This is probably not the question, as of course the P4 overclocks higher than any other CPU, reaching 9Ghz in fact and the core2 duo's with just 2 cores also clock real high, they also get the 7Ghz or so.rbarreira wrote:I think this thread was only asking about single-threaded programs, that's why I didn't talk about those 6-core CPUs like the i7-990x or i7-3960X or even more expensive 8/10-core Xeons.diep wrote:If what you care for is computerchess i'd not try a sandy bridge to overclock. More interesting is an i7-990x or something.rbarreira wrote:Sandy Bridge is last year's newsmike_bike_kite wrote:Not sure you can buy a single core chip these days. Personally I'd go with an Intel i5 2500k and you'd want the latest sandybridge version. It has 4 real cores running at 3.4Ghz but the chip is totally overclockable - with reasonable air cooling people get around 4.5Ghz. Cost is about £160.
PS you'd also need a motherboard that supported overclocking and reasonably fast RAM.
Check out the i7-3770K, it's not as fast as the Xeon I linked to, but it's probably the fastest quad-core desktop CPU out there.
Personally I use AMD because I don't like Intel's monopolistic practices and AMD provides good value-for-money, but if you absolutely need the best performance regardless of money then Intel's the answer.
Not sure what prices they go for nowadays.
http://forums.pureoverclock.com/cpu-ove ... -club.html
Of course as i also crunch prime numbers here, Sandy Bridge is interesting as it has AVX.
The worst to overclock cpu is of course Sandy Bridge, for several reasons.
So best IPC of 1 core for $50 will be a core2 duo cpu in such case.
Of course a power7 blows it away yet you'll need many threads then to maximize the IPC