Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: November 2014
While the A4-7300 isn't interesting to gamers, AMD made some significant cuts on its APU and CPU prices. The A10-7700K dropped $33 to $127. The A10-6700 and A10-7850K both shed $20 to $130 and $160, respectively. The FX-4300 and A6-7400K are $15 cheaper than last month at $90 and $70. A whole slew of models went down by $10, including the A6-5400K ($50), Athlon X4 760K ($78), A8-5600K ($90), A8-6600K ($90), A8-6500 ($96), A8-7600 ($100), FX-6300 ($100), A10-6800K ($130), A10-6790K ($130) and FX-9370 ($210). In addition, the A4-6300 ($100), Athlon 5350 ($60), Athlon X4 750K ($74), FX-6350 ($125) and A10-7800 ($160) are $5 less expensive.
From the gamer's perspective, most of these reductions matter little. But there are a couple of noteworthy exceptions. First, the FX-6300 is now an incredible deal at $100. While it's true that this CPU's gaming potential puts it up against Intel's Core i3, threaded application performance can exceed the Core i5 in certain workloads, making this a well-rounded product for its price.
The other AMD processor that piqued our interest is the A8-7600. This 65W APU demonstrated the ability to handle some graphically-taxing titles at 1080p in our tests. And now that its price is down to $100, it deserves a mention for enabling entry-level PC gaming at an absolute minimum price. While it doesn't necessarily deserve a full endorsement in our best gaming CPU list, we'd like to explore its potential further in an upcoming article.
Finally, we'll mention some Intel price changes, although they aren't as numerous as AMD's. The Core i3-4360 is now $145, $15 less than last month. The Celeron 1620 ($46), Pentium G2030 ($59), Pentium G3450 ($90), Core i5-4440 ($185) and Core i7-4790K ($330) are all down $10. Lastly, the Core i3-4160 and Core i3-4330 are now $125 and $135, respectively, representing $5 drops. Because of this, we changed our recommendation from the 3.4GHz Core i3-4130 to the 3.6GHz Core i3-4160.
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. Remember to check out our new performance per dollar comparison page, where you can overlay the benchmark data we’ve generated with pricing, giving you a better idea where your ideal choice falls on the value curve.
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.
This month, AMD introduced the
A4-7300 APU to retail, accompanied by deep price cuts across the
company's processor portfolio. We discuss this, and some Intel price
changes, in our November 2014 update.
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. November Updates:
So far, November is turning out to be a slow month in the CPU world. The mobile side is interesting, thanks to the Core M CPU's arrival. But the only previously-unseen desktop processor is AMD's A4-7300 APU. Despite its 7000-series branding, this model isn't based on the newer Kaveri architecture. Instead, it leverages the previous-generation Richland design. Essentially, this processor is an A4-6320 with access to more of its graphics resources. Both APUs share the same 3.8GHz base and 4GHz Turbo Boost clock rates. However, the A4-7300 hosts 192 Radeon cores at 800MHz, while the A4-6320 is a 128-core part at 760MHz.While the A4-7300 isn't interesting to gamers, AMD made some significant cuts on its APU and CPU prices. The A10-7700K dropped $33 to $127. The A10-6700 and A10-7850K both shed $20 to $130 and $160, respectively. The FX-4300 and A6-7400K are $15 cheaper than last month at $90 and $70. A whole slew of models went down by $10, including the A6-5400K ($50), Athlon X4 760K ($78), A8-5600K ($90), A8-6600K ($90), A8-6500 ($96), A8-7600 ($100), FX-6300 ($100), A10-6800K ($130), A10-6790K ($130) and FX-9370 ($210). In addition, the A4-6300 ($100), Athlon 5350 ($60), Athlon X4 750K ($74), FX-6350 ($125) and A10-7800 ($160) are $5 less expensive.
From the gamer's perspective, most of these reductions matter little. But there are a couple of noteworthy exceptions. First, the FX-6300 is now an incredible deal at $100. While it's true that this CPU's gaming potential puts it up against Intel's Core i3, threaded application performance can exceed the Core i5 in certain workloads, making this a well-rounded product for its price.
The other AMD processor that piqued our interest is the A8-7600. This 65W APU demonstrated the ability to handle some graphically-taxing titles at 1080p in our tests. And now that its price is down to $100, it deserves a mention for enabling entry-level PC gaming at an absolute minimum price. While it doesn't necessarily deserve a full endorsement in our best gaming CPU list, we'd like to explore its potential further in an upcoming article.
Finally, we'll mention some Intel price changes, although they aren't as numerous as AMD's. The Core i3-4360 is now $145, $15 less than last month. The Celeron 1620 ($46), Pentium G2030 ($59), Pentium G3450 ($90), Core i5-4440 ($185) and Core i7-4790K ($330) are all down $10. Lastly, the Core i3-4160 and Core i3-4330 are now $125 and $135, respectively, representing $5 drops. Because of this, we changed our recommendation from the 3.4GHz Core i3-4130 to the 3.6GHz Core i3-4160.
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. Remember to check out our new performance per dollar comparison page, where you can overlay the benchmark data we’ve generated with pricing, giving you a better idea where your ideal choice falls on the value curve.
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.
