Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?

12:00 AM - January 30, 2012 by Don Woligroski Table of contents 1. Can FX, APUs, And Pentium Processors All Game? 2. Test System And Benchmarks 3. Benchmark Results: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 4. Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3 5. Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2 6. Benchmark Results: StarCraft II 7. Benchmark Results: DiRT 3 8. Benchmark Results: Metro 2033 9. Overclocking Benchmarks 10. AMD Or Intel: Which Offers Better Gaming Performance?

We really like to hunt down great values in the processor space. Since our last round-up of affordable CPUs, AMD released its Llano-based APUs and Bulldozer-based FX family. Also, Intel introduced a handful of Sandy Bridge-based Pentium chips.

Whenever there are significant changes in the CPU market, we like to collect as many sub-$200 models as possible and put together a gaming comparison. Certainly a lot has happened since the last time we did this. Perhaps most obviously, the Phenom II and Athlon II families have started giving way to the FX series, along with the A4, A6, and A8 APUs. Intel, meanwhile, now has Sandy Bridge-based Pentium processors.

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