Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: February 2014

January Updates: 

Welcome to 2014. By the time you read this, AMD will have introduced its Kaveri-based APUs (though integrated graphics rarely gets play in this list). There are a few other noteworthy developments to report on, too.

We begin with the price changes. Though there wasn't much movement in the past month, Intel's popular multiplier-unlocked parts, the Core i5-4670K and Core i7-4770K, are up about $15. That's not huge in the scheme of things, so it doesn't affect our recommendations. Additionally, the FX-6300 is also a few dollars pricier on Newegg, though it's still available for $110 on Amazon.

Moving on to the news, let's start with the aforementioned Kaveri design that launched earlier this week, replacing the Richland family. It offers a handful of innovations in the processing space. First, there's the updated x86 architecture, code-named Steamroller, which AMD says greatly improves IPC compared to Piledriver. Also, the VLIW4-based graphics engine is replaced by Graphics Core Next, the architecture introduced back in 2011 alongside AMD's Radeon HD 7970. Lastly, Kaveri-based APUs support a number of Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features, which the company claims can potentially improve performance in a variety of applications, given proper developer support.

The first two Kaveri APUs to show up are the A10-7850K and A10-7700K. As you might imagine, the A10-7850K is the flagship, sporting two Steamroller modules (marketed as four cores) running at a 3.7 GHz base clock rate that scales up to 4 GHz through Turbo Core, with an eight-CU graphics engine. Each compute unit hosts 64 shaders, totaling 512. The A10-7700K employs a lower 3.4 GHz base clock that jumps to 3.8 GHz in lightly-threaded workloads. Two CUs are disabled, leaving 384 shader cores operating at 720 MHz.

In many ways, that's good news (although you'll need a new motherboard and, very likely, new memory to maximize graphics performance). The bad news is that we're expecting to see AMD's Socket AM3+ platform slowly fade from prominence.

We also talked to industry insiders at CES 2014 with their hands on Haswell-E, expected later this year. The top-end SKU will be an eight-core part with Hyper-Threading technology, DDR4 memory support, and a new processor interface that isn't compatible with the existing LGA 2011 ecosystem. Rumor also has it that the Haswell refresh, originally planned for later this year, is being delayed. At the same time, SATA Express compatibility is being taken off of the spec sheet, similar to the way Intel toned down its position on PCI Express 3.0 when it introduced X79.

Finally, we learned that Intel is discontinuing a number of previous-generation processors, mostly low-end Sandy Bridge-based Celerons and Pentiums. The only model we'll miss is the Core i5-3350P, which is one of our favorite budget gaming CPUs. Once it disappears, we'll likely recommend a slightly more expensive Haswell-based Core i5 under $200.

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.