by The CPU is the brains of any computer, and for gamers that means it needs to be fast. Choosing the best one for your rig takes more than just picking out a model that can handle games at a decent frame rate, though. You need to consider the GPU you’re planning to use as well as your budget. We’re here to help make that decision a little bit easier.
There’s a lot of competition in the gaming CPU market right now. Intel’s 12th Gen processors like the Core i5 13600K offer excellent value, but there are also new AMD chips that have popped up since last year.
If you’re on team Intel, the 14600K is a solid choice that beats out the older 12th Gen i5 5500K in all of our benchmarks at 1080p. It also has a better price point. If you’re on team AMD, however, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a fantastic choice. It has a lot of cache, and it’s able to compete with Intel’s chip in games.
The $450 Ryzen 7 7800X3D isn’t the most expensive processor on this list, but it’s a solid pick for a high-end PC build. It’s a content creation powerhouse, and its Threadripper-adjacent 16 cores and 32 threads offer outstanding performance in any task that can be handled in parallel. That makes it a worthy replacement for our previous gaming CPU champion, the Core i7-7700K. best cpu for gaming
