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.
Intel's Ivy Bridge
Let's start with Intel's newest release: the third-gen
Core CPUs, based on Ivy Bridge. This is the biggest news since last month's update, and Intel's most significant release since Sandy Bridge was introduced more than a year ago.
For the most part, Ivy Bridge is essentially a 22 nm die shrink of the Sandy Bridge
processing cores with a re-worked graphics engine that also yields better Quick Sync performance. The end result is a processor that's more energy efficient, since it uses less power and is roughly as fast as Sandy Bridge.
Ivy Bridge's real advantage comes from its integrated HD Graphics 4000 with 16 execution units, rather than HD Graphics 3000's 12 EUs. Note that the HD Graphics 2500 implementation on most of the new
Core i5s only have six EUs. Of course, if you're a serious gamer, it doesn't matter whether you get HD Graphics 4000, 3000, or 2500; a discrete card is still the way to go.
There are seven desktop Ivy Bridge-based models available at retail, priced on Newegg as follows:
| Cores / Threads | Base Freq. | Max. Turbo | L3 Cache | HD Graphics | Graphics Base Freq. | Graphics Max. Freq. | TDP (W) | Newegg
Price |
|---|
| Third-Gen Core i7 Family |
|---|
| -3770K | 4/8 | 3.5 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 8 MB | 4000 | 650 MHz | 1.15 GHz | 77 | $320 |
|---|
| -3770 | 4/8 | 3.4 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 8 MB | 4000 | 650 MHz | 1.15 GHz | 77 | $320 |
|---|
| -3770S | 4/8 | 3.1 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 8 MB | 4000 | 650 MHz | 1.15 GHz | 65 | $320 |
|---|
| Third-Gen Core i5 Family |
|---|
| -3570K | 4/4 | 3.4 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 6 MB | 4000 | 650 MHz | 1.15 GHz | 77 | $250 |
|---|
| -3550 | 4/4 | 3.3 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 6 MB | 2500 | 650 MHz | 1.15 GHz | 77 | $220 |
|---|
| -3450 | 4/4 | 3.1 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 6 MB | 2500 | 650 MHz | 1.1 GHz | 77 | $200 |
|---|
| -3450S | 4/4 | 2.8 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 6 MB | 2500 | 650 MHz | 1.1 GHz | 65 | $200 |
|---|
As with any new product, we'd hope to see those launch prices slowly edge down over the next few months. However, we do know that supply of the chips is pretty limited. The unlocked models, in particular, are probably the most attractive to power users. For more on Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture, check out our launch story:
Intel Core i7-3770K Review: A Small Step Up For Ivy Bridge.
There's little else going on in Intel's corner. Its Core i5-2550 did go up a few dollars to $243, and the Core i7-3930K dropped $30 to $570.
AMD's Trinity
Intel isn't the only chip designer with a fresh product to show off, as AMD recently announced the company's next-generation APU. Designated Trinity, this processor trades Llano's aging Stars architecture for Piledriver, and the Radeon HD 5000 series' VLIW5 graphics architecture for the more efficient VLIW4 design from the Radeon HD 6900 series. The result is a product with significantly more CPU and GPU potential than Llano, at a notably-lower power footprint. You can learn more in our launch coverage:
AMD A10-4600M Review: Mobile Trinity Gets Tested.
AMD chose a staggered release, with the mobile parts first out of the gate. So, we don't know much about the desktop products yet. What we do know is that the mobile Trinity A10-4600M proved a bit slower than a similarly-priced Sandy Bridge Core i5-2450M when it came to traditional processor-oriented tasks. However, AMD's integrated GPU is about twice as fast as Intel's HD Graphics 3000 engine when it comes to gaming. Ivy Bridge and HD Graphics 4000 graphics will prove to be much more challenging. But without any competitively-priced parts on the market, we have to wait until newer Core i5s are available before we can make a clear call on relative value. In any case, here are the new mobile Trinity models we know of:
Zoom
The new APU isn't suitable for a recommendation in our monthly recommendations, but we look forward to the desktop version of Piledriver to arrive. It appears to have much more potential than the current AM3+-based Bulldozer line-up, with a higher IPC than its predecessor.
Aside from Trinity, there aren't any new products to report. But a few of AMD's CPUs did become more affordable over the past month. The A8-3850, A6-3670, and A6-3650 are all about $10 cheaper. Its FX-8120 dropped a whooping $30 to $220, probably in response to
Intel's new models.
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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