The best PC gaming processors. How we tested processors and others we tested. For the vast majority of games, features like additional CPU cores and hyper- threading make little difference to performance. They certainly affect non- gaming tasks like video encoding or applying filters in Photoshop, but they have a bigger impact on price than frames per second. We’ve considered this when choosing the best CPUs for PC gaming. We’re not recommending the most expensive, high- end Extreme Edition CPU.
Not sure how your processor compares to th. Home » Gaming Hardware » Processor Rankings. Following the last post that ranked graphics cards from best to. The best gaming laptops. Chris. And while other vendors are touting the 8GB version of this flagship graphics processor. The best gaming laptops; The best SSD.
Sure, it’s the most powerful—but it’s also way more money than you need to spend. And those extra cores and that extra power don’t make a CPU like the $1. Intel i. 7 5. 96.
The best gaming processor Intel Core i5-4690k. AT A GLANCE. Handles even the most demanding PC games; Great performance for the price. Buy only the best this holiday season by using our list of the best products of 2011 as. like a 2.5GHz Intel Core i5-2520M processor. It's the best gaming. . so that you can make a smarter choice in choosing the best CPU for your gaming needs. Since the processor is such a critical component in any gaming.
X particularly better at gaming than a more mainstream model. Budgetary requirements are a major factor, as you’ll usually get better gaming performance from your PC by choosing a middle- of- the- road CPU and putting the saving into purchasing a better graphics card.
- Looking for a gaming PC? Here are the best gaming desktops. Best High-End Gaming Desktop Best Gaming. This slick-looking tower's zippy Core i7 processor.
- Here are the best gaming CPUs for the. enough in your ability to pick the right processor for your next gaming. another 'Best CPUs.
For this reason, our absolute favorite gaming CPU is Intel’s Core i. K, since it’s the perfect balance of value and performance. It usually retails for less than $2.
Amazon and it carries some excellent specifications—it’s a quad- core processor that runs at 3. GHz, which means it’s more than capable of driving any graphics card it’s paired with, and never drags down gaming performance. You can even overclock it to well over 4 GHz to get even more performance. The i. 5- 4. 69. 0K is the best CPU for most rigs, but we know some PC gamers are building on a budget, or want more performance out of the gate without overclocking. Here’s how we tested. How we tested. Generally speaking, gaming performance is affected by multiple aspects of your computer’s CPU. Its technical efficiency is probably the biggest, as in how good it is at number crunching.
A highly efficient processor running at just 2 GHz can easily outperform a less efficient processor running at a higher clock speed. A great example is the Pentium 4 from ten years ago, which was easily beaten by AMD’s Athlon chips in gaming benchmarks, due its less efficient Netburst architecture. But given two CPUs based on the same architecture, the one that runs at a faster clock speed will nearly always win. Some games, but not all, will make use of multiple CPU cores and it’s also important to have a good amount of cache (per core) to ensure memory performance remains strong. It does depend on the individual game though, how it’s designed and coded. Some games will really benefit from a faster CPU, while others will see little difference, as they’re almost entirely reliant on the power of your GPU. For reference, here are a few late 2.
Far Cry 4: 2. 5. GHz i. S processor. Civilization: Beyond Earth: 1. GHz quad core processor. Dragon Age: Inquisition: 3.
GHz quad core processor. All the processors were tested in a PC with an Asus Z8. Pro motherboard, with 1. GB of 1. 60. 0 MHz Crucial DDR3 memory, running Windows 8.
San. Disk Extreme Pro SSD. This specification represents a fairly high- end modern gaming PC. It had an Nvidia Ge. Force GTX 9. 70, a highly capable graphics card that can really drive 3. D performance. We first used some quick- and- easy synthetic tests, including Geekbench and Unigine Heaven 4. Geekbench is a suite of CPU tests that measures processor speed when performing a variety of calculations that are likely to be used in day- to- day use of an operating system. It provides a score for performance when running a single process, which is akin to its raw speed, and another for multi- threaded software, which benefits greatly from additional CPU cores.
The real beauty of Geekbench is that its cross platform, so can be used to compare the relative performance of a tablet, phone and PC, across Windows, Android, OS X and i. OS. Unigine Heaven is more gaming focused, as it draws a number of 3. D scenes that look very much like a fantasy game. It calculates framerate and provides a score at the end. We also ran a video encode of a three- hour long 1. Handbrake at its default settings, with the i. Pad preset. Video encoding is a tough job for any computer, as it has to process every frame in sequence, and will tax the CPU for hours at a time.
For gaming benchmarks, we used Tomb Raider, Metro Last Light and Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth. All the tests were done at 1.
From each game we got a figure for the average, minimum and maximum frame rates. The most important of these is the minimum, for a game may feature some quiet scenes with relatively few models, so it runs at a high frame rate, followed by action- packed sequences with all kinds of debris, particle effects and good old destruction. It’s here where a game may slow down, and the minimum frame rate represents the worst- case scenario in that sequence. In the case of Beyond Earth, its predecessor was heavily dependent on CPU performance, especially during the late- game stages, with dozens of units on screen at once, so the results should be interesting with this follow- up, although this time there’s a multi- threaded rendering option, which we enabled. Finally, a hearty thanks to UK retailer.
Scan Computers and Intel UK for loaning us the processors for testing. Competitors. Although Intel has dominated our CPU recommendations, this is due to their current strong position in the CPU market. AMD’s competing processors are a fine platform, and won’t exactly perform badly in games, but the company remains a step behind Intel, unable to offer the same level of performance at the same price. If you take a look at the in- depth review of. AMD’s FX- 8. 37. E processor on Anandtech, the benchmark graphs show the Core i. K storming ahead of AMD in every test, while consuming less power.
We’ve already mentioned the Extreme Edition processors from Intel, and prior to writing this article, thought long and hard about including the Core i. X in our recommendations. But we ultimately decided against it. Not only does that chip retail for a whopping. Amazon, it only runs at 3 GHz out of the box, which will mean slower graphics performance than you get from the 4. K or 4. 69. 0K, despite offering eight cores.
There are few affordable X9. DDR4 memory, which does run considerably faster than DDR3, but also costs a lot more, and so increases the price of this platform. Even opting for the more affordable six- core Core i.
K processor is a costly proposition. The only reason to choose the 5.
K over the 4. 79. K is for a triple- GPU setup. In its defense, the Haswell- E processors are fairly easy to overclock. With an all- in- one closed- loop water cooler, such as Corsair’s H1. Hydro, the Core i. X should hit 4. 2 GHz, but even at this speed it’s still not a clear leap ahead of the Core i. K in gaming. Future processors.
Intel’s forthcoming Broadwell platform ushers forth a process shrink to 1. Haswell chips. But the platform is launching in stages, with the first chips being ultra low voltage models intended for mobile devices. The desktop updates will come last, for a projected summer 2. And in addition, there’s a brand new architecture officially scheduled for 2. Skylake. Little is known about these new processors, aside from a few planned updates to the chipset, including Thunderbolt 3. PCI- Express 4. 0. Both of these new technologies will double the bandwidth of their respective predecessors.
In the case of Thunderbolt 3. Gbit/sec, while PCI- Express 4. But given the 2. 01. Broadwell, it’s not currently clear whether Intel plans to push back the desktop Skylake launch or whether Broadwell will be a stop- gap technology. As the second- place runner for what seems like an eternity now in the race for top- end CPU performance, it’s AMD’s APU designs which are more in the spotlight for 2. According to an article on WCCFTech, the forthcoming Project Skybridge will shrink AMD’s APU to 2. ARM support as well as x.
Android to run natively on PC hardware. These chips could make a good alternative to an Intel processor for more affordable gaming PCs. AMD has already had a lot of success with its APU designs, with custom chips used in both the Xbox One and PS4, with strong rumours that it will also power the Wii U’s successor. But its worth pointing out that Intel isn’t resting on its laurels when it comes to integrated graphics. Using Intel’s graphics once meant utterly dire gaming performance, if a game ran at all.
But starting a few generations ago, more of the CPU die was dedicated to an integrated GPU. With Haswell, Intel’s graphics have become reasonably competent at running modern games, albeit in modest detail settings and resolutions. Broadwell and Skylake will no doubt continue this trend and see even better integrated GPU performance.
Still, we'll always recommend buying a dedicated GPU, even for a budget gaming rig. And with the move to ARM compatibility, it’s impossible not to see the blurring of the lines between mobile and PCs. As once pointed out by Anandtech, today’s battle is not for performance or clock frequency, but for performance per watt of energy consumed. In desktop gaming PCs, this means new CPUs have to offer better performance without consuming more power than before, while in mobile it means getting better performance without affecting battery life.