Top 15 game processors

Using the architecture of Skylake-X, the i7-7820X processor today is a very interesting option for building a high-performance system, but “sharpened” primarily for games. Where the maximum number of cores is required (for example, when encoding a video), it will, of course, noticeably lose out to the i9 series monsters, but for games it’s 8 cores / 16 streams are now more than sufficient. At the same time, the heat pack is still balanced on the verge of a reasonable (140 W), and the price does not rush into space. In addition, the 2066 socket is used, which leaves a reserve for the installation of more powerful "stones", if necessary.

The characteristics of the processor are excellent. Working in drain at 3.6 GHz, with a powerful power subsystem and appropriate cooling, it withstands a stable 4.5 GHz, so the unlocked multiplier is not for a tick here. The processor heats up, however, it’s not childish, and in combination with a pair of top-end video cards in SLI, it can warm the apartment significantly. Being carried away by squeezing the power to the last drop, you should immediately spit on the warranty and do scalping, since it is pointless to expect adequate work from the standard thermal interface during overclocking.

Not enough memory for ? Here, this problem does not threaten you, prepare only money: i7-7820X has a four-channel memory controller capable of working with an array of DDR4-2666 up to 128 gigabytes. Of course, sooner or later, igrodel and this will not be enough ... but not today.

The processor is not for amateurs - and at the price, and according to the possibilities, and according to the requirements. Alas, in terms of its heat dissipation even without overclocking (and the unlocked multiplier pushes this way), the processor reached the level of 165 W - after all, only AMD processors were considered to be “stoves” recently. Well, the traditional use of thermal interface instead of solder, popularly known as “chewing gum”, also gives its results: without high-quality cooling, you risk turning a hundred thousand rubles into a useless piece of silicon under load.

But this heat emission is taken far from the air. 16 cores capable of processing 32 streams, 44 PCI-Express 3.0 lines and support for four memory banks with a total capacity of up to 128 GB will make it easy to pull the most demanding games at maximum settings in a configuration with several video cards not only now, but also in the foreseeable future. And the processor will have enough resources for all background tasks that will not make the game freeze at the most inopportune moment.

However, by the standards of 2018, the gaming processor Intel Core i9-7960X is still the best choice for tomorrow.Here, Intel, trying to create an answer AMD Treadripper, comes on the same rake as AMD with the FX family at one time. If then the games used one or two cores, making high multi-threaded FX performance useless and clearly pointing to a failure in single-threaded performance, now i9 cannot offer much growth in games compared to, say, i7-7700K enough, and the clock frequency of the core higher. Therefore, taking into account the cost of the processor itself and the adequate hardware for building the system on it, we will lower the rating score: in 2018, the i9-7960X hour has not yet come in terms of the ratio of investments to gaming performance. But, whatever one may say, the future is behind multithreaded computing: remember how in the days of Stalker and quad-core processors there was a lack of programs realizing their capabilities.

The current top processor in the AMD lineup is unquestionably a monstroose. Both the dimensions, the price, and the number of physical cores — there are already 32 of them here. And, accordingly, with heat generation: TDP here is expected to reach 250 watts.

However, the main drawback of the new Threadripper processor was not even heat dissipation, which, with the best water-cooling systems, makes it almost impossible to overclock, but the architecture itself — assembled on the basis of four modules instead of two in the previous generation, it still “slows down” itself for inefficient work with memory, losing in performance in comparison with Intel HEDT-processors is very noticeable.

And it is in games that this loss of performance becomes most noticeable.We launch the latest Assasins ’Creed or Watch Dogs 2 in FullHD resolution, unscrew the settings for“ ultra ”... and see that the much cheaper Ryzen 7 2700X is capable of providing a higher frame rate. The Witcher Geralt enters into a stupor from 2990WX, with which the frame rate almost halves in comparison with the same top-end Ryzen 7. At 4K resolution, the gap is expectedly reduced, but here the Threadripper still loses.

Well, ok, but after all, AMD Ryzen Master proprietary utility offers us a special “game mode”, in which the processor actually turns into an 8-core game, at the same time getting rid of delays when working with the memory subsystem? Alas, the miracle does not happen: the processor is simply completely compared with the Ryzen 7 2700X in gaming performance.

The six cores at Coffee Lake became one of the gamers' favorites, demonstrating not only high performance out of the box, but also excellent overclocking potential: after scalping, 3DNews testers were able to squeeze a stable 5 gigahertz from this “stone” even with hard “roasting” in LinX. The previous school idol and hit of reviews on Youtube, i7-7700K, didn’t always take this bar, and Intel didn’t officially recommend overclocking for it. The secret is not only in the modernized 14nm ++ technical process, but also in the increased area of ​​the crystal itself, which facilitates the heat sink. But even without overclocking, the i7-8700K looks more interesting than the old flagship, remaining colder at comparable loads. In overclocking, the processor can already catch up with the i7-7820X.

In most of today's top games, this processor looks even more interesting than the more expensive and hot Skylake-X: the ability to squeeze more clock speeds is more relevant than the number of physical cores. That is, with a reasonable budget limited to assembling a gaming computer that can squeeze the most out of the season's new products, the i7-8700K is very attractive - it is more efficient to invest in a video card, and suffer the anger of Slaanesh of all miners for fairly high prices. But keep in mind that it will become obsolete faster than the new "skyley" - and the LGA1151 v2 will have less opportunities to upgrade than the newest LGA 2066.

In today's times, the already-legendary Kaby Lake processor is outdated, but it still shows excellent results in games: its four cores, running at 4.2 GHz, are enough for all AAA updates without noticeable choking. Of course, the upgrade system on it is already further apart and there is no place: nevertheless, the old LGA 1151 socket, according to Intel, is no longer relevant, although the precedents of crossing LGA 1151 v2 and LGA 1151 are known. But this is, so to speak, an amateur.

However, if you are not a fan of upgrades in parts, and you immediately change the “processor / mother / video card” set, when the old assembly finally stops organizing, then the 7700K will be able to work for a long time. Do not forget, however, about its not the most optimal thermal mode: you have to pay for high frequencies with expensive cooling or remember the magic word “delid”.

The 6th generation processor for the LGA 1151 platform with integrated HD Graphics 530 graphics on the Skylake GT2 core. As for the vast majority of other solutions, the integrated video accelerator does not provide a comfortable level of FPS in modern games and is focused on the visualization of 2D images. But HD Graphics 530 supports DirectX 12 and is able to fully function in the Windows 10 software environment. The i7-6700K is supported by a new system logic, which realizes the ability to connect drives with a PCIe interface, which removes the existing restriction of data throughput. The processor has four physical cores plus traditional support for Hyper-Threading technology and an unlocked multiplier. At a nominal clock frequency of 4.0 GHz, the activated Turbo Boost mode accelerates one of the cores to 4.2 GHz. Manual overclocking is much more productive and allows you to overcome the 4.7 GHz bar. The claimed TDP is 91 W, while in idle the processor consumes only 4 W, and the heating temperature under maximum load reaches 75 ° C.

The youngest processor for the LGA 2011-v3 platform from the lineup with the updated Haswell-E micro-architecture. It differs from its average “brother” by a reduced frequency of 200 MHz nominal frequency and a reduced number of PCI Express lines. Only the first difference is of real importance, since the 28 bus lines reached by the i7-5820K processor are quite enough for full-fledged SLI or CrossFire modes, and the configuration of 3-4 graphic accelerators in gaming systems is almost never encountered. All six cores in turbo mode can accelerate to 3.4 GHz at a base frequency of 3.3, and the first two can work even at 3.6 GHz. The unlocked multiplier allows you to overclock the processor to 4.1 GHz using a high-quality air cooling system. At the same time, power consumption and heating of the chip grow very quickly, and the temperature of 95 ° C at maximum load is common.The processor is equipped with a 4-channel DDR4 memory controller.

High-performance gaming processor for the LGA 1151 platform based on the Skylake microarchitecture. It incorporates a large number of technological improvements and fundamentally new solutions, including internal tires with increased bandwidth and the ninth generation graphics core GT2. Comfortable FPS level in modern games this integrated solution does not provide and is intended for image visualization in non-gaming applications. The potential of the processor is maximized in the motherboards on the Z170 chipset. It is this set of logic that allows you to individually overclock the computing blocks, graphics subsystem and memory. In nominal mode, the clock frequency is 3.5 GHz, and in turbo mode it rises to 3.9 GHz (with one operating core). Manual overclocking provides its increase to 4.5 GHz without the use of extreme cooling methods. In normal mode, the heating of the processor under maximum load does not exceed 55 ° C, and in idle the chip consumes only 4 watts.

Well, speaking of the “sevens” of Ryzen, let's not forget about the “fives” - the current top six-core with a clock frequency of 3.6 GHz stands at the price level not even of an Intel Core i5, but an i3. The transition from Summit Ridge to Pinnacle Ridge, as in the case of the Ryzen 7, slightly increased the “paper” performance, power consumption also did not increase much.

But we are interested in gaming opportunities, right? Well, we put on a gas mask and jump into the trenches: in Battlefield 1, the Ultra 2600X demonstrates the minimum difference with the Ryzen 7 2700X, and it looks great against the background of Intel i7. The processor copes well with its work, even in 4K resolution, showing quite “playable” results.

Wiggling the Roach with Geralt also turns out well, in FullHD on the "ultra" the processor does not choke. Here in 4K there is already a noticeable lack of performance, the frame rate drops almost to the critical threshold.

As a result, the result is paradoxical: spending less money compared to the Ryzen 7, in games, we, in fact, do not get any difference! Alas, the same memory subsystem is to blame for this - a smaller number of cores literally “interfere less with each other”, and it is in the game load that the six-core Ryzen 5 is actually not inferior to the eight-core Ryzen 7. But the price difference will allow you to invest in the RAM or video card, in the end, with the same total cost, the gaming computer on the Ryzen 5 will be even faster.

However, if you have a sufficient number of resource-intensive processes in the background of the game, you often encode video or enjoy 3D rendering, then of course Ryzen 7 will be more interesting, and we will still give it a higher place.

To build a gaming computer without manners to record the characteristics of the flagship of the "seventh" line came out just great. With a price even slightly lower than the same i7-7700K, the “red” is colder (and, again, the solder is under the hood!) And manages to demonstrate excellent performance even in games, the creators of which did not even think about optimizing for Ryzen. That is, the processor adequately shows itself in conditions that are more beneficial for Intel. And the results are sometimes surprising: if in Battlefield 1 Ryzen with all the tricks cannot catch up with Intel, then in the same GTA V the results with i7-7700K are almost indistinguishable - and this despite the fact that the clock frequency of Ryzen is 600 MHz lower.

Note that the architecture of Ryzen is very sensitive to the frequency of RAM: the speed of the "RAM" has a huge impact on the final performance of the system. So, while assembling a computer, for the time being you will be limited by the choice of strips that are suitable for the characteristics.

As a result, we have to admit that AMD was able to create a good competitive processor, which already ensures the operation of modern games at maximum quality settings and at the same time is far from choking. Well, 8 physical cores will allow to cope with a serious multi-threaded load for a long time.

So, what to do if the ceiling of the budget for the processor is 10 thousand, and you want to have at least some performance in games? We'll have to look towards the dual cores with the maximum clock frequency, buy something with an unlocked multiplier in the store with such a budget will not work: the Intel Core i3-7350K at the average price has already dropped from the limit set for the rating.

Therefore, we turn to the Intel Core i3-7320. Two cores operating at 4.1 GHz are fully capable of digesting modern games at acceptable quality settings. Cache is too small, but it can not be called a fatal flaw. But the manufacturer’s declared thermal package is only 51 W, which will make it possible not to throw out a substantial amount for a multiphase-powered motherboard and a top “tower” or water cooling. There remains the potential for upgrading to more powerful processors under the LGA 1151.

What do we lose by dropping the clock rate of only 100 megahertz? Yes, in general, nothing special. But the money saved (in comparison with the i3-7320) is already enough for a cooler, quite effective for working with a processor having a TDP of 51 W.

Even in synthetic tests the difference is minimal. To the previous processor, i3-7300 loses the crumbs: a difference of 120 points on PassMark cannot be considered cardinal.

What good will AMD offer us in the “no more than 10 thousand” processor segment? Not so little: four physical cores operating at 3.5 GHz plus an unlocked multiplier. This is a very serious incentive when building a computer to look in the direction of the "red". At a price at the level of Core i3, this processor can actually play on the field of the sixth and seventh generation Core i5, while undemanding for cooling.

The only "but" is the traditional requirement for the use of high-speed memory, so that before assembling the system on the Ryzen, one has to go and smoke, forums, choosing bars that can work with confidence at high frequencies. So far, not so many.