- Motorola 68k series - Amiga anyone?
Sad to see that this list only contains x86 CPU's.
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- Motorola 68k series - Amiga anyone?
Sad to see that this list only contains x86 CPU's.
Pentium 3 Tualatin, Core 2 Q6600, Westmere EP Xeon, Sandybridge 2700k, 68030, 6510.
And I still have machines running each one of these processors. My main workstation's still running dual X5675's and they don't miss a beat - Yes, I've also got an m.2 SSD as my boot drive.
Why the 2700k over the 2600k? My 2600k hit 5.2Ghz with a chunky AIO, is the 2700k more consistent with that max OC, or did they go higher?
The i7-2700k was released 9 months after the i7-2600k. If we are talking absolutes the 2700k cannot be in any chart as it is a follow-up model with cosmetic differences.
Fair call, assume it's the 2600k, Sandy Bridge in general. It's still a very capable generation, even today it holds it's own just fine.
I've got a SB 2600, 2600S and a 2700k here and they're all still great processors.
slot athlon was the first time they beat intel. I went from a k6-2 300Mhz to that athlon and wow it was great.
I don't think anyone will remark fondly about that great CPU of its time that changed the world by using less power.
Ok so few things missed:
- Original slot A athlons, significantly faster at lower clocks than competitors for everything - I had a 600mhz, it was paradigm shifting.
- C’T 286 - the only 286 which could swap into and out of protected mode without a hard reset. Showing intel how it as done
- Am386dx40 - who needs a 486 anyway?
- Motorola 68k series - Amiga anyone?
- Intel Q6600 - making quad mainstream
- Ryzen - architecturally very balanced, highest possible throughout per x64 core ever created
- I7-5775C - integrated gpu with ram on the chip, extremely high performance/watt on the desktop (higher than most things out even now)
- The Slot A Athlons weren't that good. The chips were fast, but that's not all it takes to make my list. I saw tons of slot A Athlons in the shop that had died. Although this was primarily due to bad VRM's on the motherboards used by OEMs.
- The 286 thing, I'm going to say still wasn't a big deal. There are plenty of other processors more deserving of being on a list of top 5 CPU's.
- No. Just no. This wasn't an x86 CPU. In case you hadn't noticed, that's what I concentrated on. This is after all a PC gaming site that came around well after the Amiga was long gone. Its a good series of CPU's, but I felt it was beyond the scope of this list.
- The AMD 386's were nothing special as I recall. Even if they were, the initial innovation here was all Intel's for all the reasons I mentioned in the article. In fairness, this was around the time I was coming into the hobby, so the AMD version may not have had the proper context. As I recall from those days, it was generally accepted that AMD and Cyrix CPU's were essentially knock off CPU's that may have been better at a very specific task, but were sold at bargain basement prices for a reason. I remember software compatibility problems back in the day with non-Intel CPU's. That alone disqualifies them in my eyes. Even if these were faster though, overdrive style chips on an older platform aren't good enough for the list. The only one that had a shot at making this list was the Pentium II Overdrive which was socket 8.
- The Intel Q6600 was a fantastic processor with a ton of longevity. It very nearly made this list for the very reason you mentioned. So I'll give you that one.
- Ryzen is good, but only time will tell. The judgement of these processors involves a bit of hindsight. However, Ryzen wouldn't make the list right now due to having worse IPC than Intel's offerings.
- No. I don't agree. There is an obvious enthusiast's perspective here and I don't give a shit about integrated GPU's.
Going to have to disagree on a few points there:
1. The amd 386dx40 had no compatibility issues with Intel software as it was essentially an Intel designed chip, where cyrix and co's incompatibilities were really a problem later.
2. The C&T 286 wasn't a "thing" because not many people knew about it and it wasn't advertised well. It was a display of what other manufacturers and designers can do at a time of vast innovation
3. 5775C, I don't really care about integrated graphics either, but I care about task/watt figures and in that respect the 5775C is a monster
4. Slot A athlon, you're going hard on a processor because of the supporting hardware? Is that fair when you're talking about CPUs?
I would have amended the title to "The Top 5 Best x86 CPUs Of All Time" if that were the case. PC gaming focus or not, you never know what kind of computer enthusiast is gonna show up on a site like this with that kinda headline.
- No. Just no. This wasn't an x86 CPU. In case you hadn't noticed, that's what I concentrated on. This is after all a PC gaming site that came around well after the Amiga was long gone. Its a good series of CPU's, but I felt it was beyond the scope of this list.
Going from the Athlon XP 1800+ Palomino to a Q6600 G0 felt like hitting LUDICROUS SPEED! even without any overclocking. I've never had a jump like that in performance since.
- The Intel Q6600 was a fantastic processor with a ton of longevity. It very nearly made this list for the very reason you mentioned. So I'll give you that one.
I think the Celeron 300A should be there. I remember the 50% overclock!
Sad to see that this list only contains x86 CPU's.
I'm going to back you on this one. That slot 1 Celeron 300A netted me an easy 60% overclock with minimal cooling and tweaks. #1 in my book!!!
I remember seeing all the hype for the 300A and getting a 333 to play with... not quite the same, unfortunately.
You can push 533s to 600+ reliably? I've got a couple in my own BP6 that weren't overclocked because I didn't think Mendocinos would have the headroom to hit 100 MHz FSB at that multiplier with any semblance of reliability - at least not without plopping on more exotic cooling than the system is currently worth.That's OK. My first 300A wouldn't do 450MHz. It would do something like 416MHz and that was all. My second chip did better though. It did 450MHz no problem. I also had a pair of 533A's on my ABIT BP6 that went to 600MHz+ that I ran for awhile. That was a great setup. Not as much of an overclock but the 300A was unique at the time.
While I agree with pretty much all your picks (specially #1), I think AMD thunderbird and Barton deserve an honorable mention.