The advent of Intel's new 14th-generation CPUs builds on the success of its 13th-generation Raptor Lake-based CPUs with higher clocks and, in some cases, higher core counts in tow. Meanwhile, AMD clings firmly to its X3D CPU-induced wins in gaming, making it quite challenging for players to choose the best CPU for their PC rig.

When it comes to picking a CPU, there are currently more choices than ever before with both Intel and AMD offering motherboards that have been out for over a year that work with 3 and 2 different CPU generations respectively (considering the X3D lineup a different CPU generation). This means that one needs to take a better look at what fits their needs, which could range from general-purpose uses to gaming to hardcore productivity-centric tools. The key metrics for identifying and picking a CPU based on performance that works for a given user include but may not be limited to:

• Instructions Per Cycle (IPC)
• Clock Speeds
• Core Counts
• Memory & PCI-E Support
• Single Core Performance
• Efficiency/Power Consumption
• Cooling Requirements

Anyone looking for the best of both worlds can benefit from these top-tier CPUs, which include the best overall CPUs for productivity and gaming.

Game Rant's Picks for the Best CPUs in 2024

Intel's 14th generation CPUs are a chip off the old block, refreshing the 13th generation's offerings with higher clocks across the board, higher efficiency core counts (Core i7 14700K), and access to Intel's APO scheduler optimizations (14700K and 14900K) in addition to AI tuning for the highest-end Intel CPUs (Core i9 14900K/KF). This, coupled with no releases by AMD in its segment since mid-2023, essentially pits the 14600K versus its predecessor, the Core i5 13600K, in a way that might not flatter most users looking for an upgrade in 2024.

As a standalone product, however, the Intel Core i5 14600K has everything one needs: It comes unlocked out of the box and can be pushed higher easily (with adequate cooling), has respectable gaming performance that exceeds AMD's offerings at the $300 MSRP mark, and has arguably superior multicore performance, making it a well-rounded mid-range productivity powerhouse.

The best thing going for the Intel Core i5 14600K is that it retains the price point of the now-aging 13600K while offering marginally better performance against competition that has not upped its stakes across the board in 2024, making the 14600K an obvious, albeit slightly unimpressive upgrade for users looking to move from their 12th generation or earlier Intel or AM4-based AMD CPUs to a newer CPU this year.

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 8-Core 16-Thread processor is unapologetically designed to go for the jugular when it comes to gaming. AMD is putting its 3D V-Cache technology to full use to push out a processor that makes the most of it for gaming this year as it aims to dethrone Intel's recent dominance when it comes to gaming-related benchmarks and real-world performance.

While the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D was launched after its core-heavy 3D V-Cache-enabled siblings, the Ryzen 9 7900X3D and the Ryzen 9 7950X3D it isn't difficult to see why; it often outperforms its own larger sibling, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D in some gaming benchmarks, retaining its position as the new king of the hill for gaming for nearly a year at the time of writing.

What is not surprising, but still a bit disappointing for some power users, is its lack of productivity-based software gains thanks to the added 3D V-Cache, but that can be reasoned away somewhat as AMD's last generation X3D processor, the capable 5800X3D also exhibited similar behavior: It was slower than the Ryzen 7 5800X in most productivity-based performance tests.

All in all, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the best CPU for gaming and a solid performer that doesn't cost as much as its competitors when it comes to gaming while dominating the playing field with some of the best scores in multiple benchmarks that cement it as the best gaming CPU money can buy currently. It also happens to be on sale at a variety of retailers at discounts that come close to $100 off MSRP, making it a direct competitor at times to the 14600K versus the 14700K at the moment.

The Core i9 14900K is Intel's flagship CPU in the Raptor Lake Refresh lineup. It replaces the already-fast and multicore king of the hill, the Intel Core i9 13900K, and offers higher clocks than its predecessor on both its higher-end performance cores and its lower-clocked efficient cores by 200 MHz and 100 MHz, respectively. It offers best-in-class multicore performance and some of the best gaming performance to date in multiple titles, assisted by its ability to push clocks as high as 6GHz on multiple cores.

This advantage can be built up even further by using the Intel XTU AI tool that currently remains an exclusive for the Intel Core i9 14900K and KF, using it to profile and attempt to run suggested overclocks based on multiple data sets. This, in addition to Intel's APO optimizations available in select titles, can occasionally beat out even AMD's vaunted Ryzen 7 7800X3D in certain titles handily even as it remains a close second in most game-centric benchmarks.

While Intel's quest for the fastest gaming CPU crown is ongoing with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D standing strong, the 14900K comes as close as possible to Raptor Lake while also pulling surprise wins in certain newer titles. It also decimates its competition when it comes to multicore performance, making a well-rounded productivity-centric CPU that also manages to game quite well, coming in a close second to its competition.

It does, however, require a significant cooling, power delivery, and power supply investment to ensure it truly shines, especially in the productivity department, where the chip can routinely cross 400W of power usage when pushed across all of its 24 cores. This can reflect in a significantly larger outlay for users not factoring in the added cost for upgrades across the board to run Intel's finest in 2024.

If gaming is not a prospective buyer's only play when using a processor, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is an excellent choice that outperforms even the more expensive option, i.e., the Ryzen 7950X3D. This is because the latter has limitations when it comes to overclocking and pushing higher boost clock speeds due to the die design, unlike the 7950X which offers significantly higher boost clock speeds and enjoys overclocking support.

It has the highest boost clocks for an AMD processor to date out of the box, which allows it to retain a workload-based performance crown, replacing AMD's previous 16-core offering in the same space, the Ryzen 9 5950X. It offers more performance on tap while trading at a decent discount over its launch MSRP even as the 7950X3D takes up the top consumer-grade slot, offering slightly better efficiency and significantly better gaming performance.

When all is said and done, the Ryzen 9 7950X is a 16-core, 32-thread processor at its core and a very capable one at that. It can also harness some of the latest advances that come bundled as part of its tech offerings as it embraces the AM5 platform: PCI-Express 5.0 and DDR5 memory support. It is also much more efficient than the competing Intel Core i9 14900K when it comes to multithreaded performance and offers lower power draw even when idle.

Building an affordable gaming PC for under $500 is a challenging affair in 2024 thanks to inflation-induced price increases. This, however, does not extend to the CPU market thanks to the plethora of processors on the market, many of which provide astounding value for money. The Ryzen 5 5500 offers performance on par with the 5600X as it offers lower clocks, a halved L3 cache, and PCI-E 3.0 support compared to the higher-end Ryzen 5 5600 or 5600X CPUs, even as it offers an unlocked option under $100.

As a 6-core, 12-thread CPU, it hax better multicore performance versus Intel's Core i3 12100/13100 CPUs, but delivers significantly worse single-core performance as a tradeoff, something that is visible in most older games. Some newer games do benefit from the added thread and CPU core count, making this a more well-rounded option.

Like most of its peers, the Ryzen 5 5500 skips on an iGPU making a discrete option the only way to get things done, but upgradability is seriously limited thanks to it offering only PCI-E 3.0 speeds to discrete GPUs and using the older AM4 platform, which means that linear upgrades are few and far between and limited to yesteryear's Ryzen 7 5800X3D for gaming and Ryzen 9 5950X for productivity.

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is an excellent hexacore CPU for gaming that is AMD's mid-range play for a gaming processor that offers overclockability, decent gaming performance, and superior efficiency in a sub $200 package. It allows users to experience the AM5 platform without having to spend an arm and a leg in the process making it an excellent, well-rounded offering from Team Red for users looking to upgrade on a budget.

While AMD's offering is somewhat limited in terms of core count thanks to its hexacore offerings, it does offer significantly more leeway in terms of efficiency, even if it comes considerably short of production workloads. Also included with the 7600X is an entry-level 2-core integrated Radeon graphics that allows end-users to use it for productivity without needing a secondary display option like its AM4-based predecessor that required a discrete solution.

All in all, if one is going AMD and is on a budget, the 7600X has them covered when it comes to delivering an efficient, gaming-centric performance that doesn't break the bank while offering considerable value to the end user.

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X sees competition from Intel's core-heavy core i5 14400 and 14500 CPUs that do deliver better performance for productivity even as the 7600X remains ahead when it comes to gaming by a wide berth. It does, however, deliver on its promise of a very fast hexacore CPU that offers an efficient, gaming-centric AM5-based alternative for gamers looking to go AMD this round.

The aging Intel Core i7 12700K CPU still packs a powerful punch and is back in the limelight as one of the best CPUs at a fair price as a result of Intel's extensive price cuts on Alder Lake. It comes overclocked out of the box, unlike the comparable Core i5 13500 CPU, while also offering 2 more performance (P-cores) cores while offering 4 less efficient (E-cores) cores as a result.

At the same time, the price tag, the better gaming and productivity performance, and the overclocking potential are strong proponents of what was a favorite CPU when Alder Lake launched. The fact that it runs on both Intel's 12th and 13th generation motherboards, in addition to DDR4 and DDR5 memory depending on the motherboard of choice, makes it an appealing and balanced choice to consider.

With a total of 20 threads in play thanks to its 8 performance plus 6 efficient configuration, the i7 12700K is not a slouch in most productivity-centric workloads but does see a strong challenger in the Core i5 13600KF, which offers faster cores and better gaming performance. Intel is not oblivious to this and has marked the Alder Lake CPU down considerably as a result, pushing it much lower than its next-generation Core i5 alternative.

The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G offers newer Zen 4 cores in an 8-core, 16-thread configuration. It squares these off with a 12 CU RDNA 3 GPU that runs at a high 2.9GHz clock speed on-die even as the APU aims to target a 65W TDP that AMD offers to cool off with an included Wraith Spire cooler in the box. It is currently the CPU with the fastest integrated graphics, which makes it a very appealing option for gamers on a budget, SFF builders, and users looking for a capable HTPC without going overboard on their spend.

It leverages the AMD Radeon™ 780M mobile GPU to deliver on its promise to gamers for excellent entry-level FHD gaming performance and allows for upgrades down the line by embracing the AM5 socket, which is expected to have more options down the line. It does require fast DDR5 RAM, ideally clocked at 6400 MHz or higher to unlock its GPU performance even as it packs a dedicated Ryzen AI upgrade under the hood as one of the first desktop-class CPUs with the Ryzen 8000 moniker in play.

Users might not be thrilled to know that it is limited to PCI-E 4.0 speeds and at a reduced x8 bandwidth offering for discrete GPUs that could cripple some higher-end GPU upgrade options in the future. The iGPU's strong dependence on higher-clocked RAM for better performance and, in some cases, power-limited clocks when running in unison with the CPU firing on all cylinders can be resolved for the most part but does in some cases add a layer of complexity that most tweakers (but not entry-level users) would revel in.

Note: It can be helpful to read Game Rant's review of the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G APU to get a better idea of why the Ryzen 7 8700G is the most powerful APU money can buy in 2024.

How Important Is Single-Core CPU Performance For Gaming?

Single-core performance in a CPU is often touted, and rightly so, as an important metric to track when ascertaining a CPU's performance potential. This is because of how video games generally work, a practice that stems from older video game engines being primarily single-threaded or not handling most of their logic across multiple threads. Most current video games also tend to be exceptionally reliant on a single thread (even those built on modern game engines at times), which also gives credence to this notion.

It is true that faster single-core performance more often than not does translate to significant performance uplifts for most modern titles. This is both due to a speedier single-core somewhat limiting the performance bottleneck that game engines experience where threads 'wait' on the primary thread to proceed before they can move to the next frame or render more objects. As a result, faster single-core performance allows for fewer resource 'locks' on a processor. At the same time, this is not the complete story.

Modern games attempt to increasingly leverage the extra horsepower that multicore CPUs give us. This is due to a multitude of factors but can be condensed down to a few simple factors;

• Considerably more powerful game consoles: Since the last generation consoles from both Sony and Microsoft went for custom AMD x86 chips and the current generation has followed suit, much of the target platform development has been centered around an octa-core processor with the latest generation using custom AMD Zen 2-based APUs. This has allowed modern games to push for better use of limited resources on consoles, which translates to better, more optimal use of multicore CPUs in a bid to eke out more performance for game consoles and PCs alike.
• Better, more optimized game engines: Game engines have come a long way and offer powerful optimization techniques and more fine-grained control to developers now than ever before to ensure better gaming performance on multicore CPUs which they previously couldn't exploit as well as possible relative to potential performance.
• Higher core counts in entry-level CPUs: Possibly one of the most important factors that have led to multicore CPUs receiving increasing amounts of optimization is that entry-level CPUs from Intel and AMD offer a minimum of 4 cores, with most offering 6 or more cores, allowing developers to assume a larger thread and core count than they previously could as a minimum specification, making it easier for them to assume a larger core count from the get-go when designing their games.

While it isn't incorrect to say that multicore performance is a secondary factor to performance, it has increasingly become more relevant since the turn of the century and will continue to grow in terms of relevance as new titles continue to be released. Single-core performance in a way can be seen as the maximum cap of what potential a CPU can exhibit in modern games that otherwise have their multicore requirements met, making it a crucial benchmark for most modern games.

This is also why Intel & AMD focus on single-core performance for gaming-centric CPU offerings with higher clocks offered at the higher, multicore CPU tiers, which are normally reserved for enthusiast-tier gamers and creators such as the Intel Core i9 14900K.

The Bottom Line

More cores and higher clocks do not always equate to more performance and 16-core processors like the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X have a far smaller gap in terms of productivity workloads with the Core i9 14900K than raw core counts would suggest. At the same time, the current king of the hill for gaming is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D which decimates all of its competition with ease thanks to its 3D V-Cache implementation allowing it to work with larger amounts of data thanks to the extended L3 cache.

If one wishes to get the best value for money, both Intel's Core i5 and AMD's Ryzen 5 are where one needs to look in terms of an excellent price-to-performance ratio. If their plans are more centric on getting the best of the best, AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel's Core i9 14900K are excellent options. At the same time, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D makes its case for the best gaming CPU available despite being an octa-core processor in a segment that has plenty of cores to go around for high-end processors.

FAQ

Q: What is the fastest CPU For gaming?

The Fastest CPU for gaming currently is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with an octa-core layout that is backed by AMD's 3D V-Cache with AMD's own Ryzen 9 7950X3D and Intel's Core i9 13900KS coming in a close 2nd and 3rd place respectively.|

Q: What is the Fastest AMD CPU For Productivity?

The fastest consumer-grade AMD CPU for productivity is the 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 7950X which is slightly faster in most productivity benchmarks compared to its more expensive Ryzen 9 7950X3D sibling due to a higher clock speed and TDP rating that help it perform better in non-gaming benchmarks.

Q: What is the Best CPU for Productivity?

As of September 2023, the fastest CPU for work is currently the Intel Core i9-14900KS which can do 6000MHz on single-core clocks while having 24 cores handling 32 threads that allow it to crunch numbers beyond most of its competitors.