Best CPU for gaming in 2024: these are the chips I recommend for gaming, productivity and peace of mind
Fire up your rig with the best CPU for gaming. More cores, more clocks, more of everything that matters.
The best gaming CPU is one of the most hotly contested titles in the industry, changing hands with each successive new generation of processors. Both Intel and AMD have some excellent CPU contenders in the mix, but on this hallowed page, we'll reveal the very best.
AMD's mega-cache X3D CPUs offer stiff competition for Intel and the best gaming CPU is now the mighty AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. For a much more affordable option, the best budget CPU is the Intel Core i5 13400F, although as noted below, Intel chips come with a potential caveat as things currently stand. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is the best mid-range chip, thanks to its excellent all-round performance and reasonable price.
A note on Intel CPUs: Due to recent crashing issues with a number of Intel chips, we've changed our picks to reflect this. We've also added caveats to our remaining Intel CPU recommendations. A fix has now been issued by Intel and while it may prevent new chips from running into problems, processors already damaged may need to be replaced.
Jacob knows a thing or two about CPUs. The first being which to spend your hard-earned money on; he's tested, benchmarked, and tinkered with chips from Intel and AMD going back half a decade. The second is what not to do when overclocking to keep your processor alive. He's killed a chip or two in his time, but all in the name of science. Promise.
The quick list
Best for gaming
The best gaming CPU
If all you want is the chip that will deliver the highest frame rates, the 7800X3D is it. A monster of a gaming chip, although for productivity tasks there are better ones. It's an expensive chip that's worth committing to if your PC is mainly used for gaming.
Best budget
The best budget CPU
The 13400F is a mighty little chip, with excellent performance for really very little money. Intel outperforms AMD quite handily in the budget space in both gaming and multithreading. Previously the best gaming CPU, it still performs valiantly after a few years.
Best mid range
The best mid-range CPU
It might run a little hot outside of Eco Mode, but the Ryzen 7 7700X's tried and tested eight-core, 16-thread combo—along with a seriously high clock speed—means this chip is great at just about every task you can throw at it, and makes for a mean mid-range gaming chip.
Best high-end
The best high-end CPU
When it comes to demanding multithreaded workloads, the Ryzen 9 9950X is the fastest desktop CPU. There's nothing to beat it, not even the Core i9 14900K. Just don't expect the same to be true for gaming.
Best AM4 upgrade
The best AMD AM4 upgrade
The AMD AM4 motherboard platform has been around since before Ryzen appeared, so chances are that if you have an older Ryzen-based PC, it's using AM4. This chip is currently the best bang-for-your-buck you can get for the older platform and it's a great gaming CPU.
Best CPU graphics
The best integrated graphics
AMD has finally released its Phoenix APU as a desktop chip, and this Ryzen 7 version has the full 780M iGPU which is able to deliver 1080p gaming without a graphics card. For a $330 chip, it's something you could create a great budget machine around.
Recent updates
Updated September 19 2024 to make sure we are recommending the absolute best CPUs for each budget and use case. You won't find better out there right now.
Best gaming CPU
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ If you want the best-performing gaming CPU: While the 7800X3D isn't the best multi-tasker, its gaming performance is mightily impressive.
✅ If you want a chip that runs cool and efficient: The 7800X3D is remarkably easy-going given the performance on tap.
❌ If you want an all-rounder: While this chip isn't a complete slouch in productivity tasks, there are far better if you're looking for a multi-core creative beast.
❌ If you want the best bang for your buck: If it's a gaming CPU you're after, this is the best. However, the i5 13600K below is cheaper and still delivers great gaming numbers, with superb productivity credentials too.
The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is simply the best gaming CPU around right now. It's certainly the best gaming chip that AMD has ever made, but it's also capably outperforming Intel's top CPU when it comes to gaming frame rates and is doing so for a lot less cash. It's also a lot less power-thirsty, too.
That's possibly one of the most intriguing things about the 3D V-Cache processors of the Zen 4 generation—just how much more efficient they are than the first top-end chips of the Ryzen 7000-series. In fact, with every subsequent release of this new generation AMD has improved its latest processor range, making the previous ones almost redundant.
The Ryzen 9 7950X3D was the first of the new 3D V-Cache chips to hit our test bench, and it offers a mix of high-end gaming performance and a full 16-cores of Zen 4 processing. But its hybrid design, which offered one eight-core chiplet (or CCD) with the extra 64MB of L3 cache fused on top of it and another CCD without, demanded some extra hoops for the operating system to jump through and also sacrificed some of a standard 16-core chip's raw multithreaded performance.
It's our top AMD high-end recommendation, but if sheer gaming performance is your main concern, it's the 7800X3D you should go for instead. It wears its gaming predilections on its sleeve and delivers performance that could make a Core i9 blush.
And at its original price of $450 it was initially a lot more than the Intel Core i5 13600K. That's a ~$300 chip that sports 14 cores and 20 threads of compute power. However, prices have dropped since then, and you can regularly pick up the 7800X3D for well under $400/£400. The Intel is still the better all-rounder, but given the ongoing crashing issues plaguing some Intel chips right now, it'd make a lot of sense to spend more and grab a chip that carves through games faster than everything else while still remaining rock-solid stable.
That being said, the Intel chip does provide better productivity performance and is simply a more rounded package. Still, given those issues, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a more sensible choice for those not looking to spend quite as much as the 7800X3D, and to minimise any worries about potential issues with Intel chips. It's slower than the 7800X3D, sure, but a fair bit cheaper too, and still a brilliant gaming chip.
But those are the sensible facts and figures, and the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is still the fastest gaming CPU we've ever tested. So, if you want the absolute highest possible frame rates the extra cache on top of this Zen 4 chiplet is going to do the business.
Do you want a cool and quiet gaming PC that's capable of the absolute fastest gaming frame rates? Then grab a 7800X3D, people.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D review.
Best budget CPU for gaming
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ If you want budget gaming performance: Yep, this might be a cheap chip, but boy is it cheerful. The benchmarks don't lie: This little beastie can game.
✅ If you want a lot of cores: Ten! Count 'em. That's a lot of CPU for the money, and really, quite a lot of CPU in general.
❌ If you're looking for a content creation chip: AMD's cheaper Zen 4 chips out-pace the little Intel in rendering benchmarks, as well as of course its bigger brothers.
For a gaming PC, there's no better value CPU than a Core i5. For most of 2022, we recommended the Core i5 12600K as the best gaming CPU and the Core i5 12400 as the best gaming CPU on a budget. Last year, the Core i5 13600K took over the top spot. And now, the Core i5 13400F pushes Alder Lake out of the running with an even more impressive specification for the money, making it the best budget gaming CPU you can currently buy.
This recommendation comes with a caveat, however. Intel chips have been experiencing crashing issues due to voltage errors, although to the best of our knowledge, the issue seems to primarily affect the higher-end models. Whereas this budget chip is much less likely to experience an issue thanks to its lower power requirements.
A microcode BIOS update should be available in August to fix the issue, so if you do decide to pull the trigger on one of these, we'd highly recommend checking for BIOS updates for your particular motherboard and installing them as soon as possible to prevent potential problems. Still, given the lower power requirements here, your risk is likely to be minimal, meaning we're still comfortable recommending this chip as things stand.
The Intel Core i5 13400F is a 10-core hybrid-design processor made up of six Performance-cores (P-cores) and four Efficient-cores (E-cores), the Core i5 13400F has a total of 16 threads. Its fastest cores will run up to 4.6 GHz out of the box, a clock speed that wouldn't have seemed out of place on the box of a Core i7 only a few years back.
In our testing, neither the Core i5 13400F nor the Ryzen 5 7600X can claim an outright win across the testing suite, though when AMD's chip is faster, it is quite a bit faster. AMD's chip does come out as the clear winner on the productivity and content creation side of things, but it is that much more expensive for it.
AMD-compatible motherboards have tended to fall on the expensive side versus the cheaper Intel-compatible 600-series boards, but there are now some cheaper options coming through.
Intel's platform is surprisingly cheap for the inclusion of both the latest 700-series motherboards and older 600-series motherboards. Similarly, we're saving a little cash here on the 'F' designated model. The 'F' denotes the Core i5 13400F's lack of integrated graphics, which isn't a deal breaker by any stretch of the imagination. Generally, that integrated GPU isn't going to come much in handy for gaming, and even today's cheapest discrete graphics card will outperform it by a country mile.
While the Core i5 13600K remains the pick for the best all-round gaming CPU, and AMD is very competitive in the ~$275 market, Intel's Core i5 13400F is still a shoo-in for the best budget gaming CPU in 2024. Keep your eyes peeled for that BIOS update though, just in case.
Read our full Intel Core i5 13400F review.
The best mid-range CPU
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ If you want an excellent AM5 chip: AM5 looks to be sticking around for a while, so if you're looking to jump on board without spending up on a higher-end model, here's where you want to be.
❌ If you want maximum performance: The 7700X is a great all-rounder, but some of Intel's mid-range chips do beat it out in certain benchmarks, and the 7800X3D can't be beaten for gaming performance.
While a great CPU is definitely the heart of a fast PC for both gaming and productivity, you don't have to head straight for the high-end to get excellent performance. As a case in point, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X delivers gobs of gaming grunt, is no slouch for productivity tasks, and is available for very reasonable money. That makes it the best mid-range gaming CPU we currently recommend.
AMD's AM5 platform has been out for a little while now, but it's still new enough that motherboards can be a little pricey for the feature set you receive. As a result, it makes sense to go for a more expensive motherboard and a more mid-range chip, especially when AMD's offering here is genuinely impressive in what it can deliver for the money.
It's an eight core, 16 thread CPU with a...wait, come back! While that's not the most exciting of configurations, the headline news here is that eight core is really the sweet spot for gaming right now, and this particular chip can clock itself all the way up to 5.4 GHz to really push itself to the maximum. That means seriously impressive Zen 4 performance, and eeks the Ryzen 7 7700X ahead of one of AMD's previous gaming heavyweights, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
That chip still comes highly recommended as an AM4 platform contender, and is by no means a slouch. In fact, it runs right at the center of many a high-performance gaming rig to this day, so to outright beat it in gaming performance without any fancy 3D V-cache shenanigans is a very impressive result.
There is a drawback, however, and that's heat. The 7700X likes to give cooling systems a workout, so you'll need a sizeable air cooler or significantly chunky water cooling system to prevent it from throttling back. Here though, the 7700X has a trick up its sleeve, and that's something called Eco Mode.
Running in 65 W Eco Mode configuration (as opposed to the full fat 105 W TDP), you'll still receive, on average, 90-95% of the performance in most scenarios. That significantly reduces the thermals, so for small form factor systems or those that don't want to buy a large cooler, you can be assured that your chip is still delivering great performance without sucking down too much juice.
So why didn't AMD simply make this a 65W chip to begin with? Well, when it runs into Intel's mid-range competition, the blue team chips do often pull slightly ahead. As a result, the 7700X has been configured to squeeze as much performance possible out of its eight cores, hence the high clock speeds and heavy power draw.
In terms of real world usage though, that matters little. While some Intel chips have been experiencing crashing issues recently, the 7700X keeps on trucking day after day. We know this for a fact, as two of our hardware team currently use PCs featuring this excellent CPU as daily drivers, and neither has had any issues to report.
It simply gets on with the job of being a fantastic eight core CPU, for a reasonable price, on a platform with plenty of upgradeability in future. It's for this reason that the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X takes our best mid-range CPU spot, as it's everything you could want from an affordable yet high-performance chip with the minimum of fuss.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 7700X review.
Best high-end CPU
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ You want the best desktop chip for content creation: The Ryzen 9 9950X beats everything else, including the Core i9 14900K, when it comes to multithreaded workloads.
✅ You want a cool office: Enable Eco mode and enjoy a big drop in heat output, for very little loss in performance.
❌ You want good value for money: At $699, the Ryzen 9 9950X is very expensive and the last-gen Ryzen 9 7950X is much better value.
Our previous recommendation for the best high-end CPU was the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, due to its thundering blend of gaming and content creation performance, but with the release of the new Zen 5 chips, the Ryzen 9 9950X is now the best high-end processor.
But it's a close-run thing. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is still going to be the better choice if gaming is really important to you but if you simply want the best CPU for productivity and content creation tasks, then the Ryzen 9 9950X is the absolute best. Only AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon chips are going to be better in such workloads but they're far more expensive.
The 9950X is no slouch in gaming but thanks to the power of 3D V-Cache, the Zen 4-powered 7950X3D will produce better 1% low frame rates in games. Then again, if gaming is a higher priority, you should really be buying the best gaming CPU, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D.
What makes the Ryzen 9 9950X better than the Ryzen 9 7950X or 7950X3D at demanding, multithreaded workloads isn't immediately obvious when you look at the specifications. They all have 16 cores, 32 threads, and 64 MB of L3 cache (128 MB in the case of the 7950X3D); the 9950X and 7950X also have the same 5.7 GHz boost clock and 170 W base power limit.
For the Zen 5 architecture, AMD significantly redesigned the cores, focusing on improving internal bandwidth, branch prediction, instruction per cycle throughput, and heavy vector performance. But while these updates don't translate to big gains in gaming (read our Ryzen 7 9700X review to see what we mean), they really come into play when all the cores are loaded with threads.
In the Cinebench 2024 multi-core test, the Ryzen 9 9950X is 15% faster than the Ryzen 9 7950X and 12% faster than the Core i9 14900K. The gains are even higher in Blender 4.2—16% better than the 7950X and an enormous 32% faster than Intel's best desktop CPU.
And then there's the Eco mode. A simple switch in the BIOS drops the base power limit to 105 W (a 38% decrease) and yet it hardly impacts the multithreaded performance, with Cinebench and Blender performance only decreasing by 11% and 13%, respectively. Some games, though, really don't like Eco mode and older engines that only load up a few threads take a bit hit in their 1% low frame rates.
The new Zen 5 chips are also somewhat fussy about motherboard BIOS settings, RAM timings, and Windows configurations and depending on how everything is set up, it can be tricky to get the Ryzen 9 9950X to run at its very best. Software and firmware updates should improve this in time but the launch of the Ryzen 9000-series chips wasn't very smooth.
The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is not cheap, either, and handing over $699 for a CPU is enough to make anyone think twice—especially since the Ryzen 9 7950X is a lot cheaper these days. But if you're looking for the ultimate AMD high-end chip that beats anything in content creation, even the Core i9 14900K, then this is the one to go for.
It's the best high-end AMD chip we've tested and the fastest processor for professional workloads full stop.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 9 9950X review.
Best AMD AM4 CPU upgrade
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ If you want great gaming on AM4: The 5700X3D delivers excellent gaming benchmarks even compared to some of the more recent AM5 Zen 4 chips, and makes a great upgrade to an AM4 system.
✅ If you want an AM4 upgrade for less: While the 5800X3D is faster, the 5700X3D is much cheaper, and still delivers great performance.
❌ If you want something cool running: The 5700X3D likes to run hot, and needs a good cooling solution to keep it in line.
❌ If you're looking for more longevity: While this is definitely the AM4 chip to buy right now, it's worth considering biting the bullet and jumping on to the AM5 platform for upgradeability in future.
Previously, this spot was occupied by the excellent AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. And that's still a great shout for an AM4-based upgrade. But we've picked the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D as our best AM4 upgrade pick for a reason, and it's this: it still delivers excellent performance, but it's also much cheaper.
Essentially, what you're getting here is almost the same chip as the 5800X3D, just with the base and boost clocks lowered. And for those of you rubbing your hands together anticipating some overclocking to bring it back up to spec for less, I have some bad news: it doesn't support it.
But that really doesn't mean you should discount this chips performance, because it's still excellent. Minimum frame rates are often a giveaway as to how well a chip is performing in strenuous gaming tasks, and thanks to that hefty dose of 3D V-Cache, the 5700X3D does remarkably well. It might have lower clock speeds than its bigger brother, but in real-world gaming terms, it still has the goods to muscle its way into the "serious gaming chip" category.
Not only that, but you can usually find one for around $200. That's budget CPU money, whereas the 5800X3D, thanks to its reputation, power and desirability means it's held onto its value in a remarkable way. A little too remarkably, if you ask us, as it's still often a comparable price to the AM5 platform AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, which handily beats it in most benchmarks.
Here though, you'll be spending a lot less. That means that the money you saved can go towards a better GPU, more RAM, or something else that's going to make a difference in your gaming PC. Remember, while CPUs are still a very important component in a gaming build, spending up on a GPU or more RAM can make more of a difference than putting it into a similar CPU with slightly higher clocks.
There are still a few things to consider here, though. For a start, like its bigger brother, it does like to run hot, which means you might need to invest in a better air cooler or water cooling solution to keep it from throttling back.
The other is AM5 itself. While AM5 motherboards are still a little on the pricey side, they have dropped, along with AM5 chips themselves. The AM5 socket is likely to be sticking around for quite a while, so spending a bit more now to get yourself on the AM5 train will provide an upgrade path for the future. That Ryzen 7 7700X is tempting as a mid-range pick, although it's still a fair bit more expensive, and of course you'll need to shell out for the motherboard and the DDR5 to go with.
Still, if you're looking for something that'll drop into your AM4 machine, deliver great performance, and won't break the bank, this is where we'd put our money. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D is the best way to upgrade an AM4 PC right now, and a rare combination of things: a cheap component for an older spec that really makes a whole lot of sense, with very little to complain about.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D review.
Best integrated graphics in a CPU
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ If you want gaming without the graphics card: If you're putting together a GPU-less light-gaming build, or perhaps looking to run without one for a while before you upgrade, this is the best you'll find.
✅ If you want power efficiency: It sips energy very gently and would make for a great CPU in a power-efficient eco-focussed rig.
❌ If you can stretch to (or fit) a fully-fledged GPU: While the 8700G is a good chip for many reasons, if you are going to pair something with a GPU, there are better candidates.
In case you haven't noticed, graphics cards are pretty expensive. If that puts you off PC gaming, then AMD has something for you: The Ryzen 8000-series APUs include the most powerful integrated graphics ever, and the Ryzen 7 8700G is the top chip of the lot. They're positioned to challenge entry-level graphics cards, meaning you might not even need a graphics card for 1080p gaming today.
It's been over a year since AMD announced its Phoenix range of laptop processors. They took their time to come to market, but we did get a good idea of what to expect from a desktop APU by looking at devices like the Asus ROG Ally. Though ostensibly a handheld, it's capable of functioning as a desktop replacement when docked and delivers genuine gaming performance. If a power-restricted APU in a handheld can do that, its unleashed potential in a desktop form factor sounds pretty exciting to me.
It's now well over a year since the launch of AMD's Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000-series CPUs. They're generally an evolutionary upgrade over the Zen 3 5000-series models. A tweaked front end, a doubling of L2 cache, AVX-512 support and improved branch prediction helped to deliver an IPC gain of around 13%. Add to that clock speed improvements partly thanks to a shift to TSMC's 5nm process (for the Core Complex Dies) and we've got ourselves a competitive AMD CPU family.
The 8700G incorporates many of these improvements, but it is a different beast. Most especially it uses a monolithic die as opposed to the chiplet design of the regular 7000-series CPUs. It includes a dedicated XDNA AI engine, but the major selling point of the 8000-series APUs is their integrated graphics.
Tucked away inside the Ryzen 7 8700G's die is the top-of-the-line Radeon 780M integrated graphics. It's the most powerful integrated graphics solution ever seen on the desktop platform. Based on the RDNA 3 architecture, there are 12 Compute Units, giving it 768 shader cores in total, clocked at up to 2.9 GHz. The Vega 8 IGP of the 5700G is 3 generations behind and clocked at just 2.0 GHz. It's not even in the same ballpark.
While we're happy to shout about the gaming performance of the 8700G, we're less impressed with its all-round CPU performance. Gamers with discrete graphics cards should look towards one of AMD's 7000-series CPUs, or the excellent Ryzen 7 5700X3D if you're sticking with AM4. That's without even mentioning the plethora of Intel 12th, 13th and 14th Gen options.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 8700G review.
PC Gamer CPU reviews
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
A great CPU for content creation but only so-so for gaming. Compared to its predecessors, the Ryzen 9 7900X, it's a step backwards due to the rubbish Eco mode and relatively high price.
PC Gamer score: 72%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 9 9900X review.
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
Fast in games and pretty decent in content creation, the Ryzen 7 9700X is a great all-round CPU. The only problem is that the 7700X is a lot cheaper and really not much slower.
PC Gamer score: 86%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 9700X review.
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
Just like its bigger sibling, the Ryzen 7 9700X, the Zen 5-powered 9600X is a speedy little chip. But it's not speedy enough to justify buying one over the last-gen Ryzen 5 7600X, which is around half the price of this.
PC Gamer score: 81%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 5 9600X review.
Intel Core i9 14900K
It's a brilliant CPU, in the same way the Core i9 13900K is a brilliant CPU. Almost exactly the same, actually, making us wonder why you'd buy the newer model instead.
PC Gamer score: 79%
Read our full Intel Core i9 14900K review.
Intel Core i7 14700K
It's a step up over the Core i7 13700K, and that makes it a great CPU for gaming and productivity tasks. It does run hot, however, and the power draw is substantial.
PC Gamer score: 83%
Read our full Intel Core i7 14700K review.
Intel Core i5 14600K
A brilliant all-rounder of a chip...as is the 13600K. This is nominally better, but really the older chip is still the better buy. Runs power-hungry, too.
PC Gamer score: 80%
Read our full Intel Core i5 14600K review.
Intel Core i5 13600K
A simply stunning all-rounder of a CPU, and one that was in this guide until very recently. Unfortunately, ongoing Intel issues make it difficult to recommend until they're resolved.
PC Gamer score: 96%
Read our full Intel Core i5 13600K review.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
This used to be the best high-end CPU until the Ryzen 9 9950X appeared but it's still a great choice for anyone who needs excellent content creation power but doesn't want to give up gaming performance. It is quite pricey, though.
PC Gamer score: 86%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D review.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700
We loved this chip at the time, but thanks to some price drops we now rate the Ryzen 7 7700X more highly. Still, it's a more efficient version, with plenty going for it.
PC Gamer score: 87%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 7700 review.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
A monster of a gaming and productivity chip, but the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X pips it to the post thanks to its slightly better gaming performance. Just.
PC Gamer score: 81%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 9 7950X review.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
It might be AM4, and it might be getting on a bit, but this is still a brilliant gaming CPU. The 5700X3D, however, represents much better value these days.
PC Gamer score: 81%
Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review.
Processor FAQ
How do you test CPUs?
For CPU reviews in 2024 onward, we've updated our full benchmark suite to make it more relevant to today's processors and use scenarios: Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, Homeworld 3, Metro Exodus Enhanced, Total War: Warhammer 3, 3DMark Time Spy, Cinebench 2024, Blender 4.2, 7zip, Handbrake H.265, UL Procyon.
While gaming resolutions run from 720p to 4K, we still largely test at 1080p. This will show the most significant difference in gaming performance you're likely to see and push the CPU into the spotlight instead of the GPU—an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 in this case.
We use a mix of motherboards depending on the platform, but all high-end to ensure as level a playing field as we can. These boards include the Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, MSI MPG Z490 Carbon WiFi, ASRock X670E Taichi, and Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master.
When it comes to memory, we use G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 CL30 2x 16GB for 13th/12th Gen Intel processors, while 11th Gen processors are tested using Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB DDR4-3600 sticks. The AMD AM5 rig uses Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32 and the AM4 rigs use a Thermaltake DDR4-3600 kit and a Corsair DDR4-3200 kit.
To further eliminate any bottlenecks, a high-speed PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD is used across each system, each loaded with Windows 11 and our suite of benchmarking applications and games.
Liquid cooling is also used on all test rigs to ensure these chips are not restricted thermally.
Does your CPU matter for gaming?
The short answer is: yes. The longer answer is that it's more complicated and nuanced than that. You obviously need a CPU in your gaming PC, but the component that has the biggest impact on frame rates is your graphics card. That doesn't mean you can have a weak old processor in your rig and pair it with a high-end GPU and have no worries. You still need your processor to keep your graphics card fed with data to ensure a smooth gaming experience, without that you'll get stutters as the GPU waits for the CPU to catch up.
As with everything it's all about balance. But in modern times, a mainstream CPU won't see you losing out in terms of gaming performance compared to the top chips by anything more than single-digit frames per second.
What motherboard is right for my CPU?
Raptor Lake is the most recent Intel platform to be released, and it's compatible with any 600-series motherboard and the newer 700-series ones. These are available supporting DDR5 (new) and DDR4, so pick that side of things carefully.
The latest AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs use a new AM5 socket, and that means they only work with currently available X670, X670E, and B650 motherboards. Older AM4 motherboards, such as X570, B550, and A520 boards, are not compatible, ending a long line of compatibility there.
Is Intel or AMD better?
This is a rather loaded question. AMD has held the top spot for a long time, with its Zen architecture making for some incredible leaps in performance, but Intel stole the crown with its Alder Lake family, specifically the Core i5 12600K, and made it even better with Raptor Lake and the Core i5 13600K.
But with its 3D V-Cache technology, AMD produces some of the best gaming CPUs you can buy.
It's worth remembering that most games are GPU-limited, which means the graphics card is the limiting factor in terms of performance, and you would likely see the same essential frame rates with either CPU manufacturer when a discrete graphics card is used. This is especially true as you up the resolution, with 4K having little between the top chips.
Should I overclock my CPU?
The honest answer is: no. Overclocking your processor is not necessarily the risky move it once was, but equally, the benefits of doing so have drastically dropped in recent times. When we're talking about gaming performance, having a slightly higher clocked CPU can make a bit of a difference, but arguably your graphics card will be the part that limits the speed of your system.
There is also the point that overclocked CPUs create more heat, require more intensive and expensive cooling solutions, need those coolers to work harder, and are, therefore, often louder.
For us, overclocking your CPU to gain real-world performance benefits is not something we'd recommend most PC gamers do.
CPU review list
AMD CPU reviews:
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
- AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
- AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
- AMD Ryzen 5 8600G
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
- AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 7900
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D
- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
- AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- Threadripper 3970X and 3960X
- AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
- AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT
- AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
- AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
- AMD Ryzen 5 2400G
- AMD Ryzen 3 2200G
- AMD Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700
- Threadripper 1950X and 1920X
- AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, 1600, 1500X, and 1500
- AMD Ryzen 3 1300X and 1200
Intel CPU reviews:
- Intel Core i9 14900K
- Intel Core i7 14700K
- Intel Core i5 14600K
- Intel Core i9 13900K
- Intel Core i5 13600K
- Intel Core i5 13400F
- Intel Core i9 12900K
- Intel Core i5 12600K
- Intel Core i5 12400
- Intel Core i9 11900K
- Intel Core i5 11600K
- Intel Core i5 11400F
- Intel Core i9 10980XE
- Intel Core i9 10900K
- Intel Core i5 10600K
- Intel Core i9 9900K
- Intel Core i7 9700K
- Intel Core i9 7980XE
- Intel Core i9 7960X
- Intel Core i9 7900X
- Intel Core i7 8700K
- Intel Core i7 7700K and Core i5 7600K
- Intel Core i5 8400
CPU jargon buster
Cache - A small segment of high-speed memory dedicated to storing and executing frequently used commands/instructions to speed up software execution. CPUs contain caches designated as Level 1, 2, and 3, with L1 being the fastest and smallest and L3 being the slowest and largest.
Clock speed - The speed at which a CPU can execute instructions, measured in hertz. A processor with a 3.7 GHz clock speed can process up to 3.7 billion instructions a second, per core. Clock speed is one of the most critical factors for determining performance in games and workload functions.
Core - A self-contained block of circuitry that processes instructions and data. Modern CPUs can contain anywhere from two to 128+ cores (in servers and supercomputers), though CPUs housed in most consumer machines will generally carry between six and eight, with AMD's latest CPUs sporting up to 16 cores.
Heat sink - A cooling solution for PCs that utilize fans or liquid cooling (active) or aluminum radiators (passive) that rely on convection to regulate a component's temperature.
Hyper-Threading (SMT) - Intel terminology for a tech that allows a processor to handle two sets of instructions 'threads' simultaneously. AMD and other CPU vendors call this SMT, Simultaneous Multi-Threading.
Socket type LGA (Land Grid Array), PGA (Pin Grid Array), or BGA (Ball Grid Array) - The way a CPU interfaces with the socket on a motherboard. LGA is used on Intel sockets with pins as part of the socket. AMD's AM4 solution, PGA, has the processors' pins, which fit into holes in the socket. AMD's AM5 and Threadripper CPUs also use LGA sockets. A BGA socket is when the processor is permanently soldered to the motherboard, typically on a laptop.
TDP - Thermal design power, the maximum amount of heat a system or chip can produce that the attendant cooling system is designed to deal with under workload. This term can apply to PCs as a whole, GPUs, CPUs, or nearly any other performance component that generates heat and is in large part an indicator of how much power a part draws.
Thread - A thread refers to a series of CPU instructions for a specific program. Older CPUs and SMT-disabled chips run one thread per core, but most modern AMD and Intel CPUs can simultaneously run two threads, sharing some resources (e.g. cache).
Turbo Boost - Intel technology that allows processors to run at higher clock speeds under demanding loads. AMD also supports turbo or boost clocks, and we use the terms interchangeably regardless of CPU vendor.
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Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.
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