What is the best gaming CPU?

[bamaaviator]

I am not very well informed when it comes to PC products and frankly, the more I read...the more confused I actually become. It becomes hard to filter through the fanboyism on both sides of the fence and everyone clutters threads with such techno babble that its very confusing for someone like me.

All I intend my computer to do is game, MMOs mostly. I dont have any loyalties or allegencies to any company wether it be ATI / Nvidia / Intel / AMD etc.


From what I notice, the majority of CPUS are from $150-$300ish, so paying 300 for a CPU isnt that big of a deal to me if its the better purchase.

From my understanding, the i5s and i7s are pretty strong, but their chipsets are already being replaced. I bought a e8400 775 socket a few years ago and spent a bundle on a motherboard....that is now not upgradeable and thats kinda irritating. Read somewhere that the AMD motherboards have quite a long life cycle due to each CPU being able to fit on the same motherboards, but I could be wrong.

Overall, I just want a powerful system thats going to last awhile without having to replace the entire computer a few years later. This is the situation I find myself in now, as if I get an i series cpu, I will need to get a new motherboard...and then new memory etc etc and so on.

Whats the best CPU for me?

 

[evolucion8]

Dont buy the Intel socket 1156. If u are not going to a multi you setup, a nice Phenom II X4 965 or i5 750 is enough.

 

[Markfw]

Dont buy the Intel socket 1156. If u are not going to a multi you setup, a nice Phenom II X4 965 or i5 750 is enough.

Wait, don't get socket 1156, but get an I5 750 ?? Whats wrong with this picture ??

Well, I say get an X6 1090T or a 930 I7. Based on your post, I vote the X6.

 

[exar333]

I am not very well informed when it comes to PC products and frankly, the more I read...the more confused I actually become. It becomes hard to filter through the fanboyism on both sides of the fence and everyone clutters threads with such techno babble that its very confusing for someone like me.

All I intend my computer to do is game, MMOs mostly. I dont have any loyalties or allegencies to any company wether it be ATI / Nvidia / Intel / AMD etc.


From what I notice, the majority of CPUS are from $150-$300ish, so paying 300 for a CPU isnt that big of a deal to me if its the better purchase.

From my understanding, the i5s and i7s are pretty strong, but their chipsets are already being replaced. I bought a e8400 775 socket a few years ago and spent a bundle on a motherboard....that is now not upgradeable and thats kinda irritating. Read somewhere that the AMD motherboards have quite a long life cycle due to each CPU being able to fit on the same motherboards, but I could be wrong.

Overall, I just want a powerful system thats going to last awhile without having to replace the entire computer a few years later. This is the situation I find myself in now, as if I get an i series cpu, I will need to get a new motherboard...and then new memory etc etc and so on.

Whats the best CPU for me?

Don't agree with this.....I have had my i7 for almost two years now; best chipset available still. Sound's pretty good to me.

That said, I don't think you could go wrong with either a x6 or i7 920/930. Whatever you can get for the best deal that fits your needs. If you like SLI/CF, then X58 is nice because it does both....

 

[Voo]

Don't agree with this.....I have had my i7 for almost two years now; best chipset available still. Sound's pretty good to me.

Yeah and all those available upgrades for the people who bought a i7 920! Like those cheap 900$ hexcores or..

The only reason for the chipset to be stil interesting is that Intel just isn't releasing any new interesting CPUs in reasonable price ranges (after all a i7 920 is still more or less state of the art in the <700$ price range).. yep we can blame AMD for that, but still.
While AMD usually tries to maintain some backwards compatibility (i.e. their new CPUs working with AM2 mbs), Intel usually releases a new chipset for their new CPUs.

But atm both upcoming designs (SB/bulldozer) will need a new chipset, so they're equally "bad" at that. I'd go with a i5 750 since that's probably the best price/performance chip in the higher end (but I often hear about some great offerings at microcenters and wherenot so keep an eye open for that), but I wouldn't count on any upgrade for a 1156.. or 1366.

On the Amd side you get more core cheaper, but since lots of games aren't that much multithreaded (wow still runs more or less on 2 cores for example) a hexcore really isn't something to look forward (no chance we'll see more than a handful games utilize 6cores in the next few years, we can think ourselves lucky to don't see much more dual core optimized games ~~) and as soon as you get in the i5 price range the AMD offerings just don't look that good.

 

[Sp12]

Am3 is definitely bulldozer compatible, you just need an 800 series chipset mobo.

 

[maniac5999]

well, if you feel like being cheap, and want a quad, why not go for something like AMD's Phenom II 940? 95w, 3ghz, and $140, it's not as fast as an i5 750/760, but AM3 boards are a good bit cheaper than LGA1156, and there's a good chance that bulldozer will just slot in.

I do agree that an X6 is overkill for gaming at this point. Heck SC2 is only dual threaded. Unfortunately that also means that one of the big advantages of the i7 920--hyperthreading is lost in games too. IMO you can probably save $100 by going for a Phenom II 940 instead of a i5 760, and that money is much better spent on a better GPU than on the CPU for 98&#37; of games.

 

[evolucion8]

Wait, don't get socket 1156, but get an I5 750 ?? Whats wrong with this picture ??

Well, I say get an X6 1090T or a 930 I7. Based on your post, I vote the X6.

Sorry, I was writing this through my Zune HD and suddenly I had a brainfart.

 

[bryanW1995]

I would get a nicer amd mobo and buy a 1055t instead of the 1090t. you can get a much nicer mobo for that $100 savings, and we can help with overclocking.

 

[edplayer]

Which motherboard are you using?

You say you have a S775 motherboard with an E8400. You should be able to upgrade to a quad core S775 cpu (depending on which board you have). I would not buy a cpu based on how future proof it is. Just on how good a deal you can get right now.

Am3 is definitely bulldozer compatible, you just need an 800 series chipset mobo.

Any quote from AMD or an AMD employee confirming this? I don't really follow them but I think it is only speculation so far as to whether bulldozer will work with AM3.

 

[OCGuy]

X6 for gaming?

What?

You could find a used Q9550 and game the same as anything else out there right now.

 

[Attic]

X6 for gaming?

What?

You could find a used Q9550 and game the same as anything else out there right now.

This is the by far the best option IMO. Keep the current mobo, save some money, and get the best socket 775 quad core chip you can find for ~$200. Those quads are still GREAT for gaming, and if you can OC to 3.4-3.6 you are going to have a gaming cpu that rivals the very best CPU's available for gaming performance.

Upgrading to a new mobo right now doesn't make a lot of sense IMO unless you really want to go AMD, but you can rival whatever AMD has out for gaming performance with an upgraded CPU for your socket 775 mobo.

 

[evolucion8]

It has been shown today that a very fast quad core is a better CPU gaming than a slower hexa core, even the i5 750 usually matches the much more expensive i7 980X. Games aren't that heavily multi threaded currently, plus the fact that heavily threaded games has a certain bottleneck in thread switching for some strange reasons (GTA4 shows a very high CPU usage, but you never see sky rocket FPS, the same goes with Arma 2),

I think that for gaming and if you have a S775, an used Q9550 will fit nicely, if you go for AMD, the Phenom II X4 965 provides you of slightly higher gaming performance than the Phenom II X6 1090T, but the latter is more futureproof (Specially for the fact that is faster in multi threading performance and the AM3 socket upgradeability to Bulldozer later on), an i7 930 also fits nicely the bill.

 

[DrMrLordX]

The main reason to get an x6 for gaming, if you're going to do so, is:

a). to have extra cores available to handle background threads if necessary and
b). to have the overclocking/tweaking advantage of the E0 stepping on your side.

Obviously this makes the x6 a more desirable option than any x4 out there, since you can hit higher NB speeds (read: higher minimum framerates in some games) and higher memory speeds (may or may not make a difference) at the very least. Getting an extra 200-400 mhz of clock speed to boot is also very nice. Most x6 owners out there who have a board who can push their chip to its limit will hit 4-4.2 ghz, whereas plenty of C3-stepping x4s crap out at 3.8 ghz.

Throw the 750 and 930 into the mix and you get three really good gaming CPUs, though I will admit that I think the x6 will take a lot more effort and tweaking to deliver the desired gaming performance.

As a side note, I would very much like to see what uncore speeds do for the minimum framerates in games run on a Bloomfield and Lynnfield respectively.

 

[MyLeftNut]

I've been thinking of getting a cheap i5 750 or i7 920 setup for cheap, but since sandy bridge is around the corner, and with the leaked price list, it seems like it's much better to wait for that instead. I wonder how much people can get for their i5 or i7's once sandy bridge releases.

 

[bamaaviator]

Actually never thought about getting a quad 775 socket CPU. Since I dont really know that much about comps, I figured that the much newer offerings were much better than what I currently have.

I checked and I have the xfx nforce 680i or whatever motherboard and its supposed to be able to do SLI, but I cant find the box to see if that SLI bridge is in it...most likely I threw it away.

So is the consensus that I would just be better off to go for a 775 quad and skip this generation of chips because there isnt much of an upgrade to be had?

 

[Rifter]

The current i7's are a fairly big jump over 775 quads if you get a good overclock, which is fairly easy they all seem to do close to 4 Ghz with a good cooler. However if your current board will take a 775 quad, and you find one cheap then paying for the platform swap seems less of a good deal. Might be worth waiting if you can drop a quad into current board.

 

[Voo]

Am3 is definitely bulldozer compatible, you just need an 800 series chipset mobo.

Any links for that statement? First of all Bulldozer is a completely new architecture so it's kind of hard to believe that they could keep backwards compability and I remember reading about AMD releasing an AM3+ socket for bulldozer which would be backwards compatible for older CPUs, but not the other way round (i.e. bulldozer won't work with AM3 sockets).

A quick search amongst others: "AMD also told us that it will introduce a new AM3+ socket for consumer versions of Bulldozer CPUs. AM2 and AM3 processors will work in the AM3+ socket, but Bulldozer chips will not work in non-AM3+ motherboards."
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2368186,00.asp (also linked in the wiki article)

Not sure if they changed their stance on that, but couldn't find anything on bulldozer working in AM3 sockets.

So every mb you could buy atm is a dead end..

 

[MyLeftNut]

From my understanding is, BD will fit in the current AM3 sockets by pin, but they won't work on them. Maybe it has something to do with feeding the chip with enough power.

 

[mrcmtl]

By looking at the price for 775 quad cores, I'd say that is not a good option since you aren't so budget limited. I'd say your best buy currently without busting too much for the upgrade would be to get a Phenom II X4 955/965 with a good 890GX motherboard and some new DDR3 RAM. And you can hope that you can drop in a future bulldozer CPU in a few years. Yes I know that the i5/i7 are generally better in gaming, but it's not like the Phenoms wouldn't give you a good gaming experience for their price.

 

[Markfw]

To all who think the X6 is overkill, below comment from the OP is why I recommended it:

"Overall, I just want a powerful system thats going to last awhile without having to replace the entire computer a few years later."

So the AM3 is probably upgradable, and the X6 should also have some time on it.

 

[Rifter]

By looking at the price for 775 quad cores, I'd say that is not a good option since you aren't so budget limited. I'd say your best buy currently without busting too much for the upgrade would be to get a Phenom II X4 955/965 with a good 890GX motherboard and some new DDR3 RAM. And you can hope that you can drop in a future bulldozer CPU in a few years. Yes I know that the i5/i7 are generally better in gaming, but it's not like the Phenoms wouldn't give you a good gaming experience for their price.

I completely disagree with this. Putting BD into a current board is not 100% till it actually is released regardless of what AMD has said so far.

Also besides that if his current board will take a quad then dropping in a Q9550

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-041-_-Product

Into his current board will cost less than $280 and get him the same gaming performance of a Phenom II 955, which with mobo and ram will cost more.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/50?vs=88

 

[coffeejunkee]

Personally I would overclock the shit out of that e8400. It's still a very capable cpu for gaming. It might be a better idea to upgrade your graphics card instead of cpu.

But I must admit more and more games are coming out that make good use of 4 cores, such as bfbc2 and mafia 2. So it could be worthwile to look around for a used Q9550.

If you do want to upgrade I would have a hard time choosing between Phenom II 955 and i5 750. Socket changes are just something you have to deal with, sell your old system to earn some cash back.

 

[aigomorla]

Sorry, I was writing this through my Zune HD and suddenly I had a brainfart.

lol been there... but i was gonna say the same thing that mark was gonna say.

You telling him not to get a 1156 but then saying grab a 750.

Evolution we know you really intended to confuse the OP ninja style.. :ninja:

:biggrin:

My advice... if your on a tight budget, get an AMD 965 X4, and then spend the rest of your budget on the gpu sector.
If you have a moderate budget, get an i7, and a moderate gpu sector

You may notice some difference in games, then again, in most other aps, you wont see any difference.

The biggest difference will be on your gpu end tho.
If you like scaling gpu's you can only do ATI on the AMD, or Only Nvidia, not both.
On the intel, there is no limitation on what brand u can scale.

 

[darckhart]

if you wanna spend 175$ or less, drop in a s775 quad core. oc as needed. most mmo these days are not very multi core optimized, but your extra cores can run the other bg windows processes. this route, combined with a possible gpu upgrade, could last you another 1-3 yrs depending on what mmo u want to play. (eg, im looking at guild wars 2 (and d3, but i guess that's not really mmo) and the s775 quad with a $200 gpu should be just fine)

if you want a platform upgrade and you want it to last 3-5 years, imo amd or intel is fine. assuming you get 4+ ghz out of any quad core chip and just need gpu upgrades later on, then go with the cheaper platform right? imo, you'll see fps games try to optimize for more cores long before you'll see mmo do that.