Choosing the right CPU can be just as hard as picking the other core components of a PC. But getting it wrong could be more detrimental. Choosing the right processor is the most crucial step of the PC-building process. Even though it boils down to only two manufacturers — Intel or AMD — you still have to comb through dozens of different CPUs. Additionally, there are other factors to consider like the CPU's overclocking potential, your primary workload, etc. Your options will also vary depending on whether you're planning a new build or upgrading an existing one.

Before we get started with individual items on the list, we've put together a list of important things to consider while shopping for the best CPUs.

• Generation check: Both AMD and Intel upgrade their CPUs with new architecture and advanced computing features every year. It's important to understand the difference to get the best bang for your buck. The first digit of the four-figure model number denotes the generation. For example, 12 in Core i7-12700K or 5 in Ryzen 5 5600X.
• Understanding workloads: It's important to match your CPU budget with what you plan to do with your PC. You don't need a high-performance CPU for basic day-to-day tasks, but you can't rely on a budget chip to have enough multi-thread muscles to push creative workload applications.
• Overclocking: Overclocking helps the CPUs to achieve significantly higher clock speeds than it is rated for out of the box. However, not all CPUs support overclocking, and not all CPUs need overclocking for the best results. On Intel CPUs, you need to purchase the K variants to be able to overclock. Ryzen CPUs are all unlocked.
• CPU sockets: Not all CPUs can be used on any available motherboard on the market. You'll need chipsets and a socket that's specific to your CPU of choice, so pair it accordingly. If you already own a motherboard and don't have money for a new one, then purchase a CPU that matches your board's socket. AMD has just changed its socket with Ryzen 7000, so if you're looking for one of those you will definitely need to grab a new motherboard. Intel 13th Gen supports the LGA 1700 socket, found on motherboards with chipsets such as Z690, Z790 and B660.
• Pair with the right components: While CPUs are crucial for your build, there's no point in pairing a high-performance chip with a weak graphics card or slow storage. Make sure all your components work well together before making a purchase decision. And always ensure you have a sufficiently powerful power supply to drive it all.
• Core speed or core count: Higher clock speeds allow for a snappy performance in simple, day-to-day workloads. However, having more cores will help you get through complex and time-consuming tasks faster. AMD's CPUs follow a more traditional design, whereas Intel's 12th and 13th Gen have a hybrid design made of P (performance) and E (efficient) cores.

Best overall: Intel Core i5-13600K

Sometimes it isn't the most expensive, most powerful CPUs that make the most impact. That was true of the 12th Gen Intel Core i5 and now its 13th Gen replacement is here it remains the same. For most people, especially gamers, the Intel Core i5-13600K is Intel's absolute best all-around CPU. It actually replaces its predecessor at the top of the list, by taking the same basic design and just making it better.

That starts with the core count. For the 13th Gen Intel has doubled the number of E-cores on all its CPUs launched thus far. For the Core i5-13600K that means 8 E-cores, paired with 6 P-cores for a total of 14. The P-cores are also hyperthreaded, while the E-cores are not so the 14-cores total ends up with 20-threads. The hybrid design of Intel's CPUs means the P-cores will always prioritize foreground applications, such as gaming, calling on the E-cores when required, or for background tasks. The CPU also makes use of Thread Director which works hand-in-hand with Windows 11's task scheduler to ensure optimized tasks are handed to the best cores for the job. What all this means in simple terms is outstanding performance in lightly threaded tasks, such as gaming, and competitive performance in heavier, multi-thread workloads.

This improvement in performance is in part thanks to more cores and better clock speeds. Single-core performance also has the edge over AMD's alternatives and it isn't too far behind the Core i9-13900K, having a higher base clock but a lower boost. Multi-core performance is also outstanding for a CPU that costs this much. In games, you're going to surrender an incredibly small number of frames compared to the i9, but you'll save about 50% of the asking price. It's also unlocked, so you have space to tinker, but under normal circumstances, you can max it out and stay comfortably within that 181W max TDP. It's also pretty impossible to hit thermal throttling, meaning when gaming you'll never have to worry about the CPU letting you down. You will have to purposely try to make this thing throttle.

There is also the Intel Core i5-13600KF, which is an identical CPU but comes without an integrated GPU and as such, costs $30 less. If you're building a PC with a graphics card then this is an easy way to save a few bucks and lose nothing in performance. However, if you also end up with an Intel Arc GPU, the regular 13600K can use its iGPU in conjunction with the Arc to unlock features like Deep Link and Hyper Encode.

Intel Core i5-13600K

Intel is back into the race with its 12th gen processors and we think the new Core i5-12600K is the best 12th Gen CPU you can buy right now.

View at Newegg

Runner-up: AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

It's a really great time to be a PC builder when the mid-range CPUs are the best overall packages to get. As with the Ryzen 5000 series, for most people, it's going to be the Ryzen 5 that's the one to get. In this case, the Ryzen 5 7600X, that can be had around the $300 mark. The jump in performance with AMD's latest CPUs makes this one insane value package. And you don't even need a graphics card just to turn the PC on anymore.

All Ryzen 7000 CPUs now come with integrated graphics, but very basic. But sometimes it comes in handy. The Ryzen 5 7600X is based on AMD's new Zen 4 architecture built on a 5nm process. It arrives with the first new socket from AMD, AM5, in some time, and as such will require a new motherboard. The new socket looks more like a traditional Intel one, working in partnership with the wild new heat spreader on the CPU. As is traditional with the Ryzen 5, you get 6-cores and 12-threads, though the TDP is higher this generation at 105W. That's still lower than Intel, though, which still feels a little weird since traditionally AMD has been the power-hungry option.

AMD also went all-in on "new". On one hand, it gets you set for the future, on the other, it means an entirely new PC. The Ryzen 5 7600X supports PCIe 5.0, but it also only supports DDR5 memory so you need to factor that in as well. Other important specs include 38MB total cache, a boost clock of 5.3GHz, and a TjMax of 95C. On the whole, the Ryzen 5 7600X will run more efficiently than Intel's alternatives, and mostly cooler. Single-core performance has seen a significant increase on the new chips, too, which is important for gaming.

The Ryzen 5 7600X is the stand-out of AMD's current range. Unless you're building a workstation or something that needs as many threads as possible, say for streaming or creative work, buying this one is a no-brainer. The AM5 socket is going to be supported for some time, too, so while you do have to go through a little added expense now, you're set for future generations.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

AMD's new entry level chip is actually its best for gaming with incredible single-core performance and an attractive price tag to boot.

View at Amazon

Best for creators: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

AMD's newest, most powerful Ryzen CPU is one that will have the creators out there pricking up their ears. One of Ryzen's strengths ever since it first hit the market has been incredible multi-thread performance, important for taxing workloads. Intel has gone down a different route with its hybrid designs, but AMD is still keeping it a little more traditional and the Ryzen 9 7950X is 16-cores and 32-threads of raw, immense power.

Gamers can better spend their money since 16-cores is overkill and then some, but where the 7950X comes in is those who want to game and create. When you consider it in that context it makes much more sense. Want to game and stream? Render high-resolution video? Use software such as Blender or Unreal Engine? In taxing processes like all of these sometimes there's just no substitute for more. More cores, more threads, more performance.

The Ryzen 9 7950X is one of the first Zen 4, AM5 chips from AMD, the first time we've had a new socket in some years. As such you'll need to upgrade everything in your rig. It only supports DDR5, you'll need a new motherboard, too. It's built to support PCIe 5.0, though admittedly there are limited use cases for that right now, but you can transfer over your existing PCIe 4.0 drives.

In our testing, the Ryzen 9 7950X is every bit as impressive as you would hope it to be. It outclasses the Intel Core i9-12900K in almost every benchmark, even in single-core performance at times. Temperatures can get a little on the warm side but don't exceed the 95C (203F) that AMD has previously declared. At idle it'll sit happily at 40C (104F) under an AIO cooler, and you'd be able to drop that even further with some serious liquid cooling. It's still a bit toastier than Intel's competing CPUs though, and we're yet to see the 13th Gen Core i9 on the test bench.

Ultimately AMD has made a pretty meaningful update to the Ryzen family and its flagship model is going to be popular with creators. The days of needing two PCs to stream with, for example, are increasingly looking like being over thanks to advances such as this one. It's pricey, yes, but it's as powerful as you can get right now on a consumer platform. And AM5 is going to be here for many years to come, so you're as future-proofed as it gets right now.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

AMD's latest flagship is a perfect CPU for creators who need a lot of cores for intensive workloads. It's not too bad for gaming, either.

View at Amazon

Best CPU for enthusiasts: Intel Core i9-13900K

Following the 13th Gen trend of just being more, the Intel Core i9-13900K is a whole lot of that. And then a little more on top. If you're building a PC that needs to be able to operate at the absolute highest tier of performance, this is the only choice. It's even got the edge over AMD's high-end Ryzens, the traditional choice for high core-count CPUs in recent years. This is billed as the "world's fastest gaming CPU" but the truth is much, much more. In fact, if gaming is your main purpose, this probably isn't the one to get.

What this CPU is best for is intensive workloads, professional applications, encoding, streaming, and anything that traditionally requires a lot of cores. The doubled-up E-core count for 13th Gen takes the 13900K up to a whopping 16, paired with 8 hyperthreaded P-cores for a total of 32-threads. All this performance comes at the cost of a higher potential power draw and temperature, but equally that only really comes into effect when the CPU is being really pushed. It'll push all the way up to 100C before it thermal throttles, and the 253W max TDP can easily be blasted past without getting into serious overclocking. So make sure you have a good PSU and a good cooler!

The base clock speed is actually a little lower than the Core i5-13600K at 3GHz, but the turbo goes all the way up to 5.8GHz. And it's an overclockers best friend, with 6GHz easily achievable and the world's best have already taken it in excess of 8GHz. You also get 36MB of L3 cache, support for DDR4-3200 and DDR5-5600, and like the rest of the range, an optional (and cheaper) KF variant that comes without integrated graphics. It's also pretty well priced all things considered, undercutting AMD while edging it on outright performance.

There was a time you would have to use an enthusiast platform to get extreme performance, but Intel has firmly established it in the mainstream now. Enthusiasts and content creators will flock to it, but it could also be a viable 'budget' option for a workstation PC. Unless there are features you can only get by spending a lot more, this 24-core behemoth is a worthy addition.

Intel Core i9-13900K

Intel is back into the race with its 12th gen processors and we think the new Core i5-12600K is the best 12th Gen CPU you can buy right now.

View at Best Buy

Best budget CPU: Intel Core i5-12400

Intel unveiled the complete Alder Lake desktop CPU lineup at CES 2022, introducing as many as 22 new SKUs. In addition to the high-end parts including the 12600K and the 12900K, the Alder Lake family now has some low-powered mainstream CPUs too. Out of the bunch, we think the Intel Core i5-12400 is one of the best CPUs, especially for those who're looking at budget CPU options. At under $200, the 12400 is certainly not the most affordable processor on the market, but we think it offers incredible value for money. It's also not going to be replaced by a 13th Gen model, at least, not yet.

The Intel Core i5-12400 comes with six cores, all of them being performance cores. This means the Core i5-12400 lacks the E-cores as we've seen with a lot of other high-end Alder Lake chips. The lack of hybrid architecture allows this CPU to work independently of Intel's new Thread Director. That's right, the Core i5-12400 doesn't rely on the Thread Director to schedule tasks on the correct cores. As a result, the 12400 tends to perform just as well on systems running on Windows 10 as it is on those running Windows 11.

The Core i5-12400 is also a stellar gaming chip that easily outperforms a lot of AMD's competing processors. In fact, this particular chip is proven to be faster than the Ryzen 5 5600X in gaming, which is very impressive. With proper tuning, the Core i5-12400 is also said to outperform the Core i9-11900K from the last generation at gaming. Overall, it's safe to that the 12400 is an excellent budget chip that also happens to do well in gaming.

One of the best things about this particular CPU is that it comes with its own CPU cooler. Intel has decided to bundle its mainstream CPUs with the new range of Laminar CPU coolers. The Core i5-12400 is one of the mainstream chips that get the new Laminar RH1 cooler out of the box. We're yet to get our hands on this new CPU cooler, but we think it should be enough to handle the CPU at stock settings.

The Core i5-12400, however, demands a new chipset and a new CPU socket. You'll need one of the new Intel 600-series chipset motherboards with an LGA 1700 socket to run this processor. Luckily, the more affordable B660 and H610 chipset-based motherboards have also started showing up on the market now, so you no longer have to rely on the expensive Z690 motherboards to use Alder Lake chips. The Core i5-12400 also comes with Intel UHD 730 graphics that let you use it without a discrete graphics card. If you already have a discrete GPU, however, then we recommend picking up the Core i5-12400F version that ditches the integrated graphics to save you more money.

Intel Core i5-12400

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a fantastic budget CPU in the Alder Lake family that handily topples a lot of other high-end chips on the market. This CPU also comes with its own cooler inside the box.

View at Amazon

Best entry-level CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

AMD's Ryzen 5 5600G with an integrated GPU is our pick for the best budget CPU on the market right now. It entered the market during the worst graphics card shortage in history but even now it's a seriously good choice. Especially since it's cheaper than ever. The Ryzen 5 5600G's Vega graphics will serve you well as long as you're willing to sacrifice visual fidelity in games, but you're still getting some of the best integrated graphics ever made.

The 6-core Ryzen 5 5600G comes with a 3.7 GHz base and a 4.4 GHz boost clock. It also features 16MB of L3 cache, and seven Radeon RX Vega CUs operating at 1.9 GHz. It has a configurable TDP (cTDP) of 45W to 65W, although you can expect it to operate at 65W for the most part. It does it without producing too much heat, though. Compared to the more expensive Ryzen 5 5500X, the 5600G gets the Radeon RX Vega graphics engine in exchange for 200 MHz of peak CPU boost clock and half the L3 cache. You also have to make peace with 24 lanes of PCIe 3.0 instead of PCIe 4.0, but you get support for the DDR4-3200 interface.

The 5600G should be good for 720p gaming across a lot of titles, but your experience will be limited the more demanding the resolution or the title. We've noticed this APU struggling to keep even at fairly low settings while working at 1080p resolution. Outside gaming though, it offers solid performance in standard desktop PC applications. The Ryzen 5 5600G gets brownie points for excellent power consumption and efficiency. The 5600G also shaves a lot of overhead costs with its bundled Wraith Stealth cooler and compatibility with AM4 motherboards.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a great APU for those who are currently struggling to buy a GPU on the market.

View at Amazon View at Best Buy

Best CPU for workstation: AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX

In addition to a good mix of mainstream CPUs, we're adding the AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX to the collection as a productivity workhorse. This is currently the best CPU for those looking to build a productivity machine, capable of chewing through multi-threaded workloads in no time. It's more powerful than every other mainstream CPU on our list for obvious reasons.

The Threadripper Pro 3995WX was an easy pick for us considering how the Threadripper 3000 processors rule the top end of the HEDT market with Intel's delay in transitioning to the 10nm node. Intel will most likely make a splash in this category very soon with its new processors, but for now, you'll find plenty of good workstation CPUs from AMD.

The AMD's Threadripper 3995WX is an absolute unit with 64 cores and 128 threads. It also supports up to 2TB of memory spread out among eight memory channels, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, among many other features. According to AMD, the Threadripper 3995WX is "a highly specialized processor that provides incredible performance in a narrow cross-section of workloads, but at an extremely attractive price point given its capabilities." Despite its expensive price tag, we agree with AMD on the pricing. All things, considered, the Threadripper Pro 3995WX is a reasonably priced CPU.

The company's decision to pair 64 cores and 128 threads with higher boost frequencies makes it one of the best silicon on the market for creative workloads. The Threadripper Pro 3995WX can deliver more performance than even dual-socket servers, which is quite impressive. The higher boost frequencies of the cores provide snappy performance in everyday tasks too. Gaming is also within the reach of this processor, however, we don't recommend this CPU just for gaming. That'd be overkill since the current generation games aren't designed to take advantage of these many cores anyway. The Threadripper 3995WX isn't necessarily restricted to multi-threaded tasks either, but we'd rather go with other CPUs from the collection to handle mainstream workloads.

AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX

The AMD Threadripper Pro 3995WX is a workstation workhorse that's best suited for heavy multi-threaded applications like 3D rending, video editing, etc.

View at Amazon

Final Thoughts

Figuring out what you're going to do with your PC and allocating a budget for it is a good place to start a PC build. A CPU is not the only core component affecting the performance, but it can certainly hinder the overall output of the rest of the system. A good general all-rounder though for all needs is either the Intel Core i5-13600K or the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X. Both are "mid-range" CPUs that don't cost a fortune. But both also deliver some serious performance that will make them useable for years to come. Content creators, enthusiasts and workstation buyers are equally well supported, with Intel's Core i9-13900K a definite stand out.

You can also check out our collection of the best monitors, best keyboards, best webcams, etc. if you need help picking the right peripherals. Lastly, we also have some nice case options for you in our best PC case collection to pack everything inside a compatible enclosure without having to compromise on space or airflow.