The best processors for gaming

When it comes to gaming on a PC there are only two companies worth discussing: Intel and AMD. We broke down our processor choices into price groups, starting with stellar entries like the Intel Core i7-9700K and AMD’s Ryzen 3700X. They’re a great fit for all gamers, but if you have a smaller or grander budget we have some suggestions for you too.

If you’re most interested in the best CPUs from Intel and/or AMD, check out our guides to the best Intel processors and the best AMD chips.

Best processor for mid-level gaming

Thanks to AMD’s Ryzen CPUs lighting a fire under Intel, the current crop of mainstream CPUs are some of the best gaming chips we’ve seen in years. Better yet, they’re affordable. You can have some of the best chips from both companies for just a few hundred dollars, so if you’re looking for top-gaming performance without breaking the bank, these are your best bets.

Both Intel’s Core i7-9700K and AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X are amazing gaming chips that can go blow for blow in most games. While the Intel CPU might pip the 3700X in the odd game, they’re pretty comparable when it comes to frame rates. Outside of games, the simultaneous multi-threading support with the 3700X gives it a huge edge, often delivering big performance gains in video rendering and Photoshop tasks.

Thanks to big efficiency improvements in AMD’s Zen 2 architecture and its 7nm die shrink too, the 3700X is a far more efficient processor, requiring just 65 watts when boosting. The Intel chip on the other hand, can draw as much as 95 watts when it’s at its base frequency.

There are a number of motherboard options available to the AMD Ryzen 3700X as AMD’s AM4 socket works across multiple generations of chips and boards. The only real reason to opt for the x570 platform is if you want support for PCIe 4.0 storage drives. Otherwise the x470 and B450 boards should be fine, but make sure that you update the BIOS (use an AMD bootkit if needed) as otherwise the new chip may not work.

You could also consider the Intel 8700K, which has hyperthreading (supporting 16 threads) and that gives it an advantage in multithreaded workloads over the 9700K, but it’s not quite as quick in games and is often priced identically.

If you want an alternative AMD option, the last-generation 2700X is still an excellent gaming chip. It has the same eight cores and 16-threads as the 3700X but costs $100 less. It isn’t going to be as good as the 3700X in games, as the Zen+ architecture doesn’t have the same clock speed and instructions per clock improvements.

Best bang for the buck: AMD Ryzen 3700X

Best processor for gaming on a budget

Budget gaming today doesn’t mean poor performance as there are some powerful options even at the low end of Intel and AMD’s lineups. Intel’s Core i5-9400F is one of the most affordable gaming processors it’s released in years. It ups the ante of traditional Core i5 chips with six cores, and though it doesn’t have hyperthreading, six threads are plenty to work with especially when it can hit 4.1 GHz with Intel Max Turbo.

AMD’s Ryzen 6 3600, however, is arguably the more capable of the two chips at only a $50 premium. It has the same six cores as the Intel chip, but with simultaneous multithreading, it has support for up to 12 threads. Its boost clock is higher too, and with the Zen 2 gains in instructions per clock, it should outpace the 9400F by 10-15% in games.

It also dominates the 9400F in multithreaded productivity workloads, so if you want to work and game with your new, sub-$200 CPU, the 3600 will be far more capable.

If you can stretch your budget a little further, the Intel Core i5-9600K is fantastic for gaming and is much more ready to go head to head with the 3600. AMD has a chip at that same price in the form of the 3600X, but the extra $50 there only gives you a little more boost clock which doesn’t give you more than a few percent of additional performance; AMD’s automated overclocking tends to pull the 3600 up to near the clock speed of the 3600X anyhow.

At this price it’s not really worth looking last-generation, especially when it comes to gaming.

Best bang for the buck: AMD Ryzen 5 3600

Best processor for streaming and 4K gaming

If you’re a gamer who wants ultimate power or someone who works and plays hard on the same machine, these are the chips for you. For everyone else, buying a cheaper chip and investing more in a better graphics card would likely be a smarter move.

Both Intel and AMD have some amazing offerings in this category, from the $2,000 Intel 9980XE, to AMD’s flagship second-generation Threadripper 2990WX with its ludicrous 32-cores and 64 threads. Those would be complete overkill for even this category though, as no consumer applications can really benefit from such multi-threaded performance and the more mainstream parts tend to be more suited to gaming.

With that in mind, we’d recommend these chips if you’re looking to stream and game.

Note: If you opt for an x470 motherboard for the Ryzen 3900X, make sure to upgrade its BIOS first to add third-generation Ryzen support.

The Intel Core i9-9900K is arguably the best raw gaming chip in the world. It beat out AMD Threadripper chips in our testing and offers amazing performance for both gaming and multi-threaded tests. AMD’s new Ryzen 3900X gives it a serious run for its money though, and even pulled ahead in some of our tests. The lower clock speed of the 3900X means that some games prefer the Intel CPU, especially when it’s overclocked, but in most titles AMD’s new top chip can keep pace and even exceed it.

When it comes to productivity tasks, or multitasking — like gaming and streaming — that’s where the 3900X can really shine. Its 12-cores and 24 threads give it a serious multithreading advantage over the 9900K, allowing to to deliver a much smoother streaming experience for viewers without sacrificing game frame rates.

There aren’t much in the way of alternatives at this price on the Intel front, with only HEDT chips like the 9920X offering more cores and threads — but that costs over $1,000. AMD’s Threadripper 1950X and 2950X offer 16 cores for between $500 and $650, but they aren’t anywhere near as capable at gaming as the 3900X and should only be considered if multithreaded performance is more important to you than gaming prowess.

All in all, the 3900X is the best gaming CPU we’ve seen in a long time and though the 9900K might pull ahead in certain benchmarks and titles, the 3900X is simply the better all round chip. Especially when it comes to streaming and gaming simultaneously.

Best bang for the buck: AMD Ryzen 9 3900x