The AMD A10-7860K ($115) is an overclockable processor that balances price, performance, and value quite well. It's a very good choice if you're planning to eke an extra year or two out of that socket FM2+ PC you built a couple of years ago. It's also a better choice for the budget gamer than its more expensive stable mate, the AMD A10-7890K, since it returns virtually the same performance for a bit less money.

The A10-7860K is positioned close to the middle of AMD's recent FM2+ processor line, but still using the Kaveri architecture introduced in 2014. It has a quad core processor, making it an ideal choice for games that require more than two processing cores. You can overclock the processor from its stock 3.6GHz to 4GHz with a bit of tweaking, though it returns very good results at its standard speed.

3D graphics performance is strong, particularly when compared with the similarly positioned Intel Core i3-6100 processor. The AMD Radeon integrated graphics in the A10-7860K returns smoother frame rates than the Intel HD Graphics in its competitors, especially when you crank up the quality settings. You may have to fiddle with the quality controls at 1,920 by 1,080 resolution to get a smooth frame rate between medium and ultra settings, but you can turn them up at 1,366 by 768 resolution.

However, the Intel Core i3 processor is measurably better at general processing tasks like photo and video editing, so you'll have to take that into account if you're building a general-purpose PC. The drawback to the Intel processor is that you'll need to budget another $100-120 for a graphics card to go along with the Core i3. It makes sense to purchase the A10-7860K over the pricier A10-7890K, particularly since it saves $30-50 that you can use toward other components like memory or storage. The AMD A10-7860K is a good value processor to power a budget or midrange gaming desktop PC. For more details, check out the AMD A10-7860K review on our sister site, Computer Shopper.