The best gaming CPUs work hand in hand with your graphics card to deliver high detail settings, high frame rates and a gorgeous-looking and feeling gaming experience, no matter what you want to play. Like graphics cards, performance of the best gaming processors has increased by leaps and bounds in recent years, making the latest and greatest chips seriously powerful.
The Intel Core i5-12400F is one of the most exciting CPUs of its generation, with fantastic … [+]
That goes for the whole spectrum of CPUs too, from the more modest mid-range offerings, to the high-end powerhouses. Not all of them are affordable, not all of them are efficient, but whether you want the fastest gaming processor ever made or something for a small-form-factor system, one of these CPUs will be right for you. Here are some of the best gaming CPUs you can buy in 2022.
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Intel’s Core i5 processors always used to be its standout chips in every generation, and after a few years of less-than-impressive performance gains, the Core i5-12600K has brought that mid-range back to true form with absolutely staggering speed in a relatively efficient package.
This new-generation Alder Lake processor comes with 10 cores (six performance cores and four efficiency cores) and hyperthreading, for a total of 16 thread support, all while reaching up to 4.9GHz on the core. This makes it a faster gaming processor than any Intel CPUs that came before, including the previous generation kingpin, the 11900K. It also keeps pace or exceeds most of AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors, all while undercutting them on price by 10s of dollars.
This CPU also supports the new-generations of DDR5 and PCIExpress 5 for faster memory, graphics and storage, should you wish to pay the premium for them. You don’t have to, though, as the Intel 12th-generation also supports DDR4 memory, which is significantly more affordable as of writing.
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The Intel Core i9-12900K breaks the mold for what a high-end gaming CPU should be. It has just eight high performance cores (two less than the flagship 10900K had two years ago) but it combines them with a further eight efficiency cores, making this a 16-core, 24-thread CPU that can hit over 5GHz on all of its big performance cores at once, and reaches 5.2GHz on just a couple when pushed to its limits.
You’ll need to cater to its high thermal and power demands, as this is not the most efficient of processors, but it far exceeds anything Intel has ever released before in terms of raw gaming performance. That gives it a big leg up over AMD too, with a notable lead in almost all games.
It’s a productivity powerhouse too, making this a great CPU for gaming and streaming at the same time—although AMD’s higher-core-count CPUs still compete favorably there.
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AMD’s AM4 platform is coming to an end in 2022, but its Ryzen 5000 series was a great send off for such a long-running platform. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X would make an excellent final upgrade for your AMD gaming PC if you want to give it one last hurrah before you trade it in for something better.
With eight cores, 16 threads and the ability to boost up to 4.7GHz, this is one of the fastest CPUs AMD has ever made. As it fits in an AM4 socket, it’s compatible with most 400- and 500-series motherboards, and even some select 300-series boards for those still running first-generation Ryzen processors.
This makes the 5800X a great buy for anyone wanting to bring their PC up to modern performance standards without having to replace your motherboard, memory and everything else besides. The only reason you might want to hold off buying this is that AMD has planned a 5800X3D launch at some point in early 2022, which will likely be far faster for gaming. However, it will also likely be vastly more expensive, so the standard 5800X is a much more affordable upgrade path.
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Intel’s K-series processors might get the most fuss made of them, but the Alder Lake generations’ more modest 12400F is arguably its greatest strength. It’s a straight six-core, 12-thread processor with none of the efficiency cores that so characterize this generation, but its performance is exceptional.
It trades blows with the AMD Ryzen 5600X, is faster than most Intel CPUs of previous generations and does all that for $200 (or less on sale). You do have to pay for the relatively expensive Intel new-generation motherboards to build a PC around a 12400F, but as far as affordable gaming processors go, the 12400F is an absolute powerhouse.
It doesn’t draw too much power either. It’s not quite as efficient as the 5600X, but it’s not far off, making this another CPU worth considering for smaller form factor builds or if you’re concerned about your energy usage.
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The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is one of the best gaming processors of its generation, with six cores, 12 threads and a power draw that barely eclipses 120W when it’s pushed to its limit. Many of its contemporaries will demand more than double that when really working hard.
That makes the 5600X a great gaming CPU for more modest gaming PCs, small form factor systems and anyone who’s concerned about their gaming system’s energy consumption. You aren’t leaving much performance on the table by doing so, though, as the 5600X offers excellent gaming performance at any resolution. It falls behind the more recent Intel 12th-generation CPUs in some games, and it’s not quite as affordable as it once was with new competition, but it’s still a great CPU in 2022 and offers efficient, relatively affordable gaming for AMD fans.
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The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is overkill for most games, but it offers excellent gaming performance with heaps of extra cores to spare—perfect if you want to do some streaming while you game or edit video after the fact. It has 16 cores in total, all of them full-size for maximum performance (unlike the 12900K’s mix of performance and efficiency cores) giving it an edge in most multi-threaded tasks over even Intel’s latest flagships. It’s not as strong as those chips in raw gaming performance, but there’s nothing that can match it in multi-tasking workloads.
This is a relatively toasty CPU, so you’ll need a powerful aftermarket cooler for it, but if you’re after the ultimate in gaming and streaming power, this is the best CPU for the job. If you don’t want to spend quite this much, the more modest (and more affordable) AMD Ryzen 9-5900X is still a great option with its 12 cores. That does fall behind Intel’s best while still not matching up in terms of gaming performance, so consider the 12900K or 12700K if you don’t want to spend as much as the 5950X demands.
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The Intel Core i5-10400F is far from a cutting edge processor, but despite being a mid-range option from two generations ago, it’s still a great modern gaming processor. Its six cores and 12 threads with a boost clock speed of 4.3GHz put it within striking distance of some of the best CPUs of today. When paired with a capable graphics card, it’s a versatile gaming CPU for 1080p or 1440p resolution.
The real selling point for this CPU, though, is the price. At less than $140, it’s one of the most affordable gaming processors out there, especially with this kind of performance. It isn’t an unlocked processor, so you can’t expect to overclock it for added power, but it’s still a strong CPU right out of the box.
It doesn’t have onboard graphics either, so a dedicated graphics card is an absolute must to be able to play games with it, but if you have that handy and want a decent CPU upgrade, the 10400F is well worth considering.
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Graphics cards are hard to find at fair prices at the moment, but onboard graphics are typically very poor. Not always though. In fact, the Ryzen 7 5700G has the best integrated graphics of any CPU ever, with eight Vega graphics cores delivering solid 1080p gaming performance and very good frame rates if you don’t mind playing at 720p.
Better yet, this CPU is really powerful in its own right. It’s eight Zen 3 cores and 16-thread support make it one of the best processors of its generation, giving it comparable gaming performance to the Ryzen 5600X and 5800X, at a similar price. That means that when you can buy a GPU in the future, you won’t be missing out on much CPU performance for opting for an APU like this one. It’s not quite as fast as those dedicated CPUs, but if you want to wait until a more reasonable time to buy a graphics card, this is the most powerful all-in-one gaming chip you can buy in 2022.
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If you’re building a budget gaming PC, there is absolutely nothing out there as good as the Core i3-10100F. This is a quad core, eight thread CPU with a boost clock of 4.3GHz, all for less than $100. That’s absolutely astounding considering this sort of spec would have been flagship material just a few years ago. Indeed the 10100F nips at the heels of old-school high-end CPUs like the 7700k.
The only real downside to it is the lack of integrated graphics. If you already have an old graphics card or you can buy one for cheap, this CPU is more than enough for capable 1080p gaming in Esports and AAA games. It’s not for high-end PCs, but for a budget gaming system, the Intel Core i3-10100F is the best CPU for the job.
