PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming CPU of 2024

Features
By published

AMD wins, no matter what. But which chip?

An image of a hand holding two processors, with a colorful border and a PC Gamer Best CPU 2024 logo in the center
(Image credit: Future)
Gear of the Year

PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2024 logo on a black background

(Image credit: Future)

Check out more of the year's best tech in our PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2024 coverage.

This year, there has been a glut of fresh CPUs from AMD and Intel for desktop PCs, with both vendors launching new processor architectures and model variants of older designs.

Zen 5 made an official appearance in August, to a somewhat muted reception. That's because despite being a complete architectural overhaul, it isn't that much faster than Zen 4. But for sheer processing power, the Ryzen 9 9950X is hard to beat. Particularly when it uses less power than the competition.

Article continues below

We all had high hopes for Intel's Core Ultra 200S chips but it's fair to say that they missed the mark. Truth be told, most PC gaming enthusiasts were really only interested in one CPU and when the Ryzen 7 9800X3D finally appeared, we weren't disappointed. AMD's third generation of 3D V-Cache is just as magic as ever.

I've specifically mentioned these three processors because those are the nominees for best gaming CPU of 2024. We'll announce the winner on New Year's Eve but for now, let's see why they were chosen.

Best gaming CPU 2024: the nominees

The winner of the PC Gamer Hardware Award for the best gaming CPU will be announced on New Year's Eve. AMD wins no matter what but only one of its 2024 CPUs can be crowned best.

TOPICS
Nick Evanson
Nick Evanson
Hardware Writer

Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?