Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: October 2011 : Best Gaming CPUs For The Money, October Updates
Best Gaming CPU for ~$80:
Athlon II X3 455
Best Gaming CPU for $100: Tie
Phenom II X4 840
Pentium G860 (dual core)
Best Gaming CPU for $120: None
Honorable Mention:
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
Best Gaming CPU for $125:
Core i3-2100 (dual core)
Best Gaming CPU for $190:
Core i5-2400 (quad core)
Best Gaming CPU for $210: None
Honorable Mention:
Core i5-760 (quad core)
Best Gaming CPU for $220:
Core i5-2500K
Best Gaming CPU for $315: (or for any price)
Core i7-2600K
The $100 spread between the Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K is only recommended if you want to brag, because you're probably not going to notice any appreciable frame rate difference. The Core i7's strength is only really exploited in heavily-threaded workstation applications, rather than games.