From the point of view of a consumer that typically uses a PC for surfing the web, checking email, listening to music and watching videos, I consider that the Haswell i3 processors currently represent the best value for money. The i3-4130 has a performance profile that is just 7% below the top nine group leader average yet it only costs half as much. Power users that play intensive 3d games or run video editing, graphics design or CAD packages will benefit from more than two cores and will do well to look elsewhere but for regular users overall responsiveness will remain largely unchanged regardless of how much more is spent on the CPU. (My new value pick is the G3420 which supersedes my recommendation of the i3-4130.) [Sep '13CPUPro]
This CPU is incredibly well-placed for a refresh.
The i9 14900k(640 euros) offers similar performance to the i9 13900KS(800 Euros) while being available for much less money. The new gen motherboards are also much better.
So if you were thinking about getting the 13th gen i9 then the 14th gen is a no-brainer since it offers flawless performance for both gaming and productivity tasks.
This is especially true since AMD's "equivalent" 7950x3d is haunted by software bugs and "features" such as needing to have Xbox game bar open 24/7 and having their motherboards overvolt and kill the CPUs. [Oct '23MrNukes]
We calculate effective speed which measures real world performance for typical users. Effective speed is adjusted by current prices to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top CPUs. [CPUPro]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.