Best CPU for gaming 2022: the top Intel and AMD processors

Best CPU for gaming 2022: the summit Intel and AMD processors

Our recommended CPU picks

2022 is already shaping upwardly to be a year where the best CPUs for gaming get better – not incrementally better, as with every year, but drastically, fundamentally amend. Intel's Alder Lake family has already built on a brilliant launch with some much more affordable processors, like the Core i5-12400F you'll find beneath, and the AMD Ryzen 7000 series is set up for later on this twelvemonth with a hit new design and futureproofing features. Truly, an exciting time to be on the market place for small-scale silvery rectangles.

Naturally, among all the talk of DDR5 compatibility, hybrid architectures and PCIe 5.0 possibilities, a gaming CPU ultimately needs to run games well and unlock the full potential of the best graphics cards. This remains a case of balancing core counts with clock speeds: faster cores will let your PC crunch numbers quickly enough to heave frames per second, and while having loads of cores has typically been better for workstations than gaming rigs, modernistic games are better optimised to take advantage of multiple cores at once.

Intel's current 12th Gen chips, the Alder Lake range, do a particularly fine job of finding such a balance. Their hybrid architecture can dedicate the fastest cores to gaming duties while offloading background tasks to smaller, more than efficient cores – a clever tactic that's seen Alder Lake chips nail through our benchmarks. Hopefully AMD can cook upwards something similarly impactful for Ryzen 7000 as well.

For at present, you tin find our picks of the best gaming CPUs below, all based on in-house testing. You tin can also check out our handy guides to matching a new CPU with a uniform motherboard, how to install a CPU for the first fourth dimension and whether air cooling or liquid cooling will better suit your PC build.

Best CPU for gaming 2022

Intel Core i5-12600K- the best Intel GPU for gaming, and the best CPU for gaming overall
Intel Cadre i5-12600F - the best value CPU for gaming
AMD Ryzen v 5600X - the best AMD CPU for gaming
AMD Ryzen iii 3300X - the all-time budget CPU for gaming
Intel Core i9-12900K - the best loftier-finish CPU for gaming

Intel Core i5-12600K

The all-time Intel CPU for gaming, and the best CPU for gaming overall

If Intel's 11th Gen Rocket Lake range was simply a stopgap, the Intel Cadre i5-12600K is what many will accept been waiting for. While slightly pricier than the Cadre i5-11600K (and its biggest rival, the AMD Ryzen five 5600X beneath), it'due south worth it, thanks in no small office to the new hybrid architecture. The addition of E-cores upwards the total core count without muscling in too much on the thermal and ability requirements of the master P-cores; every bit a result, the Core i5-12600K gets a major single-cadre performance heave compared to previous generations, and an fifty-fifty bigger enhancement to its multicore potential.

Granted, this doesn't translate into drastically better gaming functioning, simply at that place's yet an comeback to the extent that this chip outpaced the Ryzen five 5600X in our games benchmarks. Temperatures too run depression enough for the Core i5-12600K to pair well with a basic air cooler, so your just other installation business organisation will be getting an Intel 600 series motherboard.

On top of superior performance, the Cadre i5-12600K also offers better futureproofing than the Ryzen 5 5600X. Information technology supports DDR5 RAM likewise as DDR4, and will exist compatible with PCIe 5.0 hardware once it becomes available. Similar all twelfth Gen Alder Lake chips, it also ups the number of available PCIe 4.0 lanes compared to Rocket Lake. All in all, it's the best all-round CPU we've tested yet.

Intel Core i5-12400F

The best value CPU for gaming

There's a serious argument for putting the Intel Core i5-12400F in the top spot of this listing; in my gaming tests it was either on par with the Cadre i5-12600K or slightly faster, despite having fewer cores and a markedly lower price.

Honestly, if the Core i5-12600K wasn't unlocked for overclocking, and didn't accept extra E-cores for handling background processes, it could well be the Cadre i5-12400F that comes out on top. But I'd still recommend it in a heartbeat, peculiarly if you lot don't have the skills or means to endeavour overclocking. Or, indeed, if y'all just want a PC for games and nothing else – the Core i5-12400F might 'only' have 6 P-cores, simply as it happens, that's all yous demand to go top-quality performance fifty-fifty with a high-end graphics card.

Besides, the Core i5-12400F isn't exactly a slouch for general computing. It outperforms the Ryzen 5 5600X in Cinebench, and its minor power requirements assist information technology run cool and quiet, even on a inexpensive air cooler.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X

The best AMD CPU for gaming

Intel's Alder Lake fries are more appealing overall, but the AMD'due south Ryzen five 5600X is no less of an effective gaming CPU. In a lot of games you probably wouldn't even find the FPS difference between this, the Core i5-12600K and the Core i5-12400F.

Indeed, thanks to AMD'due south Zen 3 CPU compages, the Ryzen 5 5600X is both fast and highly efficient, reducing oestrus buildup and leaving more PSU power to go towards the graphics card. It also comes with its own cooler in the box, and you don't demand mega expensive or massively fast RAM to get the best out of it, either - something which isn't always true over on Intel's side of the fence. What's more, the Ryzen 5 5600X is also compatible with all of AMD's X570 and B550 chipset AM4 socket motherboards, and near X470 and B450 motherboards will support it after a BIOS update, giving you loads of flexibility when it comes to picking a motherboard.

Aye, AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen ix 5900X CPUs are technically a bit faster and better-suited for things like video editing and streaming and the similar, but if all you're subsequently is a solid foundation for a good old-fashioned gaming PC, the Ryzen 5 5600X offers everything you need (especially when our tests testify its gaming operation really isn't that far backside its more expensive siblings).

AMD Ryzen iii 3300X

The best budget CPU for gaming

It'south hard to detect in stock these days, simply the AMD Ryzen three 3300X remains a seriously proficient entry-level gaming CPU...if you lot can get your hands on i. It'south significantly cheaper than all of its Intel rivals, and offers a surprising amount of ability for its pocket-sized cost. Indeed, in our tests, information technology's pretty much on par with AMD's more than expensive Ryzen v 3600 and Ryzen 5 3600X CPUs, making it a much better buy for greenbacks-strapped PC builders.

The Ryzen iii 3300X's general desktop operation is nifty for a quad-core CPU besides. In fact, its single core performance really outranks the Core i5-10600K in my benchmark tests, cementing its condition as one of the all-time value CPUs effectually. It'due south a fantastic choice for both gaming and daily desktop tasks alike, and it also comes with its own, very adept cooler in the box, making it fifty-fifty better value for coin.

Once again, mind, the Ryzen 3 3300X has been very difficult to go hold of since it commencement came out, and it's currently unknown when or if information technology will come back in stock. At this point,yous may also desire to wait and run across if the Ryzen 7000 series will have an equivalent entry-level model worth getting instead - there'southward a skilful run a risk it will, and with more modern features like PCIe v.0 and DDR5 support.

Intel Core i9-12900K

The best high-terminate CPU for gaming

Allow me starting time past saying that you absolutely do not need a CPU as powerful every bit the Intel Core i9-12900K just for gaming. Still, if you are willing to pay top dollar for simply the very finest of primal processing units, there's nothing on the market that beats this sixteen-core goliath on pure ability.

Not fifty-fifty the Ryzen 9 5950X – which is, to credit Intel, even more expensive – can match the primo 12th Gen's mix of single core and multicore performance. As such, in that location is a genuine statement to make for it if y'all're also using your gaming PC for endeavours like streaming or video editing. And while the Core i5-12600K remains far meliorate value for games specifically, the i9's actress P-core speed will help clasp a few more frames out of meridian-tier graphics cards.

The Core i5-12600K also runs a lot cooler, and uses much, much less power under load, so you'll demand to brand sure the Cadre i9-12900K is accompanied by a quality liquid cooler and a high-wattage PSU also. That'south a lot of hurdles to jump, but at the finish of information technology all yous'll be rewarded with the fastest gaming CPU of the current generation.