You could look at Passmark: http://m.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html http://m.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html Low-end Xeons are on top, bu

You could look at Passmark: http://m.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html http://m.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html Low-end Xeons are on top, but the first you might want are the FX-6300 and 8320, followed by the Pentium Gs. Since you are not comparing equal cores, the cheaper Pentiums do make sense in a lot of cases, but AMD does often have cheaper motherboards. Actual performance is going to depend on use case. I feel like the console situation speaks for itself. AMD is still putting out some good stuff, especially for an undedog.