Question GREATEST CPU OF ALL TIME (DESKTOP >1999)

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alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,338
404
126
I doubt many home users utilise 16 threads fully tbh. Most people are browsing the web, streaming videos or playing games.
Going from a higher core count CPU to an 8 core CPU and doing stuff like unpacking or compressing files feels agonizingly slow.
 

IEC

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Jun 10, 2004
14,463
5,520
136
AM4 is the winner in recent memory. I've sold off or traded all my AM4 CPUs since migrating to AM5/DDR5, but all the AM4 CPUs are still running great in friend/family/forum members' rigs. One recently upgraded from a OG Ryzen 1000 series chip to a Ryzen 5700X recently and is quite pleased. On a B350 board, no less.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
686
352
136
In relation to the competition and the market at the time? 2600K/3700K were unrivaled. USB 3, PCI 3.0 (on Ivy). Haswell had this too, but core count stagnation was starting.

Zen 3 (especially X3D) has earned it's place in the history books as well.
 

MangoX

Senior member
Feb 13, 2001
604
128
116
Hot take, but the idea of a greatest CPU of all time is an oxymoron. CPUs are continually improving at a rapid pace. Every CPU will be surpassed sooner or later.

Furthermore, how good a CPU looks for can depend on a lot of things outside of the CPU itself. Sandy Bridge would not be remembered nearly so well if it wasn't followed by the worst period of stagnation in Intel's history. The 5800X3D would not be nearly as impressive if a competitor made their own big-cache CPU.
Agreed on all fronts. I'd also add that made Sandy Bridge great was because of the massive overclock potential. I had ran a 2500k @ 4.5 daily for years until I upgraded. It could even do 4.7 but not 100% stable for gaming, but just basic tasks was fine like watching videos, but do anything heavy has a chance to crash. Wasn't worth it for me for 200mhz. Also don't forget the sata bug that was extremely annoying if you were an early adopter.
 

Thunder 57

Diamond Member
Aug 19, 2007
3,079
4,873
136
Agreed on all fronts. I'd also add that made Sandy Bridge great was because of the massive overclock potential. I had ran a 2500k @ 4.5 daily for years until I upgraded. It could even do 4.7 but not 100% stable for gaming, but just basic tasks was fine like watching videos, but do anything heavy has a chance to crash. Wasn't worth it for me for 200mhz. Also don't forget the sata bug that was extremely annoying if you were an early adopter.

Sandy gets the love, Ivy deserves the credit. Sandy perfected and a native platform that would last way longer (PCIe3/USB3).
 

MangoX

Senior member
Feb 13, 2001
604
128
116
Sandy gets the love, Ivy deserves the credit. Sandy perfected and a native platform that would last way longer (PCIe3/USB3).

Ah yes. If you add the platform, that's correct. The Z77 also supports SB processors, but most people I know stuck with the Z68/P67 motherboards. Also the Z77 chipset added full SATA3 on all the ports.

Z68
- PCI-E 2.0
- USB 2.0
- 6x SATA (4x SATAIII, 2x SATAII)

vs

Z77
- PCI-E 3.0
- 4x USB 3.0
- 6x SATAIII
 

lightmanek

Senior member
Feb 19, 2017
476
1,092
136
6502 for sure can be called GOAT from the performance to price ratio on release to performance per clock, number of devices it's been deployed in, length of manufacturing and more.

But from X86 world, I would have to pick on Athlon 64 as landmark for AMD and x64 computing, Celeron 300A for introducing millions of PC users to overclocking and therefore to learning about computers much more than to just turn them on and play games and recent Zen 3 together with AM4 for being the most flexible platform and core design in years.
 
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DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
29,888
25,677
146
The poll is a 3 horse race and they all win IMO. Each is the champ of their era. I personally disregard the pedantic and semantic contentions concerning GOAT status. Sucks the fun right out it.

I do think it is an oversight to leave out some of the magnificent Intel HEDT CPUs for X59,79,99. While they were not as proliferate, they were nevertheless marketed and sold to the general public. My son had a friend with a Cyberpower PC with i7 4930K back in his jr. H.S. days. An absolute monster for 2013. Further propped up by the excellent X79 platform.

I have made the case for Zen 3 before; and it wins my vote easily for a number of reasons.

1. It's 4yrs old in November. Yet, still the best selling retail lineup today. That's never happened. The 5600X is the best selling retail CPU of all time, and currently number 1 on Amazon U.S. because supply and demand has made the 7800X3D stupid expensive.

2. Platform/AM4 longevity. There are so many with similar experiences to the one @IEC shared. Dropping a 5X3D or 5950X into a board that was running a 2017 1700X is something I think too few fully appreciate the impressiveness of. We take things for granted, but this one is jaw dropping for me. As like many of you, I come from the era when the running joke was that by the time you got your new PC home, there was a faster one on the shelf already.

3. Bang for buck. Like it or not, gaming drives the DIY/retail market. The 5800X3D can still beat the fastest CPUs the competition has in a fair number of games, and do it for significantly less money. On a 4yr old board. If LGA1700 is paired with DDR4 it can do it on a 6-7yr old board. That's crazy sauce from my POV.

4. Zen 3 3D meant no need for overclocking, expensive boards, or the fastest ram, to get top level gaming anymore. And without stupid high wattage or accelerated degradation. It's like raptor has progeria.

5. It's the generation that decisively won vs Intel. It had been a looooong time since AMD took a round on all of the scorecards. Zen 3 has won every round since in the retail market. It even beats its stablemates outside of the current champ. Not a single one of us predicted in late 2020 that Zen 3 would be best selling 4yrs later. Of course we didn't, it was an outlandish claim; but here we are.
 

Thunder 57

Diamond Member
Aug 19, 2007
3,079
4,873
136
Ah yes. If you add the platform, that's correct. The Z77 also supports SB processors, but most people I know stuck with the Z68/P67 motherboards. Also the Z77 chipset added full SATA3 on all the ports.

Z68
- PCI-E 2.0
- USB 2.0
- 6x SATA (4x SATAIII, 2x SATAII)

vs

Z77
- PCI-E 3.0
- 4x USB 3.0
- 6x SATAIII

I wouldn't recommend upgrading from Sandy to Ivy. But in a case like mine where I was starting from scratch it only made sense to go with Z77, or in my case Z75. I wanted to wait until Haswell, but there is always something new coming up.

But from X86 world, I would have to pick on Athlon 64 as landmark for AMD and x64 computing, Celeron 300A for introducing millions of PC users to overclocking and therefore to learning about computers much more than to just turn them on and play games and recent Zen 3 together with AM4 for being the most flexible platform and core design in years.

Is that what people do? Turn on a computer to "play games"? Maybe moreso now, but back then people used computers for work. I know that is a driving factor but it gets old. Maybe it's all of the "gaming RAM", "gaming chair", etc marketing that has my eyes rolling. Of course now everything is AI. Do we have "AI RAM" yet?
 
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Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,926
1,527
126
Is that what people do? Turn on a computer to "play games"? Maybe moreso now, but back then people used computers for work. I know that is a driving factor but it gets old. Maybe it's all of the "gaming RAM", "gaming chair", etc marketing that has my eyes rolling. Of course now everything is AI. Do we have "AI RAM" yet?
The Celeron 300A was legendary for its ease of overclocking. People ran the 300A overclocked not just for gaming but also for day to day stuff because it was way cheaper than buying a Pentium III.
 

Thunder 57

Diamond Member
Aug 19, 2007
3,079
4,873
136
The Celeron 300A was legendary for its ease of overclocking. People ran the 300A overclocked not just for gaming but also for day to day stuff because it was way cheaper than buying a Pentium III.

I'm aware. Plus it had on die L2 cache rather than larger, slower off chip cache. I just dislike how everything seems to have a "gaming" reason". If that is your intent, buy a console. Of course than there is the PCMR to discuss. I do not wish to get off topic though.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,926
1,527
126
I'm aware. Plus it had on die L2 cache rather than larger, slower off chip cache. I just dislike how everything seems to have a "gaming" reason". If that is your intent, buy a console. Of course than there is the PCMR to discuss. I do not wish to get off topic though.
I see your avatar… so I guess you’re a Doom and FPS fan. Quake III Arena was the game of the Celeron 300A era, and I don’t think I ever met anyone in that era that preferred Quake III Arena on a console. Everyone played it on the PC.
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
29,888
25,677
146
I'm aware. Plus it had on die L2 cache rather than larger, slower off chip cache. I just dislike how everything seems to have a "gaming" reason". If that is your intent, buy a console. Of course than there is the PCMR to discuss. I do not wish to get off topic though.
You are definitely off the reservation. I'll rebut anyways.

Buy a console? You came to the wrong neighborhood. đź’€ How do we install all of our mods? Play the Total War series, or all of the other games that only exist on PC? Be competitive in e-sports? Emulate and engage in game preservation? Play at high res and settings at high FPS? I.E. have complete control over the gaming experience. Consoles are not even in the discussion for gaming where most of us tech forum folk are concerned. I'll amend that to being the primary platform for gaming.

It isn't as though the same PC built for gaming can't handle most people's workflows. Those that need powerful workstations are on the periphery of the distribution chart for retail/DIY. I have lived my life by the movie Big philosophy. Life beats people down, make them salty and miserable. I will never grow up, I'm a toy r us kid.

On topic: Zen 3 3D is my GOAT. 🥇🏆
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,059
413
126
some random thoughts,

Sandy Bridge was pretty good and extremely usable for over 10 years, part of it is just AMD being nowhere for most of it and Intel's slow tic and tocs with 4 cores forever + 14nm but it did it.

I'll say the Athlon XP line was amazing if you were into overclocking and tweaking (in a far more meaningful way than overclocking since 2011) specially since intel took a completely wrong turn with netburst.
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
29,888
25,677
146
some random thoughts,

Sandy Bridge was pretty good and extremely usable for over 10 years, part of it is just AMD being nowhere for most of it and Intel's slow tic and tocs with 4 cores forever + 14nm but it did it.

I'll say the Athlon XP line was amazing if you were into overclocking and tweaking (in a far more meaningful way than overclocking since 2011) specially since intel took a completely wrong turn with netburst.
Sandy and Ivy almost put AMD out for the count. Slow AMD cpus powering consoles for most of the decade meant few devs bothered to push CPU limits. But now, tech like Oodle Kraken and ray tracing are making PCs work harder in spite of the aging CPU powering consoles. Hence, I don't think the luxury of console targets defining CPU gaming performance is as relevant anymore. Particularly if you want to play at higher FPS.
The 5800X3D would not be nearly as impressive if a competitor made their own big-cache CPU.
You are not wrong, but in reality it is that impressive, because Intel did not make such a CPU. We are having a versus battle not a fantasy league what if battle.
 

lightmanek

Senior member
Feb 19, 2017
476
1,092
136
I wouldn't recommend upgrading from Sandy to Ivy. But in a case like mine where I was starting from scratch it only made sense to go with Z77, or in my case Z75. I wanted to wait until Haswell, but there is always something new coming up.



Is that what people do? Turn on a computer to "play games"? Maybe moreso now, but back then people used computers for work. I know that is a driving factor but it gets old. Maybe it's all of the "gaming RAM", "gaming chair", etc marketing that has my eyes rolling. Of course now everything is AI. Do we have "AI RAM" yet?
It was a big part of PC market back then too, we are not talking about PC XT to 486 era where gaming on PC required knowing EMM and setting variables for sound card, Celeron 300A was already during Windows era, which enabled masses to easily buy PC purely for gaming. I've build almost a hundred PC's back then for extended friends and family and easily 70% of them had VooDoo, ATI or nVidia GPU just to game. But telling someone he can get 50% more FPS in a game if he learns what BIOS is ...
 
Last edited:

lightmanek

Senior member
Feb 19, 2017
476
1,092
136
I'm aware. Plus it had on die L2 cache rather than larger, slower off chip cache. I just dislike how everything seems to have a "gaming" reason". If that is your intent, buy a console. Of course than there is the PCMR to discuss. I do not wish to get off topic though.

It might be you are looking at it from USA or Japanise market in 90's but here in Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe, consoles were not a very hot product. Gaming was done on 8,16,32 bit personal computers, hence our memories of these times can differ.
 

CropDuster

Senior member
Jan 2, 2014
371
54
91
I'll throw in the homer vote for 5820k. 6c/12t 3.6ghz stock, but have had mine at 4.4 all core going on 10 years now. Price wasn't much more than 4790k and more capable for longer as the 4c parts have aged out.
 
Reactions: DAPUNISHER

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
23,926
1,527
126
It was a big part of PC market back then too, we are not talking about PC XT to 486 era where gaming on PC required knowing EMM and setting variables for sound card, Celeron 300A was already during Windows era, which enabled masses to easily buy PC purely for gaming. I've build almost a hundred PC's back then for extended friends and family and easily 70% of them had VooDoo, ATI or nVidia GPU just to game. But telling someone he can get 50% more FPS in a game if he learns what BIOS is ...
VooDoo 3 for me! 🤓
 
Reactions: lightmanek

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
7,219
7,743
136
@DAPUNISHER laid out solid points in Z3's favor.

IMO Sandy Bridge benefits greatly from AMD basically stumbling right out of the gate with Bulldozer and not recovering for over 6 years.

Zen 3 outpaced Intel after 8 years of Intel dominance, and with Intel still being a massive company with a ton of R&D resources introducing big.LITTLE cores to x86 and still generally fighting the food fight.

Given the difference in competitive landscape each arch had to face, I think Zen 3 edges out the win here.
 

Thunder 57

Diamond Member
Aug 19, 2007
3,079
4,873
136
I see your avatar… so I guess you’re a Doom and FPS fan. Quake III Arena was the game of the Celeron 300A era, and I don’t think I ever met anyone in that era that preferred Quake III Arena on a console. Everyone played it on the PC.

You are definitely off the reservation. I'll rebut anyways.

Buy a console? You came to the wrong neighborhood. đź’€ How do we install all of our mods? Play the Total War series, or all of the other games that only exist on PC? Be competitive in e-sports? Emulate and engage in game preservation? Play at high res and settings at high FPS? I.E. have complete control over the gaming experience. Consoles are not even in the discussion for gaming where most of us tech forum folk are concerned. I'll amend that to being the primary platform for gaming.

It isn't as though the same PC built for gaming can't handle most people's workflows. Those that need powerful workstations are on the periphery of the distribution chart for retail/DIY. I have lived my life by the movie Big philosophy. Life beats people down, make them salty and miserable. I will never grow up, I'm a toy r us kid.

On topic: Zen 3 3D is my GOAT. 🥇🏆

The console part was somewhat in jest and certainly not intended for this auidence. They are fine for many people but they seem to be losing popularity. The last console I cared about was the N64.

PC gaming is huge and I already mentioned the PCMR. Mods and texture packs, all kinds of goodies. Near unlimited customization. But it has its problems to. A recent example is developers relying on DLSS and now FG jus to get playable settings on high end cards. I just read the FF benchmarks on Tom's. Nvidia has unintentionaly killed playing at native resolutions it seems.
 
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