• AMD      100$ nad under....

athlon ii4 640   From 80 $

With modern games able to take advantage of more than two processing cores.

AMD's old quad-core chips, such as the Athlon II X4 and Llano-based A6 and A8 APUs

,look better now compared to Intel's dual-core models than they did before.

As a result, we're cutting the Pentium G860 from our recommendation list. The Athlon II X4 640 takes its place

.Running at 3 GHz, this CPU performs roughly on par with the A8-3870K for less money.

Use the savings on a discrete graphics card.

amd phenom ii x4   From 94 $

 

  the Phenom II X4 makes a significant comeback compared to its competition, 

since many of the newer games we tested are able to utilize multiple threads.

Sporting 6 MB of L3 cache and an unlocked ratio multiplier,

AMD's Phenom II X4 965 is a solid performer at its stock clock rates,

and it has some room to scale up with overclocking, too.

Thanks to the long life of AMD's Socket AM3/AM3+ interface,

you can buy this chip today and then upgrade

to an FX model down the road

(though we don't really see much reason to do so now,

based on the FX's gaming performance).

  

 

	ATHLON II X4 640	PHENOM II X4 965
FAR CRY 3	80%	82%
STAR CRAFT  II	58%	78%
AVERAGE	64%	79%

PERFOMANCE  100% FOR GAMES   

 

• AMD AND INTEL FROM 100$ 

1. AMD FX-4300   From 150$ 

At stock clock rates, AMD's FX-4300 is able to keep up with the Phenom II X4 965

and just about reach the Core i3-3220. However, its TDP is 35 W lower than the Phenom,

and an unlocked multiplier is an advantage over the Core i3.

We're giving it an honorable mention for the few reasons folks

might want to consider a low-cost CPU built on the Piledriver architecture.

1. Intel Core i3-3220 From 122$ 

Intel's Ivy Bridge-based CPUs are very capable gaming processors.

Benchmark data makes it clear that Intel's Hyper-Threading technology

is effective in mitigating the limitations of a dual-core CPU in games.

Although a locked multiplier limits overclocking to a few-megahertz bump in BCLK frequency,

we still consider this chip to be a good starting point

for gamers who might upgrade to a faster LGA 1155-based processor in the future.

Intel Core i5-3350P   From 165$ 

Intel's Sandy and Ivy Bridge-based Core i5 processors are well-known for their gaming prowess

at reasonable prices, and the Core i5-3350P is a particularly interesting option at $180.

The P suffix is an indication that Intel disables its HD Graphics engine,

but we're perfectly alright with such a decision.

If you're buying a gaming processor, you're going to want discrete graphics anyway.

Consequently, this CPU ducks in under 70 W.

 

 

 

PERMOMANCE ON GAME  100%

 

FAR CRY 3	FX-4300     82%	I3 32020  81%	I5  3550P 96%
STAR CRAFT II	79%	82%	86 %
AVERAGE	75%	81%	87%