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When it comes to choosing CPUs for your gaming needs you want to make sure you’re getting the best CPU for your own personal setup. But this can include thinking about many different factors to narrow down your choices. You’ll want to consider lots of different things. Like price for example. Will the CPU you’ve been thinking about fit within your budget? If it’s out of your budget are there reasons you want that will make it worth saving up the money to get one?
You’ll also want to consider thermals. Some CPUs run hot and might not be a great idea for cases with less airflow if you want optimal performance. Some CPUs aren’t compatible with certain motherboards. And of course, if you really like to squeeze every drop of performance out of a CPU then you’ll want to consider clock frequencies – including overclock speeds. All of these reasons and more are why it can be daunting task to find the best CPUs for gaming. So we decided to do some of the legwork for you and round up the best options for every gamer. No matter your budget. That being said, there will be options listed below for entry-level PC builds, mid-range builds, and high-end monster rigs.
If you’re like me then you want something powerful but also something that won’t get too hot due the preference for a smaller formfactor PC case. As these are more space-saving. Or maybe you have a huge PC case with lots of room and plenty of airflow, so CPU temps are less of a concern. Check out our buyers guide below to find top picks of you’re building a PC for the first time or looking for an upgrade.
Best CPUs for gaming
As noted above we’ll break down all the best picks for CPUs that you can snag for your gaming PC in 2023. The list will cover a range of prices to meet the needs of all gamers.
Intel Core i3-13100F
- Price: $124.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
We’ll kick things off with our top pick for a budget CPU. There are all types of gamers out there even in the PC market. And this includes users with budget gaming PCs. These machines don’t cost you a whole lot in the grand scheme of things compared to some PC builds. And the Core i3-13100F is an excellent option and one of the best CPUs if you’re building a budget gaming PC. At $124.99 the price is manageable and will help keep the cost down of your overall rig once you’ve gathered up all the components.
We really like this CPU as a top pick for budget gamers because it still performs well for gaming and it supports DDR4 RAM and comes with an included cooler. That last bit is particularly important because that means you won’t have to buy a cooler. You still can but using the bundled one will ultimately mean spending less money. And that’s a big reason why you’d choose this CPU in the first place. That being said, this CPU does not support overclocking. So you’ll need to be ok with that if you go this route. It has a base clock frequency of 3.4GHz and a boost clock frequency of 4.5GHz. Which is perfectly fine for gaming at lower and some medium settings and for productivity tasks.
Ultimately this is not the best CPU overall if you’re wanting something extremely performance focused. But it is your best option in our opinion if you don’t want to spend a lot of money.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
- Price: $249.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
If you prefer something from AMD then you can squeeze a little more performance out of the Ryzen 5 7600X CPU. This retails for $249.99 and is an excellent option for more budget-minded gamers who want something more akin to mid-range performance. Like the CPU option above it delivers excellent gaming performance as well and performs surprisingly well in both single-threaded and multi-threaded applications and uses.
The Ryzen 5 7600X also comes with iGPU (integrated graphics processing unit) and supports the DDR5 RAM standard. Which means it’s more future-proof and will be able to stay in your system longer. It’s also overclockable. So if you do like to overclock your CPUs, then you can get even more performance out of this chip. That being said, there are downsides. For instance, there is no support for DDR4 RAM. And with DDR5 being more expensive, the savings you may see by going with this chip over something else that costs more but does support DDR4 standards could end up making the savings a wash.
This also doesn’t have a bundled cooler and that means you’ll have to buy one. Coolers aren’t necessarily required but they are recommended. So it’s worth keeping in mind what memory and cooler you ultimately go with and what their costs are.
Intel Core i7-13700K
- Price: $489.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
There’s lots to love about this particular CPU but the main reason to want something like this one in particular is that it delivers exceptional performance. Additionally, it almost matches the performance of Intel’s i9 flagship CPU from the same series. The Core i9-13900K. While the i9 is better for high-performance productivity tasks, that’s only slightly better. Yet it costs nearly $70 more to upgrade to that CPU. You can shave off some of the cost without losing much gaming performance by going with the Core i7-13700K and overclocking it.
Or you could leave it as is and not overclock and performance would still be very good. Some things to consider when looking at this compared to a Ryzen equivalent are power efficiency and cost. You might get less performance with an equivalent Ryzen CPU and it would cost marginally less money, and you would draw less power with it. Like the Ryzen CPU above this one doesn’t come with a bundled cooler either. And you’re definitely going to want one with this CPU to keep temperatures in check. Which means more money there too.
The good news though is that this does support DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. So you can choose to upgrade if you have a little more to spend or save some money by going with the DDR4 standard.
Intel Core i9-13900K
- Price: $556.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
As mentioned above if you want the top-end CPU from Intel’s 13th Gen, the Core i9-13900K is definitely one of the best CPUs for gaming. But at a cost of $556.99 you really should only do this if you need a CPU that is capable of delivering higher performance in productivity tasks. If you don’t need that, and only want something that concerns high-performance gaming, we’d recommend the Core i7-13700K instead as you’ll get performance that’s close to this CPU for around $70 less.
That being said if cost isn’t a factor for you and the higher productivity could end up being useful, then there’s no reason not to go with this one over the i7 model. This is also one of the fastest CPUs for gaming on the market for something in this price range. Again there’s no bundled cooler with this CPU. So be prepared to spend a little more. That way you can ensure your CPU temps stay in a reasonable range and performance stays optimal.
Intel Core i9-14900K
- Price: $615.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
We’re only suggesting this CPU as the flagship option if you want to get absolutely every possible drop of performance you can out of an Intel CPU. When you get right down to it, the Core i9-14900K is a better CPU for gaming and productivity performance than the 13th gen version. But not by much. This is the newest CPU and therefore the most futureproof and there’s something to be said for that. You’ll get solid performance out of this CPU and it won’t cost you a ton more than the 13th gen model. But if you’ve got some time to wait, it might be worth waiting for the 13th gen model to drop further in price.
Because once it does the savings will be worth it. As you’ll still get almost the same performance for a larger drop in price. As it sits right now the 14th gen version is probably the better option if you’re looking for something on the top-end from Intel. But it won’t be that way for much longer. As this gets older so too will the Core i9-13900K and Intel will look to get rid of stock by doing sales. In most cases we’d still suggest going with the CPU above. But if you’re dead set on a 14th gen CPU then this will provide what you want.
You’ll get 24 cores in this CPU with a base clock of 4.4GHz and a boost clock of 6GHz. Plus it’s overclockable.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- Price: $229
- Where to buy: Best Buy
If you were looking for something around the same price and performance of the Ryzen 5 7600X CPU, then it’s highly recommended to check out the Ryzen 5 7600. While it loses just a tiny bit of performance in gaming, it’s not a lot. And there’s a very good chance you wouldn’t notice the differences. What you will notice is that this is $20 less expensive and it comes with a bundled cooler. So not only do you spend $20 less on the CPU, you don’t have to spend the extra money to buy a cooler for it either. And in the end that could add up to a nice chunk of extra cash.
Which you can choose to spend on other PC components. Or perhaps a game for your new rig once it’s put together. Another thing to take into account is that like the 7600X, the 7600 model does require an AM5 motherboard standard and it only supports DDR5. So the extra savings from the CPU and from not having to buy a cooler could go to those parts if you don’t already have them.
Overall this is going to be one of the best picks if you want solid gaming performance at 1080p. If you don’t need the absolute bleeding edge tech with max settings in games.
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- Price: $399
- Where to buy: Best Buy
If your main concern is having the fastest CPU on the market, then look no further. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is that CPU. You’ll get better overall performance than other CPUs from both AMD and Intel and for probably quite a bit less money. Especially now that the price for this CPU has come down to $399.
Like some of the other AMD chips on here it doesn’t support DDR4 RAM though. So you’ll likely need to spend more on the DDR5 upgrade. However, this CPU also has great efficiency for power and doesn’t draw as much. And it has additional support for overclocking.
This is a VR ready CPU to boot. So you can easily set up your VR headsets for more immersive gaming. Overall, this is our pick for the best performance and value. If you want the best possible performance you can get without spending much more than $399 go with this CPU as its one of the best CPUs for gaming and in our opinion the best overall. But if money is no object than there are other options.
Intel Core i5-13600K
- Price: $308.99
- Where to buy: Best Buy
Rounding out this list is the Intel Core i5-13600K. At just over $300 this is an exceptional value for a CPU for gaming because it has excellent gaming performance and it’s overclockable. It also outperforms equivalent Ryzen chips. So if you’re looking to spend around the $300-$315 mark, this is your best bet.
While this CPU doesn’t come with a bundled cooler it does support DDR4 RAM which means you have the opportunity to save money there. However it does also support DDR5 RAM so if you want to spend that extra cash you certainly could.