The best CPUs for gaming

Need more cores for productivity tasks, want eight cores for streaming or future-proofing against console hardware configurations, or simply demand the absolute fastest potential frame rates in any situation? The $589 Intel Core i9-13900K is the 16-core, 32-thread processor for you. While you could go up to the insane 13900KS variant for 6GHz bragging rights, you’ll be paying over $100 more for minimal extra performance—the upgrade isn’t worth it.

AMD’s $550 Ryzen 9 7900X is another solid option that offers high frame rates, but paying that much for a 12-core chip doesn’t make sense if pure gaming is your goal.

The big caveat to these recommendations: They’re best if you don’t care about electricity costs. AMD and Intel’s latest architectures both take a “more is more” approach to energy consumption, with Ryzen 7000 and 13th-gen Raptor Lake both gobbling down watts to achieve mindbending performance.

So if you simply want ultra-fast gaming frame rates and don’t need a borderline insane amount of CPU cores for productivity work or care to spike your utility bills, consider stepping down to the Core i7-13700K (MSRP $409) or even Core i5-13600K (MSRP $319). The 13700K shares the core count (and 8/8 split between performance and efficiency cores) as the 13900K, with fewer threads (24). The 13600K drops down to “just” 14 cores (6p/8e split), but given its ability to match Intel’s last-gen flagship, the Core i9-12900K, in game benchmarks, it’s an incredible sweet spot for high-octane gaming.

Meanwhile, if you don’t mind spending up for the ultimate 1080p gaming performance and already have a first- or second-generation Ryzen motherboard, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a killer upgrade option, especially given its recent lower street prices ($330~).

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• Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/401980/best-cpus-for-gaming.html