We're looking at CPU offerings once again but this time we're focusing solely on gaming, so we'll be picking each CPU based on almost nothing other than it's gaming performance. For the close fought battles we'll take the platform into account but for the most part it's all about those glorious frames per second.
AMD upped the game with the stock CPU coolers it bundled with Ryzen processors and they kicked it up another notch with 2nd-gen Ryzen which come with one of three Wraith models that we are comparing today: the Stealth, Spire and Prism.
For the past few weeks we've been busy benchmarking AMD's Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel's Core i5-8400. For testing we have 36 games on the menu, each tested at 720p, 1080p and 1440p using the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. That is, 324 individual tests, three times each... almost 1,000 benchmark runs, so grab a drink, some snacks and get comfortable.
There's already loads of great AMD X470 motherboards to choose from starting as low as $130. Asus, Asrock, MSI and Gigabyte have all done a great job with their boards and to be completely honest, for the most part you can't go wrong.
Today we're talking best CPUs with the latest available processors and platforms at play. After all the extensive testing you are familiar with, we've come up with this concise guide on the best CPU choices available right now.
There are now several Coffee Lake-based Pentium Gold chips starting at just $64. So we've decided to pit it against AMD's best value CPU, the Ryzen 3 2200G which is $100 but it gets you good integrated graphics. You have to wonder what's the best value between the two platforms.
AMD seems to have learned their lesson with 2nd-gen Ryzen. This time around the X-models are much more appealing with a bigger and better box cooler and better out of the box performance. And yet both models make sense depending on your wants and needs.
We can say upfront that this article is in no way buying advice, but we're testing purely for the science of it. For the unaware, IPC (instructions per cycle) provides a good indicator of how fast a processor is, so with that in mind we're putting Intel and AMD's latest CPU architectures to the test running at a flat 4GHz.
Today we’re checking out the $200 Ryzen 5 2600, the most affordable chip of AMD's 2nd-gen processors. It's a bit cheaper than the 2600X we tested on launch day, but the real competition comes from the Core i5-8400 which is a little more affordable at $179. Let's find out where each stands.
It's been great to have more competition in the CPU sector since Ryzen arrived. Based on the refreshed Zen+ architecture, today we're testing AMD's new X processors: the 2700X is an 8-core/16-thread CPU with a 3.7 GHz base and a 4.3 GHz max boost and the 2600X is a 6-core/12-thread CPU operating at 100 MHz lower clocks.
Before the incoming 2nd-gen Ryzen parts arrive this shootout will let us establish how AMD and Intel currently stack up with all the latest Windows updates, BIOS updates, driver updates and new motherboards we have on hand, giving us an up to date reference point for the new CPUs.
At a time when graphics cards are extremely overpriced, AMD's new Ryzen APUs offer an affordable means of building a basic gaming PC. But we've been keen to see if the APU holds its ground against bargain priced second-hand GPUs. Today we're going to find out.
GTX 750 Ti... 2014 is calling
