AMD have been lagging behind Intel in previous years despite getting huge contracts with both Sony and Microsoft to manufacture the APUs for their next-generation consoles however, AMD offers one thing that Intel doesn’t – Gaming processors for gamers on a budget.
We are going to take a look at the best AMD processors for all budgets in December 2014.
Update: Unless you are specifically looking for older hardware, we have a newer article that covers The Best CPU Coolers in 2021.
Best CPU for a Tight Budget
AMD has always been well-known for providing amazing performance even at the budget end of the scale and the FX-6300 is no exception!
The AMD FX-6300 is a 6 core processor clocking in at 3.5ghz a core, 2mb cache per-core and coming with DDR3-1866 Support, for those of you who love overclocking as always with FX series processors this CPUs multiplier comes fully unlocked meaning you stave off memory dividers when pushing your systems limits.
Many overclockers have been reporting frequent OCs in the 4.5 – 5ghz range depending on cooling solutions.
Overall for $100, the AMD FX-6300 is a very solid contender for any budget gaming pc – even over Intel.
Best Mid-Range AMD Gaming Processor
Coming in the mid range is the 8-Core AMD FX-8370 Black-edition which currently has $22 off via Amazon is a solid AM3+ based CPU clocking in at 4300MHz per core with 16mb of cache.
Performance of the FX-8370 is comparable to an Intel core-i7 3770 (bar 186 points) which will net you a nice mid-level gaming processor.
For the price $229.99, this is a very solid CPU, if overclocked with some care and pushed you will end up with a solid machine that can handle all of today’s generations of games.
Best High-End AMD Gaming CPU
For those of you who have money to burn and want to support the underdog, the AMD FX-9590 is another octo-core CPU that has a base core-clock speed of a whopping 4.7ghz with each core getting 8/8MB (L2/L3) each.
Benchmarks reveal that the FX-9590 has comparable performance to 4690 non-k, while it’s not bad performance for the money, At this end of the scale, It would be an idea to look into an Intel variant.
Coming in at $316 (currently has nearly $100 off in the USA) you could net yourself an Intel core-i7 4790k which is comparable to the FX-9590 is an absolute monster of a CPU especially when you consider the 4790K gets better performance and only has 4 cores instead of 8, coupled with the fact that the 4790K overclocks like an absolute animal you are onto a winner.
