Best CPU For Gaming - 9 Processors and 8 Games Tested

HardwarePal : We decided to conduct thorough testing and try to establish an answer to this never ending dilemma: What is the Best CPU for Gaming ?

[Fishy Fingers]

Can't go wrong with either i5 or i7. But an OCed i5 will give you your best bang for your buck, even beating out the i7 occasionally (COD/Battlefield).

[Shabutie13]

Their results say otherwise. I personally have my 4670K at 4.5 and love it.

[Fishy Fingers]

Their results are the basis for my comment. i5 averages higher frame rates in both COD and BF to name a few.

[ABizzel1]

@Fishy & Shabutie13

The i5-4670k is the best CPU for gaming now, but I would highly recommend you to be ready for games to start using more cores as engines are upgraded for this thanks to console development.

My recommendations:

Low: FX 8320 (same things as an 8350)
Mid: i7 4770k
High: Wait for Intel's next offerings, which are suppose to be 8 core CPU's, but 16 threads.

With any of those CPU's you won't have to upgrade your CPU for the next 4 - 5+ years. Also while the i5 4670k is amazing for gaming, it's only decent when it comes to multi-core / threading task such as rendering, music / video editing, etc..., and loses to the FX 8320 which also cost less. So if you want a future proof PC that functions as a workstation then these are the CPU's for you.

If you just want to game, the i5-4670 should be just fine for the most part.

[Gamer1982]

I love my 4670k and newer games are really taking advantage of it..

[Magicite]

got 4770k, doesnt require OC to destroy everything.

[tee_bag242]

Turn off Hyperthreading on the i7. Done

[Murad]

Let's be honest, the 8320 is where it's at. OMG, Overclocked it to 5.2 D:. FYI, I'm kidding. A 8350 might compete with the i5 in terms of normal taskign, but never beat it.

[Nafon]

Dont forget about power consumption and available features too. Despite beating the 8350 every or almost every time, the 4670k is almost half the wattage, and has an integrated GPU. Most gamers won't use the iGPU, but it's useful for adding extra monitors for productivity.

[Mister_Dawg]

I've just built a 'cheap' i3 4130 and 7870 Tahiti system for a friend. Its not the chip id have chosen, i5 'k' all the way, but its frame rock totally rocks for the price.

My sandybridge i5 2500k is clocked to 4.7GHz and smashes the ass off anything I throw at it.

[Robotronfiend]

You should totally do the ad campaign for them. "Smash the ass off your games!"

[Mister_Dawg]

hehehehe. Yeah :-)

[Autodidactdystopia]

That was funny. bubs

[hollabox]

Currently using my old but good I7 970, waiting until Intels next platform comes out with GDDR4 Ram and Octa Core processors.

[tee_bag242]

GDDR4 is out now for server use. It's likely not to mainstream until 2015 now.

[hollabox]

8 core GDDD4 enthusiasts grade Haswell E should be out later this year. http://www.guru3d.com/news_...

[Bladesfist]

It is DDR4 not GDDR4.

[Nafon]

Dear god thank you. lol

For those who don't know: GDDR4 has already came and gone (GDDR5 is the standard atm). GDDR memory is high bandwidth video memory based on DDR memory. We will probably see GDDR6 memory as DDR4 becomes more common.

[Volkama]

i7-3820 here, all the i7 goodness plus quad channel RAM. 4ghz on stock voltage. On water so lots more potential, but I simply don't need it. I'll be fine for years thanks to the weak CPUs sitting in our favourite consoles. Not sure that's a good thing though?

[kainslayer]

as an i7 2600k @ 5ghz on air and a 780 owner ill go for sandybridge still it rocks and bangs and oc friendly

[tee_bag242]

Nice CPU - one of a dying breed of true OCers.

[OverPaperSkies]

3970x here at 4.8. Still destroys most topend xeons when it comes to rendering.

[tee_bag242]

Very nice. I'm rocking a 3920xm @ 4.5gh on stock fans in a gaming laptop. It still outruns Haswell and probably Broadwell the way things are going with Intel.

[--bienio--]

I got i5-3570K 3.40GHz and Im happy😊

[TheLeapist]

I have an amd 9370 and there isn't a single game that won't go to at least 60fps because of it and that's more than sufficient for me.

[Miskonius]

Well that depends on the GPU you have as well, you know?

[TheLeapist]

Right but it's easy to tell what's causing the bottleneck with different monitoring programs. My CPU is never the bottleneck. And I have a 660ti which is a good card.

[Miskonius]

@TheLeapist

Its not about bottlenecking... Intels CPUs give better frame rate. I have 4670k and my frien has FX 8350, we compared those CPus in BF4 on the same card (GTx680) and 4670 blows fx 8350 right out of the water (30%+) with GPU usage on both systems being 99% all of the time. Its just how it is atm. Something might change with Mantle but till we see it really in action its Intel just does it better.

[TheLeapist]

@Miskonius
Very true. There's no doubt that Intel is superior to amd. I was just saying that my cpu can handle any current game for at least 60fps. Look up professional benchmarks if you still doubt me.

[TheLeapist]

Oh and just to add. BF4 is extremely CPU heavy so that's a terrible example to give for countering what I was trying to say because certainly the cpu would be the bottleneck there hence the performance difference with the same gpu. Not to mention you yourself said the CPUs were at 99% usage which is a clear indicator that they're the bottleneck. I'm beginning to think that either you don't understand what I'm saying or you just don't get what a bottleneck is/means.

[HexxedAvenger]

Ah awesome! I just got the 9370 and I have the 660ti. Glad to hear it works well.

[TheLeapist]

Haha that's incredible. Yeah I get a near constant 60fps in battlefield 4

[Murad]

You should dual sli that,like next black friday, especially since the cards for 650-660's are getting so cheap nowadays, they're just begging to be bought.

[Murad]

But the real question is, how much do you sweat.

[mmike855]

Calling the 4770k a complete waste of money is a bit harsh for a great processor, isn't it?

[tee_bag242]

It is unless you want to OC the tits off it down the road. Haswell generally sucks eggs unless you're not a performance enthusiast.
Calling it a complete waste of money is a little harsh though. It will still handle games admirably.

[thecowsaysmoo]

Or I can buy an xbox one or a ps4 and play all these games.

[Allsystemgamer]

Or if I want PC games I build a PC? Why knock other people for playing on what they prefer?

Fanboyism is a disease and it seems you are infected.

[Bladesfist]

Except the new consoles hardly have any games worth buying at this point.

[Murad]

I can't say if that's a lie or not, but I hate the fact that console games cost so much. 60 dollars per game for around 5 months, jesus, that's a deal breaker. Indie games go down in price within a few weeks.

[deadfrag]

My 2500k is at 4.2ghz (motherboard overclock it)and i dont need more for now!

[Autodidactdystopia]

2500k will go down in history as one of the best value processors ever released.

It pushes bf4 along like a charm 60fps stable/Locked all at ultra.

so much oc potential and I haven't even oc'd yet.

[deadfrag]

I have only OC it by setting the bios on extrem i did not mess with any settings myself,and i got 4.3ghz stable.But i normaly just leave it at clock speeds and it still runs like a champ.

[Activemessiah]

So... am I the only AMD user here then...

[hobohunterz]

Never! 1045T But don't play games on PC much anymore

[Lon3wolf]

Nope 8350 here, gaming is fine and when more multi-thread games come out things will get better.

[pandehz]

Lol I'm still on my 3 yr old i7 740qm. Works pretty well though. Made my money back working on it.

[itisallaboutps]

It comes down to this

Amd cpu and gpu build will give you better bang for the buck if you are using it for straight gaming

Intel cpu and nvida gpu will give you better quality. And will be better for video editing and 3d modeling while also playing games at high settings

Its like comparing a ferrari to a corvette.
Corvette is brutal and barberic but worth the money and a ferrari is just down right beautiful quality and power at a higher price

There is a reason why all three companies exist. It is all a matter of preference

[sovietsoldier]

sorry but my i7 990x still keeps up or out performs the new high dollar cpu's.

[hollabox]

I feel the same way, I was looking at benchmarks when I was debating on upgrading my CPU from I 970 to I7 3930 and noticed my over clock on my CPU and GPU had the same performance if not a little higher. In terms of gaming it still performs within 10 percent of all the latest processors. When I upgrade I want it to be high end enough to where I don't have to worry about performance for at least 4 years.

[sovietsoldier]

unless something outstandingly major comes out i think the original i7 will be going for at least 4-5 more years.

[urwifeminder]

A lot of these were not out when I made my build I have 2700k its been great anyone know if the pcie 3.0 makes much of a difference my motherboard is capable but my cpu is not.

[Bladesfist]

Nope, pcie 2.0 is not yet saturated by cards.

[aLiEnViSiToR]

I had Intel E8400 @3.6GHz (nVidia EN8800GTS 512MB) since start 2008 it served me well until beginning of 2013 then i got Intel i5-4670K @4.2Ghz its best CPU for the price shame my MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC (got it mid 2011) is a bit weak vs my CPU... i might get nVidia 860 when it comes out to even the components, and you will not make a mistake if you get Intel i5-4670K its best performance potential vs price out there right now.

Buy smart Play happy :D

[Bdub2000]

Off topic: this article and all the comments are exactly why I'm moving to PC gaming! A lot of great information, comments didn't decay in to a xbox one vs ps4 pissmatch, seems like a good community! This console war is ruining my xbox one fun (yes I have fun with it, and yes I think ps4 is a beast that I'd like to own as well)

[Volkama]

Ah man some guy up there got an i5 what a drooling moron! Doesn't he realise that's not what I chose so it's wrong and stupid?!!

To be fair you do get the occasional amd vs nvidia fanboy drivel, and the occasional PC fanboy wading into those console arguments.

[Miskonius]

Fan boy arguments in PC department are at least 4 times worse than Console department. But benchmarks this this give precise insight when it comes to the actual performance of every individual component. With consoles you dont really have that so its all about hear-say and meaningless arguments (although PS4 is better but its still poor compared with any other decent PC). You will not make a mistake when you buy a PC just make sure you choose components wisely.

[ninjahunter]

This is why I stick with nvidia/intel, you get consistant results, I can know how a game is going to run just by looking at it, with a few exceptions.

Amd may have the best price/performance value, but you just cant rely on them to get the job done, performance levels are all over the place, heck, even in some instances the 6300 was outperforming the 8350.

[LAWSON72]

If I was to buy a CPU I would get a i5 (maybe i7 if I could get a deal), but if I was on a low budget I would get a fx 6300.

Off topic, but I really want to see AMD prices drop back to normal soon. I like my GTX 760 but in a couple months I am hoping to get a QHD monitor and I am hoping to get a R9 290

[IC3_DEMON]

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Int...