And the winner is... INTEL CORE i5-4690K

CONFIDENTLY, then, we can say the Core i54690K is a killer gaming CPU today. What’s less certain is the outlook for the future. For the better part of a decade, the PC gaming industry has been promising multithreaded games. To date, that prediction hasn’t entirely materialized.

If these six CPU models represent the current state of the PC processor market, what have we learned? For starters, it’s a little disappointing to note that prices have crept up a little on a few of the Intel chips.

Inevitably, component pricing fluctuates. But the idea that you have to pay more for what are relatively elderly CPUs is tough to stomach. That said, it reflects the fact that we can no longer assume that computer chips are just going to always get faster and cheaper. Intel’s difficulties bringing 14nm desktop chips to market, along with AMD’s FX processors being stuck on 32nm technology, are testament to that.

INTEGRATED OR DISCREET?

The next problem involves integrated graphics. It’s not something we discussed much in our reviews of Intel’s CPUs. That’s because Intel’s patchy drivers and inadequate performance means integrated graphics remains irrelevant in the context of even remotely serious PC gaming. That applies to AMD’s best integrated graphics, too, which uses up-to-date AMD GCN graphics tech. It’s not truly gameable.

Discreet graphics is therefore the way to go, and, for the long term, that makes us just a little uneasy about every CPU here, save for the Intel Core i7-5820K. How so? Because of possible future conflicts between graphics and SSDs over PCIe bandwidth. It may turn out to be a nonissue. But it’s a pity that we’ll have to wait for Skylake later this year for a mainstream Intel processor with more than 16 PCI Express lanes piped into the CPU socket.

That said, perhaps the surprise package of this test is AMD’s FX-8350. There’s no denying the single-threaded shortcomings of its CPU core design. Nothing will change that until AMD’s new Zen CPU arrives next year. In the meantime, the FX-8350 may be a little off Intel’s pace in games, but ingame performance is certainly acceptable, especially if you overclock. Factor in strong multithreaded performance and the FX-8350 looks like a strong overall proposition. If only AMD’s chipsets and platforms didn’t look so old and crusty.

As for the AMD A10-7850K, we’re less impressed. Like we said, the integrated graphics bit isn’t really much use and the 7850K’s dual-module, pseudo quad-core CPU is neither great for gaming, nor a multithreading beast.

Of our Intel quartet, the Pentium K Anniversary is a lot of fun, but only if you're committed to overclocking. At stock clocks, its gaming performance is poor. Next for the chop is the Core i7-4790K. In many ways, it’s the best all-rounder here. But it’s also expensive, and in terms of gaming at least, the benefits of its Hyper-Threading tech aren’t all that compelling.

MONEY TALKS Instead, if we wanted a chip with proper beefy multithreading performance, we’d actually prefer to pay even more and do the job justice with the six-core Core i7-5820K. It’s a serious bit of hardware, especially when you factor in the advantages of the high-end X99 platform. As much as any CPU can be, it’s an upgrade that looks a great long-term investment.

All of which means the i5-4690K remains the CPU of choice for gaming purists. It’s not the absolute fastest gaming CPU you can buy, according to the benchmarks. However, we doubt any other CPU would deliver noticeably better gaming performance in the terms that really matter. And if you can’t feel it, why pay for it?

It’s a pity that we’ll have to wait for Skylake for a mainstream Intel processor with more than 16 PCI Express lanes piped into the CPU socket.