The best cheap computer processors (Azar 1401)

Production and development of an inexpensive CPU has been the strategic strategy of computer processor manufacturers in recent years, but Intel's Alder Lake processors, aside from very good performance, have to see cheaper CPU models in the market again.

AMD company has appeared somewhat underpowered in this level of the market, i.e. economic and cheap processors, but the recent release of seven new chipsets has brought this company to the competition market. returns; Because two of these seven models are included in the cheap CPU category. AMD has tried to use the Zen 2 technology powered by APU silicon by disabling the integrated graphics units to make the price of the processor cheaper. We recently reviewed the Ryzen 5 4500 and Ryzen 3 4100 CPUs and found that the Zen 2 architecture doesn't easily hold up against today's modern chipsets like the Core i3-12100. Likewise, we do not recommend any of AMD's new chipsets due to poor performance and data exchange.

The changes and developments of AMD's Zen 2 architecture are not promising, but apart from the release of the new Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips. Recently entered the market, AMD has released a new model called Ryzen 5 3600 AF. This chip has entered the market with six cores, 12 threads and Zen 3 architecture and costs only $126. This part can be compared with Intel's cheap CPU i3-12100, which is in the list of this article. There are lists of suitable processors for the game. Intel company has introduced many of these chipsets as a cheap CPU; For this purpose, we can refer to the new generation Core i3 as well as the Pentium and Celeron models.

The Intel Core i3-12100 CPU has exceptional performance and price, and is therefore included in the list of the best cheap CPUs. Takes. On the other hand, Intel has commercialized this part model in large quantities to remain available in the market of most countries.

A few important points before buying a cheap CPU

Before buying, it is not bad to consider some simple but important points to make the best purchase:

Don't get caught up in the company name!

Both Intel and AMD offer decent processors depending on your budget. Admittedly, the CPU performance of both companies has been extremely close to each other for years. You can easily see CPU benchmarks from Intel and AMD products to make sure this is true. With all of this said, if your priority is to buy a CPU for video gaming, Intel chips with a graphics card usually have much better performance and, of course, more power consumption compared to AMD chips. they give. This is despite the fact that AMD processors with moderate settings can provide a good gaming experience without the need for a graphics card.

Clock speed is more important than the number of cores

Higher clock speed It can usually result in faster performance in common tasks such as video gaming experience on the system. While additional cores help you to perform time-consuming tasks faster.

CPU overclocking can display more processing power than a normal processor

Intel for the following processors $125 in the market does not have overclocking capability built in, but more AMD processors have overclocking capability. Automatic overclocking features on most motherboards facilitate processing. Therefore, users who are unfamiliar with hardware can easily use the overclocking ability by purchasing a cheap CPU from AMD. to fulfill It is also necessary to mention that the processors in this list are not our first recommended option for running modern games, and at best, low graphics quality can be expected from these cheap processors in modern video games.

1. Intel Alder Lake-S series Core i3-12100 processor

does not have Turbo Boost 3 (type 2) )

The core frequency does not have the ability to overclock

like others A member of the Alder Lake family, the $130 Core i3-12100 processor enters the market at a reasonable price. It is also available in the F series (Core i3-12100F) for $104, which is a lower grade than what is introduced in this section. In the F series, the processor's integrated GPU is disabled to shave $25 off the chipset cost. Due to the lack of a similar competitor in AMD, with a budget of 105 to 130 dollars, the Core i3-12100 processor can be considered a good option. In general, the i3-12100 quad-core CPU has performance power and a reasonable price, and taking into account the available cooler for this part, it takes this part a few steps higher than its competitors.

Core i3- The 12100 currently reigns as the fastest gaming processor in this price range. None of AMD's processors can reach 12100 in single-threaded operation. For this reason, if you want a faster processor, you should buy another Alder Lake chip. The Core i3-12100 CPU is also excellent in thread performance for its price.

Cheap Core i3-12100 CPU is available in the market with PBP W60 base power and MTP W89 peak. The basic clock frequency of this processor is 3.3 GHz and can be boosted up to 4.3 GHz. Also, 12 MB of L3 cache is considered for this part. This Intel Alder Lake processor is placed in socket 1700 of 600 series motherboards such as Z690, H670, B660 and H610. The Core i3-12100 processor is a closed processor; In the sense that overclocking is not available for it. Of course, Intel supports memory overclocking on Z690, B660 and H670 motherboards. Of course, the support of this feature in the Z690 motherboard is not very reasonable for this type of chip.

The Core i3-12100 processor does not have a similar competitor in terms of price in AMD. Of course, apart from not being an overall competitor, it still performs well. In fact, in 1080p video games, the $130 Core i3-12100 can deliver 88% of the performance of a $300 Core i5-12400; Of course, this can be said with 56% less cache. This procedure, i.e. the balance between the price and the processing power of the processor, is considered the winning card of this cheap CPU model.

2. Intel Alder Lake Series Core i3-12100f CPU 1700 number of cores/threads 4 cores/8 threads CPU frequency 3.3 to 4.3 GHz Thermal design power 60 W Strengths + Excellent price/performance
+ Game-leading performance and single-threaded execution power
+ Having a cooling part
+ Support for DDR4 and DDR5
+PCIe 5.0
+ Low power consumption
+ Memory overclocking support Weaknesses

No integrated graphics

- Does not have Turbo Boost 3 (type 2)

- Core frequency does not have overclocking capability

The Core i3-12100F model is almost the same as the Core i3-12100 model, but Intel has disabled the integrated graphics engine (iGPU) of this processor to reduce the price of this model. Even though you're out $100 for the obvious cost, your system's CPU loses the ability to do simple tasks without an iGPU. Of course, by simple tasks I don't usually mean video games, because iGPUs are designed only for simple tasks.

For a simple process experience with your system, you don't lose much due to the lack of an iGPU. AMD company has not launched a similar example to compete with the F series at the moment. With the optimizations made on it, this chipset offers almost the same performance as the Core i3-12100 model with a price range of $105 to $130. So you can buy the F series for less.

The low-cost Core i3-12100F CPU is developed similar to the regular model with a base power rating of PBP W60 and a peak power point of MTP W89. This chipset is clocked with a base frequency of 3.3 GHz, which can be boosted up to 4.3 GHz. On the other hand, 12 MB of L3 cache is considered for this model and similar to the previous model of these processors, it is placed on socket 1700 of 600 series motherboards such as Z690, H670, B660 and H610. Similar to the previous model, this model is not designed for overclocking.

Buy Alder Lake series Intel Core i3-12100f processor from SafirSoft

3. Intel Comet Lake series Core i3-10100 processor

Poor integrated graphics chipset

Core frequency not overclockable

We usually list the best We don't introduce our CPUs from previous generation parts; For example, most AMD processors in the lower price range, such as Ryzen 3 3300X, have been absent from the market for more than a year. Also, AMD's new low-cost CPUs are designed based on the previous generation's Zen 2 architecture, which cannot compete with Intel's previous generation chips either in terms of price or performance. Therefore, in the price range of 60-85 dollars, there is the affordable Core i3-10100F model, which consists of four cores and eight threads. The base frequency of this processor is 3.6 GHz, which can be boosted up to 4.3 GHz. This 65-watt processor has an L3 cache of 6 MB and supports DDR4 2666 and PCIe 3.0 memory. This chip is made with 14 nm process. In the simple model, which is not the F series, the UHD 630 graphics engine with 1.1 GHz power is installed, but you cannot play video games smoothly with this chipset. If you can get a good discrete graphics card, you can get the Core i3-10100F for less. Of course, you should also pay attention to the system motherboard that is compatible with this processor.

In the CPU benchmarks, it is clear that the 10100F model can provide an average of 105 fps in video games; Amazing frame rate which is great for a $65 processor. Of course, it should be noted that the CPU in question was paired with a powerful RTX 3090 graphics card. Of course, for this graphic card, we do not recommend that this CPU be prepared, and we only did this for the technical test of the processor we are looking for.

4. AMD processor model Athlon 200 GE Tray

- There is no overclocking capability for the graphics engine and memory

- The poor efficiency of single-threaded operations

The cheap and suitable CPU from AMD is the AMD Athlon 200GE model, which is priced below Its 60 dollars will probably attract your attention. This processor, which has an architectural structure based on Zen, thanks to four threads and the Vega 3 graphics engine, has the ability to run light games in low resolution and image dimensions. Although the AMD Athlon 200GE processor is not so amazingly capable, when you are going to consider a limited amount of budget to buy a CPU, this part from AMD can be a good choice for you. It is interesting to know that the manufacturer has not officially confirmed the overclocking capability for this part, but if you get a motherboard that is fully compatible with this part, the processor has the power to be overclocked and increase the productivity of the CPU significantly. .

If you have the power to provide more budget for buying a processor, buying a Ryzen 3 2200G processor is far better than the part that we have introduced before; Because it has more cores and better graphics engine power. However, if you have a limited budget and you just want to get a suitable and affordable processor for your system for less than 60 dollars, and on the other hand, you don't decide to buy a separate graphics card, the AMD Athlon 200GE processor It is considered a reasonable and acceptable option for your budget. However, in this price range, Intel launched products such as the Pentium G5400 and G4560, which show much better performance than the equivalent model, the AMD Athlon 200GE. However, due to the high retail price of the mentioned Pentium models and on the other hand, the decrease in the production rate of this category of products at the global level, it is difficult for you to find the two mentioned Pentium models in the market. If you want to set aside more than $100 to buy a processor, better Pentium options can be found in the market.

Source: tomshardware