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.
June Updates
After Intel's Ivy Bridge and AMD's mobile Trinity introductions, there really isn't much to report on in the CPU world (aside from our early look at Trinity-based APUs on the desktop, that is).
The only real news this month is a handful of price adjustments on AMD's products: the A8-3870K APU and FX-8150 both dropped £10 to £90 and £150, respectively. The A8-3870K is distinguished by its unlocked multiplier, making it the highest-end enthusiast-friendly Llano-based APU. It's an attractive option, sure, but we'd advise gamers to grab separate CPUs and graphics cards. As for the FX-8150, its new street price has never looked better for heavily-threaded applications. But it's not our top choice as the foundation for a gaming machine, so it fails to pick up a recommendation.
The FX-6100, -6200, and A8-3850 all dropped by a small amount. Those don't change our list of recommendations, but they are welcome reductions for folks looking to buy productivity-oriented boxes, rather than purpose-built gaming PCs.
We suspect that the lower-priced A8s are designed to move excess inventory ahead of AMD's Trinity-based APUs, which aren't expected in the channel until later this year. As Chris Angelini demonstrated in his preview last week, Piledriver is doing about 15% better than Bulldozer at the same clock rate in single- and multi-threaded applications. Those same gains, transposed to the FX family, could make the mid-range gaming processor market a lot more interesting!
As for Intel, we expect to see Ivy Bridge-based derivatives replace Sandy Bridge-based parts over the next few months. But a major product refresh won't arrive until the next-generation Haswell architecture is released in 2013.
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.
