Our tips and picks below will show you the best CPU for gaming. When shopping for the best CPU for gaming, you'll want to balance performance and features with your PC budget. You can also see how all of these processors stack up in our CPU Benchmarks hierarchy which includes CPU overclock benchmarks. But for detailed help on picking the best processor for your gaming rig, you can check out our 2022 CPU Buying Guide. And if you're on the fence about which CPU company to go with, our AMD vs. Intel article dives deep into the topic and comes up with a winner.
We break our gaming CPU recommendations into different price ranges. If you're looking for the overall best gaming CPU with an accessible price point, the six-core 12-thread Core i5-12400 is hands-down the best CPU for gaming. Recent price cuts have made this chip an even better deal, catapulting it to the top of our list.
The Ryzen 5 5600 is the best AMD CPU for gaming for ~$175, but Intel still holds the overall lead in this price range. If you're upgrading a first-gen Ryzen system there isn't a better deal because the 5600 brings the best of Zen 3 to even the oldest Ryzen motherboards. If you're looking for the best AMD CPU for gaming, the new Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the fastest gaming CPU on the market. This chip and its 3D V-Cache isn't as fast as comparable chips in other types of work beyond gaming, though, so you'll need to be aware of the pros and cons. Also, its $449 price point is a bit higher than we typically recommend for gaming-centric builds.
If you're looking for the fastest blend of gaming and application performance on the market, you need to look at the Core i9-12900K. The $589 Intel Core i9-12900K delivers incredible levels of threaded performance, beating AMD's best. However, the $380 Core i7-12700K offers essentially the same gaming performance as the flagship Core i9-12900K — but for ~$200 less. The 12900K serves up the utmost in productivity performance, but the Core i7-12700K provides impressive pricing and performance in both gaming and applications. The $280 Intel Core i5-12600K is easily the best CPU for gaming in its $260 to $300 price bracket, while the $110 Core i3-12100 is the best budget gaming CPU.
Our AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 article has all the details on AMD's latest CPUs, but you can check our full lineup of detailed reviews of each model, like the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X, Ryzen 5 5600X, and Ryzen 5600 and 5500 for the detailed rundown of the best AMD CPUs for gaming.
Our list of best CPUs for workstations is for those who frequently tackle high-end content creation or professional work. Processors benefit from the best thermal paste, so check out our guide if you're shopping for a new processor. But if you're after the best CPU for gaming, you're in the right place.
Best CPU for Gaming at a glance (more info below):
Overall Best CPU for Gaming:
Intel Core i5-12400(opens in new tab)
Alternate: AMD Ryzen 5 5600(opens in new tab)
High Performance Value Best CPU for Gaming:
Intel Core i9-12900K(opens in new tab)
Alternate: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X(opens in new tab)
Overall Value Best CPU for Gaming:
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D(opens in new tab)
Alternate: Intel Core i7-12700K(opens in new tab)
Mid-Range Best CPU for Gaming:
Intel Core i5-12600K(opens in new tab)
Budget Best CPU for Gaming:
Core i3-12100(opens in new tab)
Entry-Level Best CPU for Gaming:
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G(opens in new tab)
We rank all the Intel and AMD processors based on our in-depth CPU benchmarks hierarchy. You can see some of those numbers in the charts above, including CPU overclock performance results (marked as PBO for AMD processors) and results in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
This group of results comprises only the chips that have passed through our newest test suite, while the tables in our CPU benchmark hierarchy include rankings based on past CPU benchmarks, and also include breakdowns of single- and multi-threaded performance across a broad spate of processors. Finally, be aware that the pricing in the charts above can fluctuate.
Quick Shopping Tips
When choosing the best CPU for gaming in 2022, consider the following:
- You can't lose with AMD or Intel: As noted in our recent AMD vs. Intel feature, Intel tends to make the best CPUs for gaming for mainstream PCs lately.
- For gaming, clock speed is more important than the number of cores: Higher CPU clock speeds translate to snappier performance in simple tasks like gaming, while more cores will help you get through heavy workloads faster.
- Budget for a full system: Don't pair a strong CPU with weak storage, RAM and graphics.
- Overclocking isn’t for everyone, but if you follow our How to Overclock a CPU guide, you can scrape out extra performance gains.
Best CPUs for Gaming 2022
SPECIFICATIONs
- Architecture: Alder Lake
- Socket: LGA 1700
- Cores/Threads: 6 (6P + 0E) / 12
- Base Frequency: 4.4
- Top Boost Frequency: 2.5
- TDP: 65W
REASONS TO BUY
REASONS TO AVOID
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 takes the top spot as the overall best AMD CPU for gaming with a solid blend of performance in both gaming and application workloads, bringing a new level of value to the Zen 3 lineup. The Ryzen 5 5600 makes a great value-centric alternative to Alder Lake for new builds and represents an absolutely unbeatable deal if you're updating a first-gen Ryzen system. However, competing Intel Alder Lake processors are a better deal for most new builds.
The 5600 unseats the Ryzen 5 5600X, a long-time favorite. The 5600X is only ~1% faster in gaming and multi-threaded PC work than the Ryzen 5 5600 but maintains a 4% advantage in single-threaded work. That said, the practical differences between the two chips will be almost imperceptible to the overwhelming majority of users, but the Ryzen 5 5600X costs $35 more, which is absolutely not acceptable given the slim differences. As such, consider the Ryzen 5 5600 the 5600X-killer.
You can find the six-core 12-thread Ryzen 5 5600 at $184, a deep discount brought on by competitive pressure from Intel. In fact, our testing shows that the Ryzen 5 5600 generally matches the gaming performance of its more expensive sibling, the ~$325 Ryzen 7 5800X. That makes the 5600 an incredibly well-rounded chip that can handle any type of gaming, from competitive-class performance with high refresh rate monitors to streaming, while also serving up more than enough performance for day-to-day application workloads. As with all AMD CPUs for gaming, you can fully overclock the CPU.
The Ryzen 5 5600 has a 3.7 GHz base and 4.6 GHz boost clock, but with the right cooling and motherboard, you can expect higher short-term boosts. The chip also has a 65W TDP rating, meaning it runs exceptionally cool and quiet given its capabilities. Existing AMD owners with a 500-series motherboard will breathe a sigh of relief as the 5600X drops right into existing 500-, 400-, and 300-series motherboards. If you need a new motherboard to support the chip, AMD's AM4 motherboards are plentiful and relatively affordable, with the B-series lineup offering the best overall value for this class of chip.
The Intel Core i9-12900K once held the title of the fastest gaming processor on the planet. At $589, it even outperforms AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X in our gaming testing and even heavily-threaded content creation tasks, making it an exceptional value for high-end game streaming, too. It's also the uncontested leader in x86 single-threaded performance.
The 12900K also supports leading-edge connectivity with support DDR4-3200 or up to DDR5-4800 memory, along with 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 and an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 SSDs.
The chip comes with eight P-cores that support hyper-threading, and eight single-threaded E-cores for a total of 24 threads. The P-cores have a 3.2 GHz base, and peak frequencies reach 5.2 GHz with Turbo Boost Max 3.0 (this feature is only active on P-cores). Meanwhile, the E-cores have a 2.4 GHz base and stretch up to 3.9 GHz via the standard Turbo Boost 2.0 algorithms. The chip is also equipped with 30MB of L3 cache and 14MB of L2.
This 12900K has a 125W PBP (base) and 241W MTP (peak) power rating, but we recorded considerably lower power consumption than its prior-gen counterpart. You get industry-leading performance in exchange.
You'll need to buy a capable cooler for the chip, and you'll also need a new 600-series motherboard. You can find a wide selection of high-end motherboards that support DDR5 memory, and although you'll only find lower-end and mid-range DDR4 motherboards, there's still plenty of selection available. Most gamers will enjoy the lower price and comparable performance of DDR4, but you can step up to the more expensive DDR5 if you need access to more memory throughput.
High end desktop processors have long offered the ultimate in performance, as long as you were willing to pay the price. Aside from high MSRPs, the chips also require expensive accommodations, like beefy motherboards and the added cost of fully populating quad-channel memory controllers. Add in the inevitable trade-offs, like reduced performance in lightly-threaded applications and games, and most cost-conscious users who could benefit from the threaded horsepower of a HEDT chip just settle for mainstream offerings.
AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X, with 16 cores and 32 threads, expanded on its predecessors' mission of bringing HEDT-class performance to mainstream motherboards, lowering the bar for entry. The 5950X carries a $550 price tag, but that’s downright affordable compared to competing HEDT processors that don't offer the same class of performance.
We generally don't recommend HEDT processors for enthusiasts that are only interested in gaming. Gamers are best served by mainstream processors (with fewer cores and higher clocks) that are often faster in games; our testing shows the Ryzen 9 5950X also falls into the same category — AMD's lesser 5000-series models are a better value for gamers. However, if you're after a chip and platform that can do serious work seriously fast, but still be nimble enough to deliver high-refresh gameplay at the end of the day, the Ryzen 9 5950X fits the bill like no other CPU before it.
The $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D's 3D V-Cache tech represents an innovative engineering effort that conquered the technical challenges associated with bringing the first desktop PC chip with 3D-stacked SRAM to market, yielding a chip with an incredible 96MB of L3 cache, and to great effect: The end result is a comparatively low-power chip that delivers incredible gaming performance, dethroning Intel's $589 Alder Lake Core i9-12900K and $739 Core i9-12900KS from the top of our gaming charts.
On average at 1080p gaming, the $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D is ~9% faster than the $589 Core i9-12900K, which costs 30% more, and ~7% faster than the $739 Core i9-12900KS, which costs a whopping 64% more. That means the Ryzen 7 58000X3D is both the best AMD CPU for gaming in our test suite and faster for gaming than any Intel model.
However, you have to be aware of the tradeoffs with this highly-specialized chip — our gaming benchmarks show that the 3D V-Cache doesn't boost performance in all games, though we found that it impacted nearly every single title we tested. Additionally, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is optimized specifically for gaming, but it can't keep pace with similarly-priced chips in productivity applications. The Core i9-12900K is 29% faster in single-threaded work and 62% faster in threaded applications, and the 12900KS is even faster still.
If you're looking for a more balanced chip that does well at both gaming and applications, our tests show that the $385 Core i7-12700K listed below is a solid choice. The Core i7-12700K is 28.8% faster in single-threaded work and 40% faster in multi-threaded work than the 5800X3D, showing that it is the best all-rounder in this price range.
The 5800X3D drops into existing socket AM4 motherboards dating all the way back to the 300-series that debuted in 2017, so it will make a great high-performance drop-in upgrade for Ryzen owners. Be aware that AM4 is on the way out to make room for the 5nm Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Zen 4 CPUs in the AM5 socket. Also, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D also doesn't support Alder Lake's leading-edge connectivity options, like DDR5 and PCIe 5.0.
The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has much lower power consumption than the Core i9-12900KS and 12900K, making it a far cooler processor that won't require as expensive accommodations, like a beefy cooler, motherboard, and power supply. That means the 5800X3D delivers top-notch gaming performance along with a cooler, quieter, and less expensive system than you'll get with a Core i9.
If you're willing to accept the lower but still competent performance in desktop PC applications, and also do your homework to make sure the Ryzen 7 5800X3D accelerates the types of games you play frequently, it's hard to go wrong with this chip — especially for upgraders with AMD systems. If you have a taste for higher-end fare and a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an impressive chip that delivers leading-edge gaming performance and leaves room for future GPU upgrades.
At $385, the 12700K thoroughly beats the $330 Ryzen 7 5800X and even unseats the pricey $550 Ryzen 9 5900X, all while delivering essentially the same gaming performance as Intel's own $589 flagship Core i9-12900K — but for significantly less.
Our testing shows that in 1080p gaming, the Core i7-12700K is an impressive 12% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X. However, the $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D is 13% faster at 1080p than the stock Core i7-12700K, but only 3.6% faster than a CPU overclocked 12700K config.
However, our benchmarks show the Core i7-12700K is a much better all-rounder if you're looking for performance in productivity work, so you should select the 5800X3D if you're only interested in gaming performance in the $400 to $475 price bracket, and the 12700K if you're more interested in a balanced blend of price and performance.
The 12700K has serious chops in productivity work: In lightly-threaded apps, the 12700K is ~17% faster than the 5800X and 5900X. In threaded work, the Core i7-12700K is 2.5% faster than the Ryzen 9 5900X, though the 5900X does carve out a few wins in heavily-threaded apps. The competition isn't even close with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D —The Core i7-12700K is 28.8% faster in single-threaded work and 40% faster in multi-threaded work, showing that it is the best all-rounder in this price range.
The Core i7-12700K has eight P-cores (high-performance) and four E-cores (Efficiency), for a total of 20 threads. The P-cores run at a 3.6 / 5.0 GHz base/boost while the E-cores weigh in at 2.7 / 3.8 GHz. In addition, the chip is fed by 25MB of L3 cache and 12MB of L2.
The 12700K also supports leading-edge connectivity with support DDR4-3200 or up to DDR5-4800 memory, along with 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 and an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 from the chip for M.2 SSDs. The 12700K has a 125W PBP (base) and 190W MTP (peak) power rating. Still, we recorded considerably lower power consumption than its prior-gen counterpart, and you get ultra-competitive performance in exchange.
You'll need to buy a capable cooler for the chip, and you'll also need a new 600-series motherboard. You can find a wide selection of high-end motherboards that support DDR5 memory, and although you'll only find lower-end and mid-range DDR4 motherboards, there's still plenty of selection available. Most gamers will enjoy the lower price and comparable performance of DDR4, but you can step up to the more expensive DDR5 if you need access to more memory throughput.
Our in-depth testing shows that the $280 Core i5-12600K provides leading gaming performance at its price point, outshining the $210 Ryzen 5 5600X. The 12600K offers up to 38% more threaded performance than the Ryzen 5 5600X, too, and even 7% more performance than the $330 Ryzen 7 5800X. Coupled with the snappy single-threaded performance, this is one of the best CPUs for gaming on the market.
The 12600K comes with six threaded P-cores that operate at 3.7 / 4.9 GHz and four E-cores that run at 2.8 / 3.6 GHz, for a total of 16 threads. That's paired with 20MB of L3 and 9.5MB of L2 cache.
The chip supports 16 lanes of the leading-edge PCIe 5.0 interface and an additional four PCIe 4.0 lanes for a speedy M.2 SSD port. The leading-edge connectivity doesn't stop there, though: The Core i5-12600K also supports either DDR4 or DDR5 memory. Most gamers will enjoy the lower price and comparable performance of DDR4, but you can step up to the more expensive DDR5 if you need access to more memory throughput.
The 12600K comes with a maximum power rating of 150W, but the chip sucks significantly less power than its prior-gen counterpart while delivering much more performance in gaming. The lowered power consumption allows the chip to work well with a wide variety of standard air and water coolers, but you'll need to make sure your model supports the LGA 1700 socket.
Speaking of which, you'll also need a new 600-series motherboard for the processor, and Z690 models are currently your only option. You can find a wide selection of high-end models that support DDR5 memory, and although you'll only find lower-end and mid-range DDR4 motherboards, there's still plenty of selection available.
Like the rest of the Alder Lake family, the $130 Core i3-12100 comes to market with disruptive pricing. The chip also comes as a $104 F-series Core i3-12100F that Intel ships with deactivated integrated graphics for $25 less than the full-featured model. In fact, with no clear current-gen competitor from AMD and stellar performance for its price point, the Core i3-12100 easily leads our CPU benchmark hierarchy in the $105 to $130 bracket. Overall, our testing shows that the quad-core i3-12100's potent combination of price, performance, and improved stock cooler dominates the $100 to $130 price range while punching up against more expensive competitors.
The Core i3-12100 now reigns as the fastest budget gaming CPU on the market and it's plenty impressive in lightly-threaded apps, too: None of AMD's chips match the 12100 in single-threaded work, so you'll have to look to other Alder Lake chips to find faster performance. The Core i3-12100 is also impressive in threaded productivity workloads for its price point.
The Core i3-12100 comes with a 60W PBP (base) and 89W MTP (peak) power rating. The chip clocks in with a 3.3 GHz base and boosts up to 4.3 GHz. It also comes with 12 MB of L3 cache. Intel's Alder Lake drops into Socket 1700 motherboards from the 600-series, including Z690, H670, B660, and H610. The Core i3-12100 is a locked chip, meaning it isn't overclockable. However, Intel supports memory overclocking on Z690, B660 and H670 motherboards (Z690 doesn't make sense for this class of chip, though).
The Core i3-12100 doesn't have a similarly-priced competitor from AMD that can keep pace. However, despite a total lack of competition, it still brings impressive generational performance gains to the table. In fact, our 1080p gaming benchmarks show the $129 Core i3-12100 delivers 88% of the $299 Core i5-12400's performance, but for 56% less cash. That's a winning blend of price and performance.
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