Budget PC Processor for gaming?

TStodden

As I don't have an idea on your budget, here's some cost-effective options to consider (sticking to a $200 limit). * Intel Core i3-8100 -- Quad-Core, No HyperThreading; 3.6 Ghz base speed, No Turbo -- ~$117 * Intel Core i5-8500 -- Hex-Core, No HyperThreading; 3.0 Ghz base speed, 4.1 Ghz Turbo -- ~$192 * AMD Ryzen 3-1300X -- Quad-Core, No HyperThreading; 3.5 Ghz base speed, 3.7 Ghz Turbo -- ~$129 * AMD Ryzen 5-1500X -- Quad-Core, HyperThreading; 3.5 Ghz base speed, 3.7 Ghz Turbo -- ~$189 You could go with an older generation processor, but costs & performance will vary. However, you'll want to have AT LEAST a Quad-Core processor for gaming as some games will refuse to run less cores. You'll want to good graphics card as well (AT LEAST a Nvidia GTX 1050 OR AMD RX 560 for a baseline for a budget build, but GTX 1060 or RX 570 would be more preferable if your budget allows) for gaming. I'm not shooting for 4K resolution @ 144 FPS / Hz (as that's high-end stuff, which is NOT budget geared). I'm shooting for a baseline of 1080p @ 60 FPS / hz under default settings. Anything above defaults here is a "nice of have" deal. You might want to do some more research, but I hope this gets you started.

Dirk

if your budget is over $1000 I'd recommend an Intel i9

Anonymous

Depends on your budget, really. You can play any of the new games with a Pentium g5400 or Athlon 200GE along with a Video Card like the RX 570 at 1080p but don't expect to get the highest settings. These processors start to struggle with Video cards at the 6gb GTX 1060 or RX 580 level. The Ryzen 3 1200, 1300x, or 2200G are good picks if you're willing to pay a little more money. The Ryzen 3 1200 is hard to beat at $90. The Core i3-8100 will perform a little bit better than the Ryzen 3 processors but it's priced in an awkward spot at $120. Sometimes you can find a Ryzen 5 1600 on sale for a little bit more and it's generally a better pick than the Core i3. Since the Pentium g5400 is hard to find and it's not worth more than $60, I'd recommend the Ryzen 3 1200 or possibly the 2200g. The Ryzen 5 1600, 1600, and 2600 are good values because these come with 6 cores and 12 threads which would be good for future games. In all actuality, it depends on your FPS target, what kind of card and screen resolution you plan to use. The Ryzen 5 2600x will excell at 4k/2160p but only because an affordable 4k monitor can only produce 60fps and Video cards are bottlenecked at a high resolution like 4k. If you're looking for a budget CPU to power a 144hz monitor then you really should get a Core i5-8400 at the minimum with the Core i7-8700k being the preferred CPU for a high refresh rate monitor..

Graham

i5 4690k 4 cores, 4 threads will run anything current - But your question doesn't give me much to go off. What budget? What games? What resolution do you want to see them in? Intel or AMD? nVidia or Radeon?