| | | Best CPUs of 2021 - Top Gaming CPUs for the Money | Tom's Hardware
Best processor 2021: the best CPUs from Intel and AMD | TechRadar
When shopping for the best gaming CPU, you'll want to balance performance and features with your PC budget. Our tips and picks below will help you choose the best CPU for gaming. But for detailed help on picking the best processor for your gaming rig, you can check out our 2020 CPU Buying Guide. And if you're on the fence about which CPU company to go with, our AMD vs. Intel feature dives deep and comes up with a clear winner. You can also see how all of these processors stack up in our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy.
AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 processors have taken the pole position as the fastest gaming CPUs on the market, largely due to a 19% increase in IPC and unified L3 cache that reduces latency. Our AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 All We Know article has all the details on the new CPUs, but you can check out our full lineup of detailed reviews of each model, like the Ryzen 9 5950X and Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X.
Unfortunately, supply issues have plagued AMD. The company has been unable to satisfy demand on its older and newer processors alike, and we've seen egregious price scalping for the Ryzen 5000 models over the holidays. That means that many of the AMD processors listed below are currently unavailable, but we expect supply to improve as we exit the holiday season. For now, if ordering a CPU is paramount, Intel's CPUs may be the only option for modern processors. The company has slashed pricing over the holidays, though, which is a slight consolation for the impatient that need to build a new gaming rig right away.
Choosing the Best Gaming CPU for YouFor a list of all processors by performance, check out our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy for CPU comparisons backed by processor benchmarks. We also maintain a list of best CPUs for productivity, for those who frequently tackle high-end content creation, or other tasks that benefit from high core counts. But if you're after the best gaming CPU, you're in the right place.
If your main goal is gaming, you of course can't forget about the graphics card. Getting the best possible gaming CPU won't help you much if your GPU is under-powered and/or out of date. So be sure to check out Best Graphics Cards page, as well as our GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy to make sure you have the right card for the level of gaming you're looking to achieve.
Quick Shopping TipsWhen choosing a CPU in 2020, consider the following:
You can't lose with AMD or Intel: We recently pointed out that AMD makes better CPUs overall these days in our AMD vs. Intel feature. But so long as you’re considering current-generation parts, the performance debate is basically a wash, particularly when it comes to gaming. Some of the most-expensive mainstream Intel processors do slightly better on gaming, and AMD handles tasks like video editing quicker (thanks largely to extra cores and threads).For gaming, clock speed is more important than core number: Higher CPU clock speeds translate to snappier performance in simple, common tasks such as gaming, while more cores will help you get through time-consuming workloads faster. In the end, the fastest CPUs of any family of processors have the highest clock speeds. Budget for a full system: Don't pair a strong CPU with weak storage, RAM and graphics.Overclocking isn’t for everyone: For many who want to just get to gaming, it makes more sense to spend $20-$60 more and buy a higher-end chip, rather than spending money on a higher-end cooler and spending lots of time tweaking to achieve slightly higher performance. |
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