Article Another "greatest CPU of all times" article.

[AnitaPeterson]

Just in time for holidays nostalgia... This is the kind of list one could analyze and debate extensively:

The top 10 PC CPUs of all time | Club386

From Intel 386 chips in the 1980s to AMD Ryzen processors today, our CPU top 10 charts the chips that have really stood out on the PC.

www.club386.com

 

[Panino Manino]

1800X wasn't worth the price when the 1700X(1700) existed.

Also, no Cyrix?

 

[Markfw]

1800X wasn't worth the price when the 1700X(1700) existed.

Also, no Cyrix?

I think 5950x 7950x or 9950x should be on that list. Ryzen is AMDs best in a decade. The question is which one. The 1800x was the beginning. But how about something more refined ?

 

[EXCellR8]

I've got a few favorites from over the years:

Athlon XP-M 2600
Q6600 (OC)
i7 920 D0 stepping
4790K
Ryzen 7 1700

 

[luro]

I think 5950x 7950x or 9950x should be on that list. Ryzen is AMDs best in a decade. The question is which one. The 1800x was the beginning. But how about something more refined ?

I think is the 5950X, cause it was when things really changed

 

[itsmydamnation]

I've got a few favorites from over the years:

Athlon XP-M 2600
Q6600 (OC)
i7 920 D0 stepping
4790K
Ryzen 7 1700

I had a 920C0 , I would go Sandy bridge over nehalem.

I think in the modern era it really is very hard to go past the Q6600.

 

[EXCellR8]

Never owned a sandy bridge, went straight to a 3570K. 920 D0 was an easy 4.0Ghz+ OC on X58.

Q6600 is certainly one of my all-time faves... sure there were better/faster 45nm quad cores, and it would heat up without good cooling, but at the time it was the bang-for-buck champ

 

[NTMBK]

Aww, no mention of the Pentium M? That thing kept sane CPU design alive at Intel and laid the groundwork for the Conroe miracle, it will always have a special place in my heart.

 

[aigomorla]

BS... i can think of a couple CPU's which completely trashes that list.

1. I7-920 Nehalem. Reintroduced Hyperthreading... completely curb stomped any and all competition. The Offical Introduction to HEDT. There is NO OTHER CPU, which set new standards then this CPU PERIOD. It completely SMASHED the Q6600 in EVERY metric, from durability even, down to straight up overclocking. The only CPU that would come close is the Intel Celeron 300A. I will say this was Intel's second greatest CPU, next to the original 8086x.

2. AMD Barton.. Yes that glorious AMD cpu that ran so hot it would melt right though the cpu socket. But also set one of the standards in overclocking.

3. Intel Celeron 300A... If you had one, you know it.

4. AMD Opteron 160, or AMD XP 3800+ Manchester...
(birth of Dual Core for AMD... sorry no AMD i can think of can be credited with something that special.)

5. Intel Core2Duo E6400 - before we got Q6600, this was the beast that broke AMD.

6. Intel Pentium EE 840 - The first Dual core CPU EVER.


I dont think the 9800X3D comes close to the i7-920 or even the Celeron 300A.

I dont think Any Ryzen for that matter does, except the first gen Ryzen. It honestly felt like a slight creep sideways each ryzen generation, with the exception of the 5950 where they broke the core count for desktop. But again, it didn't feel very special like when we got the 920, 6600, XP 3800+, E6400, and so on.

Also they are missing the first gen ThreadRipper. The HEDT CPU so good, that they completely wrecked the EPYC sales, so they had to OVERPRICE the entire Threadripper and even come out with Threadripper PRO, so they could justify it costing so much.

Also, no Cyrix?

Id say no because that cpu was cursed, and Windows drop support of the cpu, hence killing it.

 

[bba-tcg]

The i7-9xx still performs very well. I've retired the ones I have, but do still have them. Awesome chips.

 

[burninatortech4]

1800X was the start of the turn around but Zen 1 (not Zen +) very much felt like beta silicon. 2700X felt MUCH more mature and had functioning multi-core boost.

5950X is where the turn around really started.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I think is the 5950X, cause it was when things really changed

Being on AM4 the whole way, I have a different perspective. Things really changed with OG Zen. It was not only an enormous improvement over FX. It had an immediate impact on the mainstream consumer market. Before the year was over, Intel rushed out a 6 core previously reserved for HEDT. From then on, it was off to the races.

 

[fastandfurious6]

is there any documentary about how ZEN came to be? incl ZEN 2 3 in the making

would be one of the most interesting in CPU history

 

[Thunder 57]

6. Intel Pentium EE 840 - The first Dual core CPU EVER.

That's an interesting pick to say the least. AMD & Intel both paper launched their dual core CPU's but I do believe Intel got them out sooner. But the Athlon 64 was just a much better CPU. it may have come later but it beat the Pentium D badly, all while using far less power.

By August AMD had released the affordable 3800+ X2 and even Anand said Intel had to step it up.

We really didn't want to see AMD become a more expensive CPU manufacturer, and with the X2 3800+, we finally have a more sensibly priced dual core option. The choice is clear - the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ is better in every way than the Pentium D 830. For Intel's sake in the enthusiast community, Conroe had better be very competitive next year - because ever since Prescott, the Pentium 4 has been an utter disappointment.

To say that a CPU that wasn't the best at the time and was blown away just over a year later with Conroe belongs on the "best CPU's" list is ill-advised.

 

[Shmee]

Westmere Xeons in X58 boards later on were pretty cool. Same with Xeon socket 2011(v3) CPUs in X79 and X99. While they weren't originally priced effectively for the masses, or even really for desktop at all, cheap sales on them later on gave some really cool upgrades for these boards.

 

[EXCellR8]

The i7-9xx still performs very well. I've retired the ones I have, but do still have them. Awesome chips.

I've got one or two as well, not currently in use but I think one of them is still in the P6T or P6T Deluxe. I think I had picked up a 960 (?) at one point which was a 6-core. At the time it made short work of video encoding tasks.

 

[Markfw]

I have an I7 920 that I downclocked to 2 ghz. It runs 20 years old games, so no worries, but I wanted low power and heat.

 

[bba-tcg]

I've got one or two as well, not currently in use but I think one of them is still in the P6T or P6T Deluxe. I think I had picked up a 960 (?) at one point which was a 6-core. At the time it made short work of video encoding tasks.

I've still got 2 i7-970s. One is on a P6T Deluxe V2 (I think). Don't remember what the other is on. At least two 920s and a 930.

I have an I7 920 that I downclocked to 2 ghz. It runs 20 years old games, so no worries, but I wanted low power and heat.

They do put out some heat.

 

[SPBHM]

I really don't see how you can justify some stuff, I'll start with the G3258, it was a mostly irrelevant CPU, dual cores without HT were very obsolete when that thing came out;
the E5200 was not far in price range but in 2008, now that thing could OC from 2.5 to 3.5GHz easily and keep up with the big boy dual cores, when dual cores were still relevant, but it doesn't even get a mention...

 

[mikeymikec]

is there any documentary about how ZEN came to be?

Unfortunately you won't be able to get this guy to narrate it:

 

[mikegg]

Aww, no mention of the Pentium M? That thing kept sane CPU design alive at Intel and laid the groundwork for the Conroe miracle, it will always have a special place in my heart.

I specifically remember reading an Anandtech article review on Pentium M and it showed how it was actually faster than Intel's desktop processors at much better efficiency. It was also faster than AMD's best desktop processors in certain workloads too. I was like... wtf. So why not just release it for desktop? And that's basically exactly what they did with Conroe.

Even when desktop Intel Pentium D was getting crapped on by Athlon 64, you'd see some benchmarks that showed Pentium M beating all desktop processors. So Intel had an ace in their pockets already.

 

[Krteq]

3. Intel Celeron 300A... If you had one, you know it.

Yeah, I had one - from 300 MHz to 450 MHz in a blink of an eye

 

[Markfw]

Yeah, I had one - from 300 MHz to 450 MHz in a blink of an eye

The one I had that beat that was a 6300 Conroe. Not sure the exact mhz but something like 1.8, and OC'ed in a heartbeat to 3.6. Whatever it was stock it was a 200% OC easy. Thats what brought me back to Intel in 2006.

 

[Shmee]

Yeah I had a Core 2 E6320, which was the same chip as far as clocks/core multiplier, but with double the cache. I later upgraded to a Q6600.

 

[Markfw]

Yeah I had a Core 2 E6320, which was the same chip as far as clocks/core multiplier, but with double the cache. I later upgraded to a Q6600.

I ended up with more than one Q6600.. Those were my recent Intel days. I have gone back and forth so many times it would make many here dizzy.