the Core i7s they go up against.

The only other new processor that surfaced in the last month was AMD's Athlon X2 370K. Based on the revised Richland processor design, this Socket FM2-based CPU features a 4 GHz base clock that scales up to 4.2 GHz via Turbo Core, an unlocked ratio multiplier, and a 65 W TDP for £40. Although the adjustable multiplier is somewhat tempting, I'm still shying away from recommending any dual-core processors. The quad-core Athlon II X4 750K will be the subject of an upcoming performance evaluation by Paul Henningsen, at which point we'll know more about its stock and overclocked capabilities. You can read more about AMD's new Richland core in our launch coverage, AMD A10-6700 And A10-6800K Review: Richland Hits The Desktop.

Prices on AMD's CPUs are tending a little lower. The biggest news this month is a significant drop on its FX-6300. At £90, this six-core processor offers clear value, displacing the quad-core FX-4300 at the same price. Although Intel's £95 Core i3-3220 is a better gaming chip, the FX-6300 is obviously easier to overclock, given its unlocked ratio. If you anticipate using desktop software optimized for multiple cores (and most of the tests in our benchmark suite are), then the FX's three Piledriver modules will likely yield superior performance outside of games.

Otherwise, the A8-5600K, FX-8120, and FX-8150 are all down in the U.S. None of those changes affect our gaming recommendations, although workstation users may be interested in the more affordable FX chips with four Piledriver modules.

The prices of Intel's Haswell-based CPUs are settling down a bit . In time, the company's most modern architecture will replace the Ivy Bridge-based Core i5-3570 and 3570K. For now, though, the less expensive CPUs maintain their positions in our column, since Haswell doesn't give us any compelling reason to spend more.

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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    bemused_fred , 24 July 2013 09:18
    "The prices of Intel's Haswell-based CPUs are settling down a bit . In time, the company's most modern architecture will replace the Ivy Bridge-based Core i5-3570 and 3570K"


    The 3570, maybe. The I3 3220, maybe. But considering the huge problems that exist with overclocking Haswell, recommending the 4670K over the 3570K would be a terrible idea.
  • 0 Hide
    MajinCry , 24 July 2013 09:49
    Some of the prices are just plain wrong; I do smell a bit of foul play.

    The 965 BE, for example, goes for around £80. It should trump that i3 no problem. It's also cheaper.
  • 0 Hide
    damian86 , 1 August 2013 03:00
    Not sure what you call huge overclocking issues on Haswell as they can be easily oc'd to 4.6 even .7 I don't think most of the people will o.c their haswell to 7 ghz and keep it on LN 24/7 right? I mean Sandybridge was the big bang for overclocking but I don't understand what people expect, some huge change after Sandybridge, maybe not or not just yet.You need to remember this is all on a new technology -nm and that there are still more Haswell cpus to come out soon.