Windows 7 Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: March 2010

[kemical]

Another great article from 'Toms hardware':

'If you don’t have the time to research the 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 Link Removed offered for the money.'

Link Removed

 

[Mike]

I would not use an AMD processor ever again, but I believe some of the Wolfdale i5's shipped faulty. For a few extra change, you can pick up an i7, and still blow it out of the water. The only reason I say this about the i5 is because I have dealt with a few of them and noticed they exhibitted some strange behavior and could not pass prime95 tests. Maybe this has improved. It seems the i3 is being marketed for laptops now, which is very interesting. I know nothing about that one.

As far as AMD, never again. In the 90s I had computers with smoke coming out from PSU overloads with the Athlon and faulty motherboard designed around that processor. And its not just me. I once spoke to someone who was in the industry for about 30 years, selling computers non-stop, and he also vehemently opposed using AMD processors for the very same reasons. Actually, almost every IT manager or company owner who knows anything about computers I've met has sworn against AMD. Unless they have drastically improved, I would not go at it again with them. But this is just a personal preference.

For the extra money, I believe it is worthwhile to still go with the i7. Its a workhorse. Though I see Tom's Hardware is trying to do things on the cheap, I'd say if you're going to pay a hefty price for anything, it should be the processor and motherboard. Gigabyte only for the latter, of course. I'm very picky, however.

 

[kemical]

I think you'll find that there's a huge difference between the 90's AMD chip and todays versions. I've only ever had one Intel chip and so have almost exclusively used AMD. Admittedly Intel has the performance crown at this time but it's not always been so..

 

[Highwayman]

As far as AMD, never again. In the 90s I had computers with smoke coming out from PSU overloads with the Athlon and faulty motherboard designed around that processor.

I know that feeling, in a space of 3 weeks I had two AMD Thunderbird cpu's literally melt (about 10 years ago) despite having really good cooler combo, and that put me firmly back in the Intel camp. I felt much the same way about ATI video cards (a 9800 pro let me down big time despite replacements) although times have changed, AMD have clearly upped their game in the last few years towards quality price focused hardware, and I've just taken a leap to ATI/AMD this very week in buying a 5870 which was down to Nvidia's annoying FERMI fiasco...I so wanted a FERMI but every day theres just more and more reason NOT to buy the first generation of it, and I don't like the idea of waiting yet another 6+ months for reliable builds at decent sub £300 prices to appear.

 

[Highwayman]

Admittedly Intel has the performance crown at this time but it's not always been so..

Yea I kinda agree with that, although my experiences during the Pentium 1-4 era my rig always smoked similar spec AMD rigs (without overclocking). Since then the Conroe range affirmed Intel's recent 5 years of dominance after 2-3 year spate where the P4's & Prescott lost ground to the AMD64. Since then AMD has indeed clawed it's way back to compete with Intel using it's Phenom II, matching most of Intel finest range at better prices, but not quite faster than Intel yet for me to jump ship....maybe the next build...who knows..

 

[cybercore]

during my experiences during the Pentium 1-4 era my rig always smoked similar spec AMD rigs (without overclocking)

Same here, my Pentium 4 3 Ghz would reach that degree of heat even when my room temperature was close to 32 degrees, when my fingers were freezing but my Pentium was 135F.

I'm quite happy with C2D which feels much better, but I'm also thankful to AMD for keeping their products at a competitive level, otherwise we'd be water-cooling our Pentium 4 Extreme Editions @ 4 Ghz overclocked.

I personally prefer Intel and NVIDIA, but they're just not always available. In 2004-2006, AMD definitely ruled with their AMD64, and now where's FERMI ?

 

[Highwayman]

by smoked I ment ran way better, not producing smoke...lol, if anything (barring my precott which was always around 60C full load) all my pentiums ran cooler and faster than AMDs of the era...mainly cos I always threw away the crappy stock intel fans and used Zalman gear.

 

[cybercore]

I see, but it was almost literally smoking in my case.

 

[Highwayman]

blimey... well I've never trusted stock fans shipped with CPU, it's like trusting a teenager not race round like a loony in his dad's new muscle car.

 

[kemical]

blimey... well I've never trusted stock fans shipped with CPU, it's like trusting a teenager not race round like a loony in his dad's new muscle car.

Lol!..................

 

[cybercore]

You're right, I did use stock fan.

 

[Athlonite]

AMDs stock fans are ok if you don't plan on OC'ing or running your PC in an oven the one i got with and Athlon64 x2 4800 was alright it was the 4 heatpipe variety sucks though that the one that came with the Athlon x2 7750BE isn't like that at all but more like a stock intel HSF with Bifurcated fins

but as for best CPU for gaming for bucks spent then AMD wins hands down
Phenom II 965 3.4GHz $301.00NZD
intel core i5 670 3.46GHz $448.00NZD