Best cpu for gaming/games 2011

5-2500k is the best for best bang for your buck by far. You will not see an improvement in performance if you bought the I7-2600k unless you were going to utilize hyper threading. But I would recommend the I5-2500K

Best per budget lowest 1st
Athlon x3
Pentium GXXX series
i3 2100
i5 2500
I can't see anyone disagreeing with this list