Decent CPU for gaming.

[mandrigald]

I am looking for a decent CPU, preferably Intel (AMD works too, but Intel is my preference), that is $150 or less for gaming. I will mostly be playing games like Battlefield 4, Skyrim, Bioshock etc. But I will be playing MMOs like ESO and Guild Wars as well. I will probably be pairing this with an R9 280X (or whatever the Nvidia equivalent of that is, I'm waiting for Maxwell though). Thanks!

[helping]

8320 (160$, but goes lower on sales) 

 

otherwise have fun playing Battlefield on an i3. 

 

GTX 770 is your best GPU choice. 

[dizmo]

8320

 

Yup. This.

Another case closed by @helping

You're like the Sherlock Holmes of the forum.

[Jogostar]

FX 8320

[mandrigald]

8320 (160$, but goes lower on sales)

otherwise have fun playing Battlefield on an i3.

Would that be sufficient for playing ESO? I heard that AMDs dont do so hot in MMOs

FX 8320

Like I said to the other guy, could I happily play ESO, GW, and WoW with an AMD?

[helping]

Would that be sufficient for playing ESO? I heard that AMDs dont do so hot in MMOs

Yes. All the MMO's you listed are piss easy to run. ESO is heavily optimized. 

[mandrigald]

Yes. All the MMO's you listed are piss easy to run. ESO is heavily optimized. 

Thanks man, 8320 it is!

[Guest]

So... this depends on what your GPU features are going to be, considering that CPUs aren't as relevant as they used to be. Do you like to stream or record your gameplay and an in general better functioning/ less buggy drivers or would you rather have your frames be even faster than what your paying for when considering AMD's Mantle. If you go with the former (first) then I recommend NVIDIA, the on the fly H.264 Encoding with only a 5% hit to frames is ridiculous. But if you go with the latter, then you'll have faster frames at cheaper prices. 

[Joshyy]

Skyrim has issues with the AMD FX-8320 due to shitty optimisation and single coredness, but ESO will run fine. 

[s3ns3]

i5 4440. its not decent its very good for gaming but its 180$

[Joshyy]

So... this depends on what your GPU features are going to be, considering that CPUs aren't as relevant as they used to be. Do you like to stream or record your gameplay and an in general better functioning/ less buggy drivers or would you rather have your frames be even faster than what your paying for when considering AMD's Mantle. If you go with the former (first) then I recommend NVIDIA, the on the fly H.264 Encoding with only a 5% hit to frames is ridiculous. But if you go with the latter, then you'll have faster frames at cheaper prices. 

 

Remember AMD GPUs have decoders in them too much like Nvidia, the only difference is AMD hasn't releasesed the equivalent to Shadowplay (yet) that could change massively in the coming months. 

[Heizoel_Walther]

I would suggest you waiting a little bit and going for a 4670k! It's a great CPU, consumes less power than any AMD CPU and even older gen. i5s and you can overclock it if you want.

[kuzimins]

Would that be sufficient for playing ESO? I heard that AMDs dont do so hot in MMOs

i'm playing eso with a dual core pentium and a hd7750, it runs great.

[Vrbas]

FX-8320 is definitely the way to go. Picked mine up for $99 at Micro center. Sale still going on right now i believe if you have one near you.

[DSD27]

fx 8320

[Opcode]

FX-8320 will definitely suffice and obviously give you the e-peen feeling (8 corz men!). Tho a i3-4340 will probably beat it in most game titles. The i3-4340 is a superb cheap gaming CPU but if you don't live next to a Micro Center I don't think the 100 MHz increase justifies the $20 price difference (paying $10 extra for 100 more MHz per core). The i3-4330 hits the sweet spot if you must buy from Newegg and still has the beefy 4MB of L3 like its big brother. According to some benchmarks it even puts the FX-8350 to shame when paired with a R9 280X. Tho the eight core FX's will be favorable in games that can fully utilize them. Also overclocking may be a big factor as well, an overclocked FX-8320 will definitely raise the bar in its gaming performance.

 

Micro Center

i3-4340 = $139

 

Newegg

i3-4330 = $139

 

Benchmarks (R9 280X)

 

 

Other benchmarks

 

 

Would that be sufficient for playing ESO? I heard that AMDs dont do so hot in MMOs


Like I said to the other guy, could I happily play ESO, GW, and WoW with an AMD?

MMO's don't do well with AMD CPUs because of how they are written. Most MMO's are poorly threaded and the developers try to run everything on a couple of threads. For example in GW2.

 

[Analog]

If you wan to go Intel, I would suggest for you to save a bit more cash and buy the i5 4440 instead of a dual core i3. Not only will it be better for gaming, but it will also perform faster on day-to-day tasks. You can pair that with a good H87 motherboard, which has the features that you want a decent price. 

[s3ns3]

FX-8320 will definitely suffice and obviously give you the e-peen feeling (8 corz men!). Tho a i3-4340 will probably beat it in most game titles.

i am impressed of the power of an i3. excelent budget gaming cpu ,also they run so cool.

 

but still OP i reccommend going for i5 4440. 30$ over the budget but its worth it.

[tomgelemrs]

I am using the fx-6300. Its a good cpu for gaming. I get good frames with my r9 270x. And its only around 100$

[harrynowl]

Skyrim has issues with the AMD FX-8320 due to shitty optimisation and single coredness, but ESO will run fine. 

I run Skyrim fine with 52 mods and 2k textures on my 8320