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Best High-End Gaming Processors

Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: January 2014
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Best Gaming CPU for £180:

Core i5-4670K

Core i5-4670K
Codename: Haswell
Process: 22 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 4/4
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:
84 W

The Core i5-4670K's base clock rate is only 300 MHz faster than the Core i5-3350P's. However, 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 you'll want to consider shelling out an additional £40 beyond Intel's more entry-level Core i5. The pricier chip's HD Graphics 4600 engine is inconsequential to us, after all. If you don't plan to overclock, then there's little reason to spend any more than £140 on the Core i5-3350P.

Read our review of the Haswell-based CPUs here.

Diminishing Returns Kick In:

CPUs priced over £180 offer rapidly diminishing returns when it comes to gaming performance. As such, we have a hard time recommending anything more expensive than the Core i5-4670K, especially since this multiplier-unlocked processor is easy to tune up to 4.3 GHz or so with the right cooler. Even at stock clocks, though, it matches or beats the old £800 Gulftown-based Core i7-990X Extreme Edition in game tests.

We have seen a small handful of games benefit from Hyper-Threaded Core i7 processors, though. Because we believe this is a trend that will continue as developers optimize their titles, we're including the Core i7-4770K as an honorable mention, now selling for around £250. In a vast majority of games, the Core i7 won't demonstrate much advantage over the Core i5. But if you're a serious enthusiast who wants some future-proofing and values highly-threaded application performance, this processor may be worth the extra money.

In addition, there's certainly an argument to be made for using LGA 2011 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 1150/1155 models. Additionally, more bandwidth is delivered through a quad-channel memory controller. And with 40 lanes of third-gen PCIe connectivity available from Ivy Bridge-E-based processors (we're assuming that if you're building on X79 today, you're using a Core i7-4000-series chip), 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 £150 LGA 1155 Core i5-2500K and a £800 LGA 2011 Core i7-4960X, even when three-way graphics card configurations are involved. It turns out that memory bandwidth and PCIe throughput don't hold back the game performance of existing Sandy Bridge-, Ivy Bridge-, and Haswell-based machines.

Where we do see the potential for Ivy Bridge-E to drive additional performance is in processor-bound games like World of Warcraft or the multiplayer component of Battlefield 4. 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 i7-4960X or -4930K 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 £180 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 CPUs may be for you:

Best Gaming CPU for £250: None

Honourable Mention:

Core i7-4770K

Core i7-4770K
Codename: Ivy Bridge
Process: 22 nm
CPU Cores/Threads: 4/8
Clock Speed (Max. Turbo): 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz)
Socket: LGA 1155
L2 Cache:   4x 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Thermal Envelope:
95 W

The Core i7-4770K only enjoys a 100 MHz-higher clock rate than the Core i5-4670K. Its real advantage is an extra 2 MB of L3 cache and Intel's Hyper-Threading technology. Neither of those extras have a big impact on gaming, but there is a small number of titles (like Crysis 3) that take advantage of extra resources, translating to a performance increase. Having said that, this is still rare, and the Core i7-4770K will be more useful to power users who want better performance in threaded apps, in addition to the best frame rates in games.

Read our review of the Haswell-based CPUs here.

Best Gaming CPU for £440: (or for any price)
Core i7-4930K

Core i7-4930K
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 i7-4960X, remove 3 MB of shared L3 cache, drop the base clock rate 200 MHz to 3.4 GHz, and the peak Turbo Boost frequency 100 MHz to 3.9 GHz. What do end up with? Three hundred pounds and change and an Intel Core i7-4930K. The difference in clock rate is hardly relevant, given a tunable multipler ratio. 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 Ivy Bridge E-based CPUs here.

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  • 2 Hide
    Warlord Zorg , 24 January 2014 17:04
    aren't the i7-4770K and i5-4670k LGA1150 Socket?
  • 1 Hide
    Warlord Zorg , 26 January 2014 22:15
    Us site Got it right?? And aparrently more people to comment!??
  • 1 Hide
    mironso , 27 January 2014 08:42
    "...while we generally recommend against purchasing any gaming..."Is there missing something, is this right, this sentence? Generally recommend against - not the best mix of words.
  • 1 Hide
    mironso , 27 January 2014 08:44
    "...while we generally recommend against purchasing any gaming..."Is there missing something, is this right, this sentence? Generally recommend against - not the best mix of words.
  • 1 Hide
    mironso , 27 January 2014 08:45
    "...while we generally recommend against purchasing any gaming..."Is there missing something, is this right, this sentence? Generally recommend against - not the best mix of words.
  • 0 Hide
    ruban71 , 9 February 2014 22:38
    AMD FX 8320 is available for £110. Would be my choice for mid range