AMD Athlon X4 860K 4-core FM2+

The Athlon X4 860K is a budget quad-core that still makes sense if you find it cheap, especially around CAD 30 in Canada. It overclocks well and handles older games fine with a discrete GPU. Skip it if you need integrated graphics or any kind of upgrade path.

Four cores, four threads, and a 4.0GHz boost clock sound respectable until you look at the single-thread score of 1514. That lands in the 35th percentile, which means everyday tasks feel fine but nothing snaps. Multi-thread at 3415 is similarly middle-of-the-road. The real story here is overclocking. Owners routinely push this thing to 4.5GHz or higher with a decent cooler, and that's where the value hides. The 95W TDP gives you some headroom, but the stock cooler is a joke. Plan on spending extra for something with a 120mm fan if you want to actually enjoy the overclocking headroom. And remember, no iGPU means you're buying a graphics card no matter what.

Against the Intel Core i7 4790K, the 860K gets absolutely smoked. The 4790K has hyperthreading, much stronger single-thread performance, and a real upgrade path. But it also costs more, so the comparison isn't entirely fair. The Dell Xeon E5-2637 V2 is a server chip that beats the 860K in multi-threaded workloads but loses on clock speed and overclocking fun. The be quiet! Ryzen 3 Dark Rock Pro 5 and Thermal Grizzly Ryzen 7 CSF-AM5 aren't even CPUs, they're coolers and thermal paste, which tells you how weird the competitive landscape gets for a chip this old. The honest take: the 860K competes on price alone, and it wins that fight against everything in its bracket.

This is where the 860K earns its keep. At the 89th percentile for affordability, it's one of the best price-to-performance chips in our database for pure budget builds. Canadian buyers should shop carefully though. Prices range from CAD 30 to CAD 129 across three listings, and that spread is wild. The CAD 30 option is an absolute steal if you can find it. At CAD 129, you're getting ripped off. US buyers see a tighter range of USD 78 to 80, which is fair but not exciting. If you're paying more than CAD 50 or so, you should probably look at newer used hardware instead.

The AMD Athlon X4 860K is a budget quad-core from 2014 that refuses to die quietly. It sits on the FM2+ socket, runs at 3.7GHz base with a 4.0GHz boost, and has no integrated graphics, which means you'll need a discrete GPU just to get a picture on screen. For the right price, it's still a fun little chip for tinkering or a super cheap gaming rig.

Our database puts it at the 89th percentile for affordability and features, which tells you exactly what this thing is: a value play. The PassMark scores of 3415 multi and 1514 single are nothing special by modern standards, but they were never supposed to be. This is a chip for people who want to squeeze every drop out of a dead platform.

Skip this if you need integrated graphics, because there aren't any. Skip it if you want any kind of future upgrade path, since FM2+ is a dead socket with nowhere to go. Skip it if you're doing video encoding or heavy productivity work, the single-thread performance will frustrate you. And definitely skip it if you're paying more than CAD 50 or so, because at that point you're better off hunting for a used Ryzen 3 or older Intel i5.

Buy this if you're building a super cheap gaming rig, a retro PC, or just want something to overclock for fun without risking expensive hardware. It's a great learner chip. The unlocked multiplier, forgiving socket, and dirt-cheap used prices make it perfect for first-time overclockers. Pair it with a used mid-range GPU like an R9 280 or GTX 960 and you'll have a surprisingly capable 1080p machine for older titles. Just budget for a better cooler and make sure your motherboard has an updated BIOS before you drop the chip in.