Top 5 best CPUs of all time

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Gawd
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Aug 27, 2005
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Since the Worst list was locked (?) how about the best top 5 of all time.
Here's a couple that deserve mention.
1.2 Ghz T-Bird and the 2600K.
 
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I don't remember anything pre-2005 so I'll start @ Conroe:

1. 2500K/2600K
2. i7 920
3. 5820K
3. Q6600
4. E6600

I believe the R5 1600 / 8700K is going to fit into the #1 or #2 slots over time.
 
Of the officially released CPUs.

AMD 486 DX4 100Mhz (Gamer choice of its time)
Pentium Pro (Last major IPC gain ever made)
Dothan (Mobility launch)
Conroe
Sandy Bridge
 
Fond memories of the P4 1.6a and 1.8a. They weren't really binned chip, and the FSB on both was a "quad pumped" 100mhz (so 400mhz total). But they were built on the same platform as the higher end chips in that line, and OCing the FSB to 133 basically gave you a significantly higher end chip, 2.13ghz and 2.4ghz respectively. And it took basically no effort to do, with an almost certain likelihood of succeeding- it was like the second coming of the Celeron 300a EchoWars mentions above.
 
AMD k6- 200. (Cheap and well performing compared to Intel at the time - great option for poor college students to game on)

Celeron 300a. (450mhz guaranteed)

Pentium 1.6a, overclocked to 2.4Ghz (huge value/performance jump at the time)

Q6600 - first quad core for the masses. Free and easy 600 MHz overclock

I7-920 DO - 2.6 to 4.0ghz overclock. Still a capable chip 9 years later!!!
 
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton mobile.
Great clocker and fitted the standard socket, win!

2500K, great clocking chip that lasted me 5 years and was still pretty good.

Celeron 300a, 50% overclock !!
 
Yeah I will echo others here. I think the 2500k/2600k came at the perfect time for it to be crowned the people's champ for value and longevity. It overclocked great even on a crappy Hyper 212 EVO cooling solution.
Think about it: The 2500k came right as games started being GPU limited instead of CPU limited. So now people could go through multiple GPUs without having to pay for a new CPU+Mobo at the same time.

The perfect chip at the perfect time.

I just upgraded my system a year or 2 ago and I STILL use my 2500k for a plex server (at 6k+ passmark it is great for 3 transcodes and 5 or so direct streams SIMULTANEOUSLY!)
 
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For me, in no particular order:
Intel 2600K
Celeron 300A
Opteron 146
Athlon64 3200 - I got 2 of these at a Anandtech/Hardocp/AMD thing they held in Dallas.
Pentium 66Mhz - seeing my friend's reaction when he could generate their POV-ray picture thing in minutes as opposed to hours on their 486.
 
AMD sold a boat load of FX series especially the FX-6300 ... I can OC this CPU to 4.5GHz stable. Coupled to a GTX 970 and 16GB DDR3 1600 it will smoothly play any game out there on high/very high settings using 1080P @ 60Hz
Intel has been top dog for years now in the gaming market but 3x the price of an AMD setup is still very steep for many of us today and for what, 10-15 FPS more than an AMD setup? Might as well go from 970 to 1080 with the money saved and have better resale (and longer warranty) with the 1080. FX-6300 (black edition) is $70 New on eBay ... you just can't touch it for performance vs $$$ with Intel hardware
 
Best ever for me would be the legendary i486DX2. Memories of LAN parties with Doom, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Wolfenstein, Quake, MechWarrior, and Descent are priceless.

Back then we were bada$$ with 10BASE-T. The next major steps were T-bird and P4. From there it was corporate environment for me.
 
486 DX/2 66 - the first PC that really felt like it had some oomph...enough to actually transition me off MS/PC DOS
Pentium 600E Coppermine - 50% overclock to 900MHz on the stock cooler. Even rookies could get 800MHz on that one.
AMD Thoroughbred Rev B - Great bang for buck, imo - pencil trick, iirc?
Athlon 64 X2 - The dually Intel never saw coming
i7 920 - Intel Strikes Back - in a big way

Special mention to Gulftown and XEON X56xx cpus for 6 cores and awesome overclocking.
 
wareyore said:
486 DX/2 66 - the first PC that really felt like it had some oomph...enough to actually transition me off MS/PC DOS
Pentium 600E Coppermine - 50% overclock to 900MHz on the stock cooler. Even rookies could get 800MHz on that one.
AMD Thoroughbred Rev B - Great bang for buck, imo - pencil trick, iirc?
Athlon 64 X2 - The dually Intel never saw coming
i7 920 - Intel Strikes Back - in a big way

Special mention to Gulftown and XEON X56xx cpus for 6 cores and awesome overclocking.
Click to expand...

My 1st computer had a Pentium 600E in it. It had the extra L2 cache. lol Couldn't overclock it as wasn't a custom build. Quantex
 
8080
6502
Z80
486
pentium (100)
amd's best chip (thunderbird?)
celeron (300a)
core 2 duo/quad
2500k/2600k sandy bridge

others I missed
 
Already mention but I need to copy:

Z80
6502/6510
680xx

Maybe I'm biased because I grown up with those beauties
 
I think the Sandy Bridge lineup of i5+ is probably the winner here. All of those chips are like 6 years old now, and they're still relevant CPUs to this day. The 2500k is finally starting to show some age with the lack of HT, but the 2600k is still fine for most people. I'd argue most people on this forum only upgraded from SB because they had an itch not because they actually needed it (I fall into that category myself).
 
This is hard...and makes me feel old. Hmmmm....I'm going to stick to relatively recent CPUs for my top 5.

1. Intel 2600K. While the 2500k was a legend for its time, the 2600K can still fight with the big dogs thanks to 8 threads and unparalled overclocking. It has yet to have a spiritual successor, and we still all say "is this new CPU the next 2600k?".

2. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. This was the first mainstream quad core with overclockability that lasted well beyond its intended life span. 3.4 GHZ overclocks on air were common, and it wasn't until the 2600K was introduced that many people even considered an upgrade. Many still use this CPU to this date.

3. AMD Athlon Slot A 600-700mhz. Born when AMD was an afterthought, and companies were so afraid of Intels monopoly they shipped AMD motherboards in unmarked white boxes, this CPU ushered in the first real CPU wars since the Pentium arrived. It was fast. It was cheap(er). And it ate games for breakfast. This CPU matched with a 32mb Gefore 256 was an awesome combination. Throw in a pair of VOODOO 2s for Glide support, an Aureal sound card, and an MPEG decoder board for the ultimate Windows 98 gaming machine.

4. Athlon 64 X2 3800. It wasn't the first dual core CPU, but it was the first one anyone cared about. Intel's chips were "glued together" and ran hot back when AMD launched the X2s. On air cooling the X2 3800 was able to overclock high enough to match any top of the line CPU for the fraction of the price. It wasn't until Intel launched the Core 2 line of CPUs that the X2 fell to the side. Even still, many great nights of Battlefield 2, Half Life 2, and TF2 were played on these chips.

5. AMD Athlon XP 2500 (Barton). The Barton Athlons were the darlings of their time. Yes the Pentiums were faster, but they were also way more expensive. When paired with a good Nforce 2 board, you could simply up the FSB a bit, and have an instant overclocked to Athlon XP 3200. You didn't even need special cooling. Paired with a NVIDIA 4200ti 64mb, it was gaming bliss.



Honorable Mentions:

1. The Motorola Power PC 601. Long before Apple was popular, there was the big switch from the 68040 CPU to Motorola's then cutting edge RISC architecture. It was rough, but ushered in a new era of Mac computing. Many Motorola Power PC chips lived on in consoles, arcade hardware, and servers. But this was the first mass production consumer RISC chip to gain wide spread use and acceptance.

2. The 386: Welcome to the world of 32 bit computing.

3. The 486 DX2 66: Welcome to the world of good 32 bit computing. Please enjoy Windows 3.11. I'll have mine set up in cascade please. Where is my Wing Commander Armada copy? Wait, I need to plug in my US Robotics 2400 baud modem and log into the BBS because my BRE investments comeback at exactly 7AM and the Gooey Kabloey won't fund itself! After that, I'm etching my name into the table at the Red Dragon Inn. I need my number 9 video card!

4. The Pentium 2: All the best parts of the Pentium Pro mixed with all the best parts of the Pentium MMX. Time to load up Xing vs Tie Fighter. Hello there Mplayer, TEN, and Gamespy. Need my AWE 64 drivers.

5. The Zilog Z80. This CPU from the 1970s found its way into everything from the TI-86 to the Sega Genesis. It just wouldn't quit. You're probably still using something that has one in it.

6. The Athlon 64: AMD got this CPU so right, Intel had to use their specs for x86-64. Sorry Itanium...


BUT THE REAL WINNER SHOULD BE...

The ARM 11 series. This CPU series is hardly spoken of, but is responsible for some of the greatest moments of computing life. This was the CPU design in the first iPhone. It was the CPU design for the first Androids. For the first Tegras. For the 3DS. This CPU put all of the worlds knowledge in your pocket. It changed humanity. It's far from the fastest. It's far from the best at games, or browsing. But the ARM 11 series has had a bigger influence on computing then any CPU since the 8086.

Speaking of which... I typed this on my phone so please pardon the typos. ^_^
 
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