Gaming CPU's ?

[kalniel]

Quite the contrary. See for example this article from Tom's Hardware. The FX4100 is soundly beaten by the slightly cheaper Pentium 860 and most of the time even by the $40 cheaper Pentium G630.

According to that, an FX4100 is only 8.1% slower than the 860 in minimum frame rates, 2.9% slower than the G630. That translates to a few frames per second, hardly noticeable on a MMORPG. So I'd look at system costs. Sometimes you can pick up a bargain on an Intel chipset, but usually AMD are cheaper for the same level of features.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

According to that, an FX4100 is only 8.1% slower than the 860 in minimum frame rates, 2.9% slower than the G630. That translates to a few frames per second, hardly noticeable on a MMORPG. So I'd look at system costs. Sometimes you can pick up a bargain on an Intel chipset, but usually AMD are cheaper for the same level of features.

Also,as with many reviews it uses an expensive card,which in this case is an HD7970 to reduce the effect of the GPU as a bottleneck. In most cases,people will be using much cheaper graphics cards anyway,so the difference will be less.

Amazon are also selling the Phenom II X4 965BE for around £74 too,and you can get the Athlon II X4 651K(this is basically the same as the CPU section of the A8-3870K) for under £70.

[ET3D]

It may be true that the FX 4100 isn't much worse than the Pentiums, but it's also the more expensive option. Costs £86.89 at Scan compared to £47.56 for the Pentium G630. That's a big price difference for something that's a little slower on average for gaming.

[DanceswithUnix]

I don't trust Toms Hardware, so went looking for reliable benchmarks. Luckily Anand comes to the rescue.
This is a little out of date, it only has the G620 not G630 but that still puts in a rather good showing.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4524/t...g620t-tested/3

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Intel i5 2500k all the way. Not only do they perform extremely well for gaming (see link) but they overclock with ease and the price is pretty great too.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/t...2100-tested/20

[ScottyVillage]

I personally would pick AMD. I think that you get more bang for the buck. Yes Intel overclock well but my six core amd serves me well

[Percy1983]

I am currently looking into this, in short my current system eats any game going, but I have hit a snag... 3D

In short I am nowhere near topping out my graphics while my processor bounces off the roof, what is the best plan?

[DanceswithUnix]

I am currently looking into this, in short my current system eats any game going, but I have hit a snag... 3D

In short I am nowhere near topping out my graphics while my processor bounces off the roof, what is the best plan?

I take it you mean professional 3D rather than 3D games? If so which package are you using?

Mind you, from the processor you have the answer is going to be an i7 lets face it; or a render farm

[5teviewonders]

Intel make better processors. I looked at benchmarks for Sandy Bridge and the i7 doesn't have much if any benefits over the i5 in gaming so perhaps go for an i5 if gaming is your only concern.

[brookheather]

This is an interesting article that compares different cpus for gaming performance:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1877/1/

[Gallarian]

Ah the classic battle!

Well, between Intel and AMD the general rule would be that the lower cost part of the market belongs to AMD, where as the higher would belong to Intel. So it really depends on your budget.

If you have a decent budget of say, around £160 then the best CPU you could get would have to be the Intel i5-2500k. It is an absolute power house of a CPU for gaming purposes, and is on par with its i7 brother, as for gaming, the hyperthreading that the i7-2600k offers is pointless. The overclocking head room of the sandy bridge 2500k allows it to over take its ivy bridge rivals too.

So in conclusion: For gaming, especially higher end, Intel should be your choice

My recommendation: Intel i5-2500k

[Willzzz]

Well by luck Tom's have just posted their latest guide on the matter:

(can't post URLs, but it's on the front page)

Like most people I would advise an i5 unless you are on a really small budget. An i3 would be perfectly OK, but you would need to upgrade it sooner than you would an i5.

I would also advise getting the Ivy over the Sandy Bridge. Sure you may not get as big of an overclock, but the base performance is better, and it supports PCIe 3.0 which might well become very important in the future. Also very few games benefit significantly from a CPU overclock, most don't even notice it. Adding 1ghz to an i5 in Diablo 3 provides less than a 1% FPS boost.

[raspute]

3570k is the superlative gaming cpu choice of the day. fairly future-proof and moderately overclockable. not worth it if you've already got a 2500k though. anything less won't be as good (but nearly in a lot of cases), anything more won't show enough performance increase to justify the price.

[deejayburnout]

I just got a Phenom II 965 and its OCed to 3.8 and eats all my games ( skyrim, arkham city ). Plenty speed for future games

The CPUs are cheap just now and good if you are on a budget.

top that with a good card and you will be in for a winner.



Sent from somewhere other than my PC.

[ET3D]

Well, between Intel and AMD the general rule would be that the lower cost part of the market belongs to AMD, where as the higher would belong to Intel.

Problem with this rule it's wrong. AMD loses to Intel at all price points when it comes to gaming. (Well, excluding the Atom.)

On the Intel side, I haven't seen any indication that an i3 is a bottleneck, so for pure gaming purposes it's probably good enough.

[Samwood]

On a budget - Athlon II or the lower end SandyBridge i3/i5/i7 chips.
Performance - Phenom II or the Mid-level SandyBridge i3/i5/i7 chips
Top end - i5 2500k is the 'gamer choice' (best bang-for-buck and is now tried & tested). Though the new i5 3570k will give you better future proofing (PCI-e 3.0 etc).
If your going to be doing rendering etc aswell you might want to go for a i7 3770k or for a few ££ less the 2600k or 2700k are good ways to go.

For mega bucks - Intel 2011 socket with the X79 chipset and SandyBridge-E processes are about the best you can get. But for gaming your better off spending this extra money on improved graphics cards.