CPU tier list?

[Festive]

Can somebody or a few of us just come together and finally make a CPU Tier list? Way too many questions asking whether X CPU will bottleneck X graphics card. It's not like everyone is giving the same answers, the answers differ so much and contradict eachother it's hard for people to get a solid answer. With such expensive components such as processors and graphics cards nobody has time or money to be unsure of what to buy. Some of you may as why I just don't make the list myself but I don't only because I'm not 100% sure about older processors and things like that so I would rather someone with extensive knowledge do this. 

 

 

The the list would go something like this:

 

Tier 1: Best paired with: Gtx 1080 Fury X Titan Xp 980Ti-

6950x

6900k 

6850k

 

Tier 2: Best paired with: Gtx 960, 950, 380,280x

 

6600k 

4690k

6500

 

or something along those lines. I think it could really be quite useful if done right.

 

[Glenwing]

2 minutes ago, Festive said:

Can somebody or a few of us just come together and finally make a CPU Tier list? Way too many questions asking whether X CPU will bottleneck X graphics card. It's not like everyone is giving the same answers, the answers differ so much and contradict eachother it's hard for people to get a solid answer.

 

That's because there is no solid answer. Bottleneck isn't a "yes or no" question, and I don't think trying to oversimplify it will do anyone any favors, it will just spread misconceptions.

[ELSknutson]

3 minutes ago, Festive said:

Can somebody or a few of us just come together and finally make a CPU Tier list? Way too many questions asking whether X CPU will bottleneck X graphics card. It's not like everyone is giving the same answers, the answers differ so much and contradict eachother it's hard for people to get a solid answer. With such expensive components such as processors and graphics cards nobody has time or money to be unsure of what to buy. Some of you may as why I just don't make the list myself but I don't only because I'm not 100% sure about older processors and things like that so I would rather someone with extensive knowledge do this. 

 

 

The the list would go something like this:

 

Tier 1: Best paired with: Gtx 1080 Fury X Titan Xp 980Ti-

6950x

6900k 

6850k

 

Tier 2: Best paired with: Gtx 960, 950, 380,280x

 

6600k 

4690k

6500

 

or something along those lines. I think it could really be quite useful if done right.

 

well all toughs gpu will work fine with any of thoughts CPUs. The titan Xp being the only one that is a bit overkill for an i5 

[airdeano]

really cannot break it down that easy. the 'bottlenecks' are issues with individual games/apps being used and even with what resolution the title is being played (including different settings).

you'd have to have a database to include titles, settings, monitor and settings, and a plethora of more info.

[Bananasplit_00]

4690k is fine with a 980TI, atleast if you overclock and, 1080 would be fine with a 6700K almost any I5 from the 2500K and up is fine for a GTX 970, RX 480 or 1060. the cards you mentioned for teir 2 are too weak and should be 980, 970, RX 480, 1060, R9 390x seeing as those CPUs are not the bottleneck here, those cards would do fine with an I3 or some Pentiums tbh. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

The problem with bottlenecking is it depends on the software you're trying to run and what settings you've enabled on it. At best we can make some estimates based on the processor's overall or single threaded performance, but that's not going to immediately translate to "Oh yes, that'll bottleneck across the board".

 

The other thing we have to tell people is that bottlenecking is not necessarily an absolute performance cap. Just because you're not getting the performance on the video card that someone else did with another CPU doesn't mean that's all the performance you'll get. For instance I got better scores in some benchmarks on my i5-4670K @ 4.0GHz with a GTX 980 vs. the i7-6700. But I upgraded to a GTX 1080 and I still saw a hefty performance upgrade.

[i_build_nanosuits]

21 minutes ago, Festive said:

or something along those lines. I think it could really be quite useful if done right.

IMHO it goes more something like this, where the ''enthusiast'' rank (S) should be considered for production and content creation, overkill for gaming...except the i7-6700K if you can afford, it is the best CPU for gaming right now. (he does mention in the video that the ''haswell Xeons'' in the S class are the 6 and 8 core variant.)

 

All the CPU's in class A are top notch gaming CPU, you can pair with any GPU configuration you can think of, providing you pick a GPU config appropriate for your SCREEN RESOLUTION.

 

CPU in class C or lower will experience some framedrops and/or stutter in some games depending on how CPU intensive the game is...the games can often be harsh on one CPU core and rely on high IPC and fast CPU cores, where as some others exibit a good scalling behavior across many CPU threads but can also overwhelm a low-clocked core i5, especially if it's older gen like sandy-bridge and ivy-bridge at low clockspeed, and CPU with only 4 AMD ''cores'' or a dual-core with hyper-threading, those will have a hard time with those newer demanding titles, than can at times, put a serious burden on a CPU.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[typographie]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

Tom's Hardware already sort of does this, minus the misconception that there are specific video cards that should be "paired with" them.

 

But since they cluster most 3rd–6th generation i5's and i7's at the top, it's more useful for comparing older and/or AMD processors than anything super relevant to gaming right now. Though I suppose that says a great deal about what's actually needed for gaming, anyway.

[Festive]

17 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

IMHO it goes more something like this, where the ''enthusiast'' rank (S) should be considered for production and content creation, overkill for gaming...except the i7-6700K if you can afford, it is the best CPU for gaming right now. (he does mention in the video that the ''haswell Xeons'' in the S class are the 6 and 8 core variant.)

 

All the CPU's in class A are top notch gaming CPU, you can pair with any GPU configuration you can think of, providing you pick a GPU config appropriate for your SCREEN RESOLUTION.

 

CPU in class C or lower will experience some framedrops and/or stutter in some games depending on how CPU intensive the game is...the games can often be harsh on one CPU core and rely on high IPC and fast CPU cores, where as some others exibit a good scalling behavior across many CPU threads but can also overwhelm a low-clocked core i5, especially if it's older gen like sandy-bridge and ivy-bridge at low clockspeed, and CPU with only 4 AMD ''cores'' or a dual-core with hyper-threading, those will have a hard time with those newer demanding titles, than can at times, put a serious burden on a CPU.

Either way you put it, a list would be beneficial. And I do agree with your ranking system so thanks for that.

[i_build_nanosuits]

1 minute ago, typographie said:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html

Tom's Hardware already sort of does this, minus the misconception that there are specific video cards that should be "paired with" them.

some corrections had to be made:

 

 

[Festive]

20 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

4690k is fine with a 980TI, atleast if you overclock and, 1080 would be fine with a 6700K almost any I5 from the 2500K and up is fine for a GTX 970, RX 480 or 1060. the cards you mentioned for teir 2 are too weak and should be 980, 970, RX 480, 1060, R9 390x seeing as those CPUs are not the bottleneck here, those cards would do fine with an I3 or some Pentiums tbh. 

Yeah I know lol I just put this together while my english teacher was distracted. 

[typographie]

1 minute ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

some corrections had to be made:

Goddamn, you're fast!

[Festive]

6 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

some corrections had to be made:

 

 

Is there a way we can put this up here on ltt and have corresponding GPUS with it. I know it's not as cut and dry as that but anything is better than nothing. Or at least better than what we have now. Note: this isn't supposed to be a "will it bottleneck" list but one that shows appropriate combinations.

[Bananasplit_00]

7 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

some corrections had to be made:

 

 

 

this is pretty good, dosent say much about bottlenecking but its still a decent chart for picking a gaming CPU

[LeStringMan]

5 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

some corrections had to be made:

 

snip

 

uhm why do they have the Phenom x6 over any fx other than the 4100? the x6 may be faster in Cinebench and other synthetic benches, but it gets wrecked in 99% of cpu intensive games, also no way a 860k should be that high, again FX 43xx wrecks it in cpu bound games, cache is very important on cmt based cpus.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[bgibbz]

A Cpu teir list is useless because of how much CPUs differ by workload. For example, a 2,000$ xeon may be amazing for some workloads, other workloads (like single core workloads) it may be outperformed by a 200$ cpu. Honestly, if you want to decide on a cpu i would generally follow along with this (i dont pay enough attention to AMD to include them here)

 

For general web use and basic SOHO use, an i3 would work. Higher number = faster.

For gaming and slightly above average use, an i5 would suffice, Higher Number = faster

For heavy duty workloads multi threaded workloads, an i7 would work. Higher number = faster

For enthusiast grade (or potentially VERY high requirement loads) an i7 # # # # X would work, the X denoting Extreme

For heavily multicore workloads or VMs, a xeon would work. 

 

As far as bottlenecking is concerned, look at the application. If you see an application that has a minimum requirement of a gtx 750 and a 4th gen i3, odds are is that the application needs way more GPU power than CPU power. On the other hand, if the minimum requirements asks for a Xeon intel graphics, than odds are its a very CPU bound multi core application, and a CPU could easily bottleneck it.

 

Really, dont concern yourself with bottlenecking, its inevitable. If you plan on playing GTA V or using some other CPU intensive program, invest in a better CPU. 

 

Generally speaking, the most modern middle of the road i5 will be more than enough for most (i5 6500, i5 6600).

[SLAYR]

35 minutes ago, bgibbz said:

For heavily multicore workloads or VMs, a xeon would work. 

Not all xeons are the same.

 

The E3 line are the  i5/i7 lineup with ecc support

 

The E5/E7 are the trickier ones.

there are quad core e5s, and 22 core e5s, at all different speeds, and socket configurations.

 

It is probabbly not to even mention the e5/e7 lineup just because it would confuse people, just like opterons would also confuse people, and are just based on the fx series.