Most Prolific Intel CPU

[Viper101]

I am curious as to what everyone here thinks is the most prolific, important, and "best" Intel CPU released in this decade.

I would imagine that the Core 2 Duo/Quad are up there. Sandy Bridge? Haswell?

 

Let me know what you all think. And yes, I know this is subjective and I embrace that.

[PlayStation 2]

Core i5-2500K. The seven, almost eight year CPU that's still surprisingly usable not only because it was a good CPU at launch but because you could OC the hell out of it.

[ZcanKal]

4 minutes ago, Viper101 said:

the first Xeon

You mean the P2 based Xeon?

[Jurrunio]

C2Q Q6600. Makes quad core CPUs a thing for gamers

 

2500k. Affordable when new, still decent when overclocked 8 years later

 

4790k. Best place to learn overclocking, since it has all the things you want to adjust for overclocking, Vccin, ring bus frequency etc. while fast enough to be relevant in high end gaming only systems.

 

G4560. When the kingdom falls apart and you're the only one standing...

[Viper101]

3 minutes ago, ZcanKal said:

You mean the P2 based Xeon?

No. Released in 1998, therefore not this century. Also not the "first Xeon", so thanks for pointing that out.

[Curufinwe_wins]

The Core2Quads were undeniably the most important Intel (for Intel) CPU's of the past 15 years (QX6700 was in 2006 so it just misses decade).

 

Conroe/Kentsfield (aka Core) was the point in which Intel said good bye to AMD as a competitor and never looked back while delivering smaller and smaller performance jumps, that somehow, someway, AMD still couldn't over come.

 

The C2Q cpu's when overclocked, are the oldest intel CPU's that can still be fairly relevant as well, thanks to pretty decent IPC and the ease of hitting around 4GHz with later samples (which make up the majority of production.)

 

It also was the first thing to really make Quad Core systems a thing outside of servers, and definitely the first to bring them into the mainstream (the Q6600 and Q8400 near EoL was fairly affordable considering the insane power leap over previous systems).

 

 

It took AMD 3 years to match the C2Q's with the x4 940 and 920, and even then, they never again won against Intel's current offerings.