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Although the market for CPUs boils down to Intel and AMD, each company has myriad offerings, and the market is always changing rapidly. The confusing model numbers don’t help much either. To help you figure it all out, here’s our rundown of the best CPUs for every type of PC gamer. If you’re browsing in the UK, click here to find out where you can find the best CPU for gaming.
TL;DR – These are the Best CPUs for Gaming
1. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
Best CPU for Gaming
AMD’s Ryzen processors have performed phenomenally from the get go, and the latest generation takes it even further. Though the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t the most premium or packing the most cores, its incredible balance of performance in gaming with a price that’s not astronomical is hard to pass up.
The Ryzen 5 5600X features six cores with multi-threading support, letting it handle all sorts of workloads and gaming with aplomb. Those cores can boost up to 4.6GHz, and they all have access to a shared 32MB of L3 cache, which can help keep them zooming along without a hitch. That performance all comes in a package that only has a 65W TDP, and AMD even throws in a cooler that can keep the processor humming, making it an even better value.
2. Intel Core i5-10400
Best Budget CPU for Gaming
While many people may be turning to AMD to get the most bang for their buck, Intel isn’t out of the game just yet. The Intel Core i5-10400 is a strong option and, perhaps best of all, it’s not mired in a sea of markups or “out of stock” labels. You can score this processor for under $200, and it even comes with its own cooler, letting you get that little extra bit of value added.
The Intel Core i5-10400 offers plenty of power thanks to its six cores, and it comes with the aid of hyperthreading to handle multi-threaded workloads that much better. It offers a base clock speed of 2.9GHz but can boost up to 4.3GHz on a single core as needed to beef up your gaming performance. So, whether you’re going for modest frame rates at a lower resolution or gaming at a high resolution and won’t be bottled-necked by a mid-range CPU, the Intel Core i5-10400 will be a capable fit.
3. AMD Ryzen 3 3200G
Best Ultra Cheap CPU for Gaming
The Ryzen 3 3200G is not only a fantastically affordable processor that costs only $99, but it also comes with incredibly powerful integrated Vega graphics that can let you get away with gaming without a discrete graphics card.
Call me crazy if you like, this processor really has no problem playing modern games at Full HD and a decent frame rate all on its own. We’ve even been able to run Overwatch at 4K resolution and ‘Epic’ quality settings with a playable 30 fps frame rate. With all that in mind, the AMD Ryzen 3 3200G is the perfect processor to power your home theater PC or an extremely small PC.
4. AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Best High-End CPU for Gaming
It’s 2020 – who still wants a high-end CPU with a paltry core count in the single digits? With the Ryzen 9 5900X, you can scoot right into the double digits with 12 cores and 24 threads. This CPU will blast through whatever work you throw at it so you can move right along to gaming. It’s unlikely you’ll find a game that this CPU can’t handle with ease, even if you’re playing at 1080p to push the processor to its limits while gaming at high frame rates.
This processor also nets you access to PCIe 4.0 speeds on X570 and B550 motherboards, so you can take advantage of the incredible speeds of PCIe 4.0 SSDs or high-bandwidth add-in cards. Despite its power, the Ryzen 9 5900X only has a 105W TDP, an impressive efficiency AMD has managed to eke out of its 7nm design.
5. Intel Core i5-10600K
Best Midrange CPU for Gaming
If you’re looking for a mid-range CPU to meet your gaming needs without pushing you over your budget, you can snag the Intel Core i5-10600K. This chip updates the Intel Core i5-9600K that used to hold this slot in a few notable ways. First, it takes the six processing cores and doubles their threads, bringing hyperthreading back into action.
The new chip also has a sizable bump of 400MHz to the base clock and 200MHz to the boost clock, giving the 10600K a 4.1GHz base and 4.8GHz boost clock to really muscle through your games.Those are just the stock speeds, but this is an unlocked model you can try to overclock. This chip does come at a higher TDP than its predecessor, so it will take a bit more robust cooling if you’re coming from the 9600K.
6. AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Best CPU for Gaming Video Editing
When AMD first introduced its Zen architecture, you would have had to turn to its massive Threadripper processors to get a 16-core/32-thread chip. Now, that’s officially mainstream – or enthusiast anyway. The Ryzen 9 5950X delivers that incredible core count for well under $1,000. Plus, it keeps those cores fed with information thanks to a hefty 64MB L3 cache.
With this many cores, you’ll have no problem recording and streaming your gameplay. And, when it comes to editing, the Ryzen 9 5950X won’t miss a beat. Since the CPU supports PCIe 4.0, you’ll also be able to take advantage of the fastest SSDs on the market to make loading projects and scrubbing through footage as quick as ever. You won’t even need an exotic cooler for this chip, as it only has a 105W TDP.
7. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X
Best High-End Desktop Processor for Gaming
Have you ever thought that eight CPU cores or 64GB of RAM just wasn’t enough? Well, then a High-End Desktop (HEDT) processor might be just what you’re looking for. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X is a prime HEDT processor that comes with triple the number of cores found on even what most would call high-end CPUs.
What’s more, it also offers quad-channel memory support for a total of eight sticks of RAM (including ECC) and access to an incredible 88 PCIe 4.0 lanes, which you can use to install multi-GPU setups and the fastest NVMe SSDs ever made. It also runs games nearly as well as a traditional, mainstream processor and it’s one of the cheaper chips in the HEDT space.
8. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X
Best Streaming Gaming Processor
While most modern processors have between six and eight cores and call it a day, AMD threw everything at the wall to make the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X a 64-core CPU meant for consumers.
It’s incredibly high core count and astronomic 128-thread count make this processor a rendering juggernaut for video production. This CPU won’t miss a step even if you suddenly decide you want to start streaming or rendering a video in the middle of playing a game.
Where to Get the Best CPU for Gaming in the UK
What to Look in for a CPU for Gaming
Below we’ve broken down the two types of processors you’ll find online or on store shelves, and some of the key specs you should look for in a gaming processor.
When looking for a gaming CPU, you’ll probably come across two types of processors: mainstream and High-End Desktop (HEDT). Mainstream processors are what you’ll primarily find on store shelves and online catalogs, and these typically include Intel’s Core i3, i5, i7 and, more recently, i9 products as well as AMD Ryzen 3, 5, and 7-series chips.
HEDT processors are less prevalent and are easy enough to spot. All Intel HEDT CPUs come with an ‘X’ or ‘XE’ suffix at the end of their model names, meanwhile, AMD HEDT chips all fall under the Ryzen Threadripper brand.
What’s the difference between a mainstream processor and HEDT chip? Mainstream processors typically only support dual-channel memory – for a maximum of four DIMMs up to 64GB – and, thus far, a maximum of 24 PCIe lanes, which enable high-speed connections to graphics cards, NVMe solid-state drives, and Thunderbolt 3 ports. HEDT processors, on the other hand, are physically larger to make room for more cores, while bringing memory support up to quad-channel – up to eight sticks for a total of 128GB of RAM – and a maximum of 64 PCIe lanes.
So, if you have the money and the desire to build the ultimate gaming PC, HEDT is the way to go. But that’ll probably be overkill for most users, so a mainstream processor should be what most users need.
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The next thing you should be mindful of is how many cores a processor has. Cores are essentially the part of the CPU that receives instructions to perform calculations or actions, so the more cores you have the more you can do. Most entry-level processors should have two to four cores, four to six cores on mid-range chips, and at least six or eight cores on the highest-end CPUs.
How many cores do you need for gaming? Most users should aim for at least a quad-core processor like the AMD Ryzen 5 3400G or the hexa-core Intel Core i5-8400. Most modern games should run well, but if you’re playing anything with a high character count or an abundance of in-game physics—i.e. anything from the real-time strategy genre—you might see frame rates improve with a hexa- or octa-core processor.
Processor threads are far less important for gaming, but they help with multi-tasking and multi-threaded workloads. You’ll often see a number of threads right next to cores on the spec sheet of a CPU. Usually, the number of threads will be twice as high as the core count and they basically act as schedulers, telling the CPU core what to do next so that there’s no downtime in between tasks.
This process is known as Hyper-threading on Intel’s platform and multi-threading on AMD-powered systems. Despite the different names, they achieve the same goal, whether that be making sure your next song streams in the background or your video renders as quickly as possible.
And that’s everything you need to know about processors for now, but we’ll be updating this list again soon enough. 2019 has already been a plenty interesting as AMD has finally introduced the world’s first 7nm Ryzen 3rd Generation processors—with a 16-core mainstream processor still on the way—meanwhile, Intel is poised to introduce 10nm Ice Lake CPUs by the end of the year as well.
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Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam
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