Hail!

I am thinking about upgrading my system and reinstalling Morrowind. I have an AM3+ socket motherboard and I'd like to get the very best possible CPU for Morrowind.

Basically what I'm wondering is what is the CPU with the very best performance on a single core? Consumer-available data that I've found doesn't show this, but rather it just compares all cores with each other.

I don't know if any of you have done this research or if the data is available to consumers at all, but I figured if anyone knows then it will be one of you.

Upgrade as needed, not "for Morrowind". And have a blast when OpenMW comes out.

How about this: http://www.cpu-world.com/benchmarks/socket_AM3__single.html

Apparently, if you want both good single and multi core performance, the FX 8350 is the best choice. FX 6350 would probably also be alright. The 8350 has eight cores as compared to the six of the 6350, so it performs better in multi-threaded tasks, but when it comes to single core performance, there is most likely no real difference. I have an FX 6300 (the 6350's immediate predecessor) with a base clock of 3.5 GHZ, but with a custom cooler I can easily OC it to 4,2 GHz, probably more. I guess you could get an 8350 or a 6350 to as much as 4.5 GHz, but they are probably already quite good by default. Both will already get up to 4.2 automatically when only a few cores (or a single one) are in use.

AMD is generally considered to be weaker when it comes to single core performance, but with your board it comes down to these. The 9370 and the 9590 are not included in the chart, but I guess with 4.7 respectively 5 Ghz turbo frequency it can only get better... it should be noted that the high-end 8-core cpus need a lot of power and apparently can get very hot when stressed, but as long as only one core is used this should not apply. Though it is another question whether an 8-core cpu is really necessary if one intends to play a game which can only use one. Maybe better get a 6 core and OC or something.

Apart from that, AMD CPUs are generally inferior to Intel ones when it comes to single core performance: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

That's just the way it is.

If all this actually matters to Morrowind's antique engine, who knows.

Thank you, Pherim! That's a very helpful chart!