Your choices for best gamer CPUs in the $75, $100 and $125 categories

[AtenRa]

The Athlon 860K is the clear winner in the $75 group. Unlocked Quad Core and cheap FM2+ boards with tons of features. You can OC and use it with high end GPUs in the majority of todays AAA games.

 

[janeuner]

G3258 is the clear winner in the $75 group. Unlocked Haswell and cheap B85 boards with tons of features. You can OC and use it with high end GPUs in the majority of todays AAA games.



In seriousness though, a single Haswell core is so close to a steamroller module in multi-threaded applications that is silly to pass up the huge advantage is has in the single-threaded ones. Not to mention the upgrades that are possible with a LGA1150 socket...

 

[cbn]

The Athlon 860K is the clear winner in the $75 group. Unlocked Quad Core and cheap FM2+ boards with tons of features. You can OC and use it with high end GPUs in the majority of todays AAA games.

I didn't include Athlon x4 860K in the $75 and under category because it needs a sale to make that price break.

Instead I based my analysis on a regular price of $89.99.

More information on that pricing as well as a performance comparison to FX-6300 can be found in this post.

 

[AtenRa]

European prices

Athlon 860K = from 65,31 euro

FX6300 = from 86,77 euro

Pentium G3258 = from 58,65 euro

The price difference is higher vs the FX6300 than compared to Pentium G3258.

Also, FM2+ cheap boards are way better than those AM3+ and H81.

For example, the new A68H chipset is excellent with lots of features and boards like MSI A68HM-P33 starting from 39.00 euro

edit: You can OC the Athlon 860K to 4GHz with default cooler easily on those cheap boards.

 

[tweakboy]

I exempted those results..

 

[Enigmoid]

For example, the new A68H chipset is excellent with lots of features and boards like MSI A68HM-P33 starting from 39.00 euro

edit: You can OC the Athlon 860K to 4GHz with default cooler easily on those cheap boards.

Looks like a pretty feature poor mediocre board. Maybe good for the price but two USB 3.0 ports (rear only) and no HDMI.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I've noticed AM3+ CPU's have in general gone up in price lately. The FX 8350's price used to be $150 forever. But, you can still find good deals during sales. But in general, it seems like prices have gone up a few bucks over the last couple of months. I wonder why that is.

 

[AtenRa]

Looks like a pretty feature poor mediocre board. Maybe good for the price but two USB 3.0 ports (rear only) and no HDMI.

This is a 39,00 euro board, if you want more, the ASROCK FM2A88M Pro3+ at 53,12 euro is packed with tons of features.

 

[AtenRa]

G3258 is the clear winner in the $75 group. Unlocked Haswell and cheap B85 boards with tons of features. You can OC and use it with high end GPUs in the majority of todays AAA games.

Have you used a G3258 with high-end GPUs in latest AAA games like BF4, DAI, Son of Rome, Thief etc etc ?? Even if the game start with a dual core, gameplay will be severely limited with constant low fps.

In seriousness though, a single Haswell core is so close to a steamroller module in multi-threaded applications

A Haswell full core with HyperThreading may be, but not Pentiums with only dual threads.

The only reason to by the G3258 is to OC with a cheap Intel CPU and secondly, if you are planing to upgrade after a couple of months to a core i5/i7.

 

[cbn]

Also, FM2+ cheap boards are way better than those AM3+ and H81.

Most of the cheap FM2+ boards on Newegg are A55 and A58. There is an ASUS A78 currently on sale for $34.99 after rebate though, but other than that it looks like A78 starts at $51.99. (There are two A65s on Newegg, both starting at $64.99)

AM3+ 970 boards (with usb 3.0 and SATA 6 Gbps) start at around $49.99 and there is a really nice Biostar TA970 for $59.99 (that is currently sold out). The other AM3+ 970s start at $69.99.

So based on that comparison I would say there is a $15 to $17 difference (on average) between a A78 FM2+ and a 970 AM3+. Both have usb 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps. The FM2+ adds PCE 3.0 for the video card.

Then moving on to Intel, we have the H81s usually starting in the low $40s. (These come with less SATA 6 Gbps ports and less SATA ports in total, but have usb 3.0. Like the 970 AM3+ PCIe is 2.0 for the video card.

Okay with all that mentioned, I am still not buying into the idea of FM2+ platform because while the motherboard features are good for the money the maximum cpu a person can install (A10-7850K or Athlon x4 860K) is so much weaker than the top cpu available for either H81 and AM3+.

 

[AtenRa]

Okay with all that mentioned, I am still not buying into the idea of FM2+ platform because while the motherboard features are good for the money the maximum cpu a person can install (A10-7850K or Athlon x4 860K) is so much weaker than the top cpu available for either H81 and AM3+.

And here is the fundamental difference, going with FM2+ and Athlon 860K you will not need to upgrade for a few years. You get excellent board features and adequate CPU performance for the next few years. When it will be time to upgrade you can again spend a low budget for board+ CPU and be on the cutting edge again every 2-3 years.
On the other hand going with the dual core Pentium you will have to upgrade way sooner to Core i3/5/7 because performance is already on the very low side, or will not even play the new games today.

As i have said before, going for the Pentium is only viable if you are planing to upgrade within the next couple of months. If you are planing of upgrading after 2-3 years then forget it, 2015 and 2016 games may only play on quads.

 

[cbn]

As i have said before, going for the Pentium is only viable if you are planing to upgrade within the next couple of months. If you are planing of upgrading after 2-3 years then forget it, 2015 and 2016 games may only play on quads.

Most likely if the game can't play on a OC G3258 (that is a good sample), it won't play on a Athlon x4 860K either.

And we only have one game right now that won't play on a dual core (and it is a completely artificial condition).

So unless the trend is for artifically locking out dual cores in the future, then I really see no point for that Athlon x 4 860K.

Meanwhile I see a CPU like the FX-6300 having significantly more merit than the Athlon.

 

[TheELF]

and be on the cutting edge again every 2-3 years.

LOL

Sure if you only care about console ports * and nothing else than the athlon will be slightly better than the pentium,but there are,and there will continue to be, a lot of PC games that do not restrict themselves to be able to run on an 1,6Ghz kabini core and there the athlon is already too slow even by today's standards and it will just continue to be more and more inadequate.

*that don't bother to change anything for the PC version

 

[cbn]

And here is the fundamental difference, going with FM2+ and Athlon 860K you will not need to upgrade for a few years. You get excellent board features and adequate CPU performance for the next few years. When it will be time to upgrade you can again spend a low budget for board+ CPU and be on the cutting edge again every 2-3 years.

AM3+ 970 also has excellent board features.

And if planning on keeping the board for only two or three years any advantage of PCIe 3.0 over PCIe 2.0 will be a non-factor for most people.

 

[janeuner]

Have you used a G3258 with high-end GPUs in latest AAA games like BF4, DAI, Son of Rome, Thief etc etc ?? Even if the game start with a dual core, gameplay will be severely limited with constant low fps.

Yes. Running BF4 on with a G3258@3.8Ghz with ultra graphics at 1080p gets a comfortable ~50fps average when paired with a R9 280X. That is the same performance I get on my FX-6300 (stock) rig with the same card. I fired it up just now to makes sure my memory wasn't failing me.

My G3258 is one of the so-called "bad samples" mentioned earlier in this thread. Mine does 3.8Ghz@1.16V, or 4.2V@1.32V. I cannot get a stable 4.4Ghz overclock with this chip. Despite that, I have yet to see any report of a G3258 failing to reach 3.8Ghz@1.20V, which seems to be the max voltage supported by the cheapest LGA1150 motherboards currently available.

My G3258 is normally paired with a Radeon HD 7850. I can compare it directly with an Athlon 750K + Radeon HD 7850 build I did for a friend in Spring 2013. The 3258 beats the 750K every time - often by a >40% margin.

 

[Rezist]

Anything less then an unlocked i5k cpu is pointless to even mention. The PS4 would be a better option then all of these builds.

 

[kawi6rr]

I helped my son build his first computer and it games pretty good. He has a pretty nice 25inch monitor and I'm pretty impressed on how well things look in games and not to mention typical web browsing/youTube and such is plenty fast. I will consider my next computer build around something a little cheaper like this one.

Athlon 760k
Gigabyte Sniper board
Gigabyte HD 7790

 

[escrow4]

And here is the fundamental difference, going with FM2+ and Athlon 860K you will not need to upgrade for a few years. You get excellent board features and adequate CPU performance for the next few years. When it will be time to upgrade you can again spend a low budget for board+ CPU and be on the cutting edge again every 2-3 years.
On the other hand going with the dual core Pentium you will have to upgrade way sooner to Core i3/5/7 because performance is already on the very low side, or will not even play the new games today.

As i have said before, going for the Pentium is only viable if you are planing to upgrade within the next couple of months. If you are planing of upgrading after 2-3 years then forget it, 2015 and 2016 games may only play on quads.

860K has no L3 cache. Automatically worthless. Its amazing how you can consider something so cheap when over the lifetime of the build you'll get some much more from an i5, even a locked model.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Yes. Running BF4 on with a G3258@3.8Ghz with ultra graphics at 1080p gets a comfortable ~50fps average when paired with a R9 280X. That is the same performance I get on my FX-6300 (stock) rig with the same card. I fired it up just now to makes sure my memory wasn't failing me.

Single player, clearly. Just join a 32+ player match and watch that dual core bog down. If there's jumps to 80% on an FX-8350, then there's no chance any dual core could've kept up.

Unless you're only running dolphin, psx2 or PSP emulators, there's no reason to go with a dual core today. Hope you still have that fx-6300 still. I can't even imagine how rough that'd be in NBA 2k15.

 

[kawi6rr]

860K has no L3 cache. Automatically worthless. Its amazing how you can consider something so cheap when over the lifetime of the build you'll get some much more from an i5, even a locked model.

I guess most of us will take the bolded statement as worthless! Like I said above the 760k games just fine, granted not as well as a chip with L3 cache but it does game good. And it's much cheaper then an i5 and most FX chips as well.

 

[Madpacket]

For $100 I prefer the FX 8300. I paired one recently with a decent $25 dollar Gigabyte mATX board and a good $15.00 air cooler and it runs perfectly fine at 4.4 Ghz. Sure the energy usage isn't the best at idle but I tend to sleep that computer while not in use. Paired with a Radeon 290 it plays everything flawlessly so far. I don't really care about SATA 6, SATA 3 is fast enough to max out random IO operations so I load levels just as fast as the next guy.

Anyway from a price to performance perspective this combo is hard to beat.

 

[escrow4]

I guess most of us will take the bolded statement as worthless! Like I said above the 760k games just fine, granted not as well as a chip with L3 cache but it does game good. And it's much cheaper then an i5 and most FX chips as well.

It won't load any recent game engine to 1080p/60FPS consistently. It will dip. It will hitch. Waste of time. You want a CPU to last and support a GPU. $100 won't do that.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

It won't load any recent game engine to 1080p/60FPS consistently. It will dip. It will hitch. Waste of time. You want a CPU to last and support a GPU. $100 won't do that.

The FX-8310 is only $90 with the displayed coupon on the product page from TigerDirect. That CPU will.

 

[TheELF]

Single player, clearly. Just join a 32+ player match and watch that dual core bog down. If there's jumps to 80% on an FX-8350, then there's no chance any dual core could've kept up.

Why should it need to keep up with a much more expensive CPU?
Even if multiplayer needs more CPU power it just means that instead of ~50FPS you will get less FPS in intense situations with a lot of people blowing stuff up(ever thought about this maybe the VGA not being able to keep up ? ) .
Look at youtube even the 8350 has a lot of FPS-drops in this game and even celerons or pentiums give reasonable FPS.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Why should it need to keep up with a much more expensive CPU?
Even if multiplayer needs more CPU power it just means that instead of ~50FPS you will get less FPS in intense situations with a lot of people blowing stuff up(ever thought about this maybe the VGA not being able to keep up ? ) .
Look at youtube even the 8350 has a lot of FPS-drops in this game and even celerons or pentiums give reasonable FPS.

$90 for an 8-core CPU is cheap. It's not that much more expensive at all. $20 is nothing.

Then something is wrong with their setups or recording is already being done with an overtaxed GPU. Online I very rarely go below 60fps, and that's on med/high with AA. I've got an old GPU and even it is good enough to show the CPU isn't the weak link. I played it on my old Q8200, even when I pushed the FSB high enough for 3.2Ghz it would be a choppy mess at 100% utilization. FX-8350? Butter with the same GPU.

You seem to think these two-threaded CPUs can handle it. They absolutely cannot from here on out. If a Q8200 @ 3.2Ghz (bests the multithreaded power of a Pentium G3258) is a relative slideshow at 100% utilization on 4 cores, the G3258 would be a relative slideshow as well. In high-player servers (the best ones) the firefights are nearly unplayable sub 40fps. NBA 2K15 is another game that reflects future PC releases. It utilizes 6+ threads and those with a dual core and even some quads cant even run the game well, let alone on low settings.