Best gaming CPU 2025: top AMD and Intel processors for your next build
Choosing the best gaming CPU for your build is a defining part of the PC building experience, and alongside the graphics card is one of the most critical components that determines its ultimate performance. With that said, the CPU market is in a confusing state for casual buyers, with multiple generations in play and great-sounding options available from both AMD and Intel.
With this in mind, we’ve formulated this guide to the best gaming CPUs money can buy in 2025, based on our own testing, current prices and critical reviews from other publications. Whether you’re a fan of Team Red or Team Blue, we’ve got you covered with recommendations from the budget and value-oriented categories right up to each company’s high-end and flagship options.
Click the links below to jump right into the category you’re most interested in, or scroll on for our recommendations in full. We’ve chosen an AMD and Intel option for each price bracket, with a focus on gaming performance and full system build costs plus other considerations.
Best gaming CPU 2025
Best budget AMD processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600Best budget Intel processor: Intel Core i3 14100FBest value AMD processor:  AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3DBest value Intel processor: Intel Core i5 14400FBest high-end AMD processor: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3DBest high-end Intel processor: Intel Core i7 14700KFBest AMD processor for content creation: AMD Ryzen 9 9950XBest Intel processor for content creation: Intel Core Ultra 285KTo see this content please enable targeting cookies. Best budget AMD processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is the cheapest Ryzen 5000 processor, and therefore is the most affordable way to get the excellent single-core performance that defined this series of CPUs. It’s noticeably faster in many games than earlier Ryzen designs, so it makes a great upgrade for folks still using popular older processors like the Ryzen 7 1700X, Ryzen 5 2600 or Ryzen 7 3700X.
 
																			 
																			