The Ultimate Gaming CPU Tier List for 2025.
A Simple Map to a Confusing City.
Choosing a new CPU is like being dropped into a massive, confusing city with hundreds of streets and alleys. This tier list is your simple, color-coded map. The S-Tier locations are the must-see, five-star attractions. The A and B-Tiers are fantastic restaurants and shops worth your time. The C-Tier spots are decent, but not essential. And the D and F-Tiers are the dangerous alleys you should absolutely avoid. Our goal is to give you a clear, easy-to-follow guide to navigate this overwhelming city and find the perfect spot for you.
The One CPU You Should AVOID At All Costs (It’s a Trap).
The Beautiful House Built on a Sinkhole.
The Ryzen 7 8700F looks like a dream house. It advertises a huge “8-core” layout for a seemingly great price. But what the marketing doesn’t tell you is that it’s built on a sinkhole. To save money, AMD cut its L3 cache in half, which is a critical part of the foundation for gaming performance. This single, fatal flaw means the entire house is structurally unsound, causing it to perform worse in games than cheaper 6-core CPUs. It’s a trap designed to fool buyers who only look at the number of rooms.
Why Intel’s New “Core Ultra” CPUs are a HUGE Disappointment for Gamers.
The Brand-New Race Car with a Speed Limiter.
Imagine a car company releases a brand-new, futuristic-looking race car. You buy it, but then you discover it has a built-in speed limiter that makes it slower than last year’s model. That’s the Intel Core Ultra series for gamers. Benchmark tests prove these new CPUs are consistently slower in games than the older Core i7 and i9 processors they replaced. To make matters worse, the racetrack they run on (the LGA 1851 socket) is already scheduled to be abandoned next year, making this a slow car with no future.
The $150 CPU That’s S-Tier (And Why It’s My Most-Used).
The Perfect Chef’s Knife for the Home Cook.
You don’t need a $1,000 set of professional knives to cook a fantastic meal. You need one perfectly balanced, incredibly sharp, and affordable chef’s knife. The Ryzen 5 7500F is that knife. For around $150, it delivers 99% of the performance of more expensive CPUs in gaming. It’s the most-used CPU in my build guides for one simple reason: it represents the absolute peak of performance-per-dollar, making it the undisputed, S-tier champion for any budget or mid-range gaming PC. It’s all the performance you actually need.
How to Choose the Perfect Gaming CPU (The Simple Way).
Don’t Buy the Engine Before You Buy the Car.
When you build a gaming PC, your graphics card is the car, and your CPU is the engine. It makes no sense to put a giant, expensive Ferrari engine into a basic Honda Civic; you’re just wasting its potential. The simple way to choose a CPU is to focus on your GPU first. Your graphics card will have the biggest impact on your gaming performance. Once you’ve chosen your “car,” simply pick any CPU from our C-tier or above. As long as the engine is “good enough,” the car will fly.
The “Cursed” CPUs: Why 12 Cores Can Make Your Games SLOWER.
Two Slow Chefs vs. One Fast Chef.
Imagine a restaurant kitchen. For one big, complex order (a game), it’s much more efficient to have a single, fast chef working at one large station. This is an 8-core CPU. A 12-core AMD CPU is like having two slower chefs working at two small, separate stations. To complete the order, they have to constantly run back and forth, passing ingredients and information, which creates communication delays and slows down the entire process. This “cursed” layout is why a focused 8-core CPU can often beat a 12-core CPU in gaming.
Unlocking X3D: The AMD Superpower That Dominates Gaming.
The Chef with a Giant Pantry Attached to the Stove.
A CPU is a chef, and its “L3 cache” is the pantry where it keeps its most-used ingredients. A normal CPU has a small pantry down the hall, and it has to waste time running to get ingredients. An AMD X3D CPU is like a master chef who has a massive, walk-in pantry built directly onto the side of the stove. Every single ingredient is instantly within arm’s reach. This eliminates all travel time, allowing the chef to work at an incredible, uninterrupted speed, which is why X3D CPUs dominate in the fast-paced world of gaming.
Intel’s New CPUs are Slower Than Last Year’s. Here’s the Proof.
The “Upgraded” Phone with a Weaker Battery.
Imagine a phone company releases a new, “upgraded” model, but independent tests prove its battery life is actually worse than the one from last year. You’d feel cheated. That’s the situation with Intel’s Core Ultra CPUs. We don’t have to guess; the proof is in the public benchmark charts from reputable reviewers like Tom’s Hardware. These charts consistently show the new Core Ultra 5, 7, and 9 processors losing to their older, last-generation Core i5, i7, and i9 counterparts in gaming performance. The numbers don’t lie.
This Website Finds the Absolute Lowest CPU Prices in Real-Time.
The Magical Price Tag That Scans Every Store at Once.
Imagine you’re in a store, holding a CPU box with a magical price tag. This tag instantly scans the web, checking the current price at Amazon, Newegg, and every other major retailer. It then updates itself to show you the absolute lowest price available on the internet right now. That’s what the website CPUs.gg is. It’s a powerful tool that does the exhaustive price-checking for you, ensuring you’re not just getting a “good” deal, but the mathematically cheapest price possible, especially during huge sales events.
The Logical Reason Your Graphics Card is More Important Than Your CPU.
The Artist is More Important Than the Paintbrush.
In creating a masterpiece, who is more important: the artist or the paintbrush? The artist, of course. Your gaming PC is that canvas. The graphics card (GPU) is the artist, responsible for drawing the millions of pixels that create the beautiful image you see. The CPU is the paintbrush, a tool that helps the artist work. A master artist can create a decent painting with a basic brush, but a beginner artist with the world’s best brush will still create a bad painting. The artist’s skill (the GPU) has the biggest impact.
Why I Bought the CPU I Told Everyone to Avoid.
The “Bad” Ingredient That Was on a 90% Off Sale.
As a rule, I tell people to avoid a certain brand of flour because it’s overpriced for its quality. But what if I walked into a store and found that exact flour on a 90% off clearance sale? At that price, it becomes an incredible bargain. That’s what happened with the Ryzen 5 8400F. I ragged on it for its poor value at its normal price. But I found one on a special sale for below $100, which transformed it from a “bad” CPU into the perfect, S-tier value for a specific ultra-budget PC build.
The Ryzen 7500F is the Undisputed King of Budget Gaming.
The Champion Boxer of the Featherweight Division.
In the world of boxing, each weight class has its own undisputed champion. In the featherweight division of CPUs (under $200), the Ryzen 5 7500F is that champion. It steps into the ring and knocks out every single competitor. It offers the exact same gaming performance as its more expensive sibling, the 7600, for a hefty discount. For its price, there is no other processor that can match its combination of speed, efficiency, and value. It is the clear and undefeated king of budget gaming builds.
The “L3 Cache” Scam: How AMD Crippled Its Own CPUs.
The Supercar with a Tiny Fuel Tank.
L3 cache is the small, high-octane fuel reserve that sits right next to a CPU’s engine, giving it instant access to the data it needs. To save a few dollars, AMD designed the 8400F and 8700F with a fuel tank that’s half the normal size. The result is a powerful engine that is constantly being starved for fuel. It sputters and stalls in games, performing worse than cheaper CPUs with bigger tanks. Calling these “gaming” processors feels like a scam, a deliberate crippling of performance for a marginal cost saving.
Why AMD’s APUs Are a “Joke” for Serious Gaming Rigs.
The All-in-One Tool That’s Not Great at Anything.
An APU is like a cheap, all-in-one camping multi-tool. It’s got a tiny knife, flimsy pliers, and a weak flashlight. It’s incredibly useful if you’re stranded in the woods with nothing else. But a serious builder or chef would never rely on it to do their job. For a serious gaming rig, you need dedicated, high-quality tools: a powerful, standalone CPU (a chef’s knife) and a powerful, dedicated graphics card (a cast iron pan). An APU is a clever compromise, but it’s a “joke” to consider it for a high-performance build.
This is the Most “Pointless” CPU AMD Sells Right Now.
The Product on the Shelf That’s More Expensive and Worse.
Imagine you’re at the store, and there are two boxes of the same cereal on the shelf. The box on the left is faster and costs less. The box on the right is slower, costs the same, and comes with a cheap plastic toy you’ll just throw away. The Ryzen 5 7600 is that second box. It’s the same price as the faster 7600X, it has the same gaming performance as the much cheaper 7500F, and its included “toy” (the stock cooler) isn’t very good. It is a completely pointless and logically flawed purchase.
Unlocking FPS-Per-Watt: The Most Efficient Gaming CPU on the Market.
The Car That Wins the Race by Using the Least Fuel.
Not all races are about the highest top speed. Some are endurance races, won by the car that is the most fuel-efficient. “FPS-per-watt” is that fuel efficiency metric for a CPU. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is the undisputed champion of this race. It may not be the fastest overall, but it delivers more frames of performance for every single watt of electricity it consumes than any other CPU on the market. This makes it the perfect engine for small, quiet, and eco-friendly gaming PCs where heat and power are a major concern.
The Secret Reason Intel’s New Socket is Already a Dead End.
The Brand-New Train Station Built on a Line That’s Closing.
Imagine a city builds a beautiful, state-of-the-art train station. But what they don’t tell the public is that they have already signed a contract to abandon that entire train line next year and build a new one somewhere else. Intel’s new LGA 1851 socket is that train station. Leaked roadmaps show they already have plans for a completely different socket, LGA 1954, for 2026. This means anyone who invests in this “new” platform will be stranded at a dead-end station with no future upgrade options.
Why the Ryzen 9600X is a Better Buy Than You Think.
The Stock That’s Quietly Poised for a Huge Payday.
The Ryzen 5 9600X is like a solid, reliable stock that trades at a fair price most days. It’s a good investment, but not an exciting one. However, every once in a while, for seemingly no reason, it goes on a massive, unexpected sale. On Prime Day, I saw it drop to $155, a price so low that it became the best deal in the entire market. It’s a CPU that you should always keep an eye on, because a good discount can instantly transform it from a “B-Tier” choice into an “S-Tier” steal.
This is the Best “All-Around” CPU for Value and Performance.
The Perfect Swiss Army Knife for Your Digital Life.
You don’t always need a specialized tool. Sometimes, you just need a versatile, reliable Swiss Army knife that can handle any task you throw at it. The Ryzen 7 7700 is that perfect tool. With 8 cores, it’s powerful enough for heavy-duty work. It runs incredibly cool and efficient. And it’s often found at a price that offers phenomenal value. It hits the perfect sweet spot between a budget CPU and a high-end monster, making it the best all-around choice for someone who does more than just gaming.
The 8700F is a Trap. Don’t Fall for the “8-Core” Marketing.
The “8-Cylinder” Engine That’s Actually a Lawn Mower Engine.
A car is advertised with a big “8-Cylinder” sticker on the window to make you think it’s powerful. But the fine print reveals it has a tiny fuel line that starves the engine, making it perform worse than a well-tuned 6-cylinder. The Ryzen 7 8700F uses that same trick. It boasts about its “8 cores,” but its crippled, half-size L3 cache (the fuel line) means it gets smoked in games by cheaper 6-core CPUs. It’s a marketing trap designed to fool inexperienced buyers who only look at the core count.
How a $15 CPU Discount Can Change the Entire Tier List.
The Small Wave That Becomes a Tsunami.
In the world of CPU value, a small price change can have huge consequences. A simple $15 discount might not seem like much, but if it makes the Ryzen 5 9600X the same price as the Ryzen 5 7500F, it’s not just a small wave; it’s a tsunami. That tiny shift in price completely upends the hierarchy, instantly transforming one CPU from a “good” choice into the “undisputed best” choice and vice versa. It shows just how competitive and volatile the budget CPU market is.
The Ryzen 7700X: How the Former King Became a Mid-Range Monster.
The Retired Champion Who’s Now an Unbeatable Coach.
The Ryzen 7 7700X was once the undisputed heavyweight champion of gaming CPUs, the fastest on the market. New, stronger champions have since emerged. But now, as a “retired” mid-range option, its price has dropped so dramatically that it has become an unbeatable monster in its new weight class. It’s like having that legendary, hall-of-fame champion step into the ring to train you, offering you world-class performance for a fraction of what it used to cost.
Why You Should Never Trust UserBenchmark for CPU Reviews.
The Restaurant Critic Who Secretly Hates Italian Food.
Imagine a famous food critic who, for some bizarre, personal reason, has a deep-seated hatred for all Italian food. Their reviews of even the best pizza and pasta restaurants would be filled with strange, illogical rants about how burgers are better. UserBenchmark is that food critic. It has a well-known, irrational bias against AMD products. Its “reviews” are not objective analysis; they are nonsensical opinion pieces that often have more to do with Intel’s stock price than the actual performance of the CPU.
A Beginner’s Guide to “CCD Layouts” and Why They Matter for Gaming.
One Big Kitchen vs. Two Small Kitchens.
A CPU “CCD” is like a kitchen where the work gets done. For a single, complex task like a game, it’s much faster and more efficient to have one large, unified kitchen where everything is in one place (this is an 8-core or 16-core CPU). A 12-core AMD CPU is like having two smaller, separate kitchens. The chefs (cores) have to waste time running back and forth between them to share ingredients and information, which creates a communication bottleneck and slows down the whole operation.
How AMD Fixed the ONE Flaw with its X3D Processors.
Moving the Air Conditioner to the Hottest Room in the House.
Imagine a house where the extra-hot server room (the 3D V-Cache) is located far away from the main air conditioner, causing it to run slow. The solution is obvious. With the new 9000-series X3D chips, AMD’s engineers cleverly redesigned the “floor plan” of the CPU. They moved the component that needs the most cooling directly under the main “air conditioner” of the chip. This simple but brilliant engineering change allowed the new chips to run cooler, boost higher, and deliver a massive leap in performance.
The 9800X3D is the Fastest Gaming CPU. Here’s the Undeniable Proof.
The Runner Who Wins Every Single Race on the Schedule.
You don’t declare someone the “fastest runner in the world” after one race. You do it after they consistently dominate the competition across 16 different races, on different tracks, and in different weather conditions. The benchmark charts from reputable, independent reviewers are that proof. They show the Ryzen 7 9800X3D at the top of the podium, not just in one cherry-picked game, but across a huge average of titles. The overwhelming, repeatable data from multiple sources makes its status as the king of gaming indisputable.
Why a Cheaper 8-Core CPU is Better Than an Expensive 12-Core.
A Focused Specialist vs. a Distracted Generalist.
For the very specific and complex task of performing brain surgery (playing a game), would you rather have one elite, hyper-focused surgeon (an 8-core CPU with a single, unified design)? Or would you prefer two pretty good doctors who have to constantly talk to each other and pass instruments back and forth (a 12-core CPU with a split design)? For this one specific job, the focused specialist is far more efficient and delivers a better, faster result, even if they have fewer “hands” on deck.
The Emotional Reason We Overpay for High-Core Count CPUs.
The Feeling of Owning a Car with a Bigger Engine.
There’s a powerful, satisfying feeling in knowing that your car has a giant V8 engine, even if you’re only ever driving in 30mph city traffic where a V6 would be just as fast. We buy 12 and 16-core CPUs for that same emotional rush. It’s the “more must be better” mindset, the dopamine hit of owning the option with the bigger number on the box, even when the data clearly shows that a cheaper, lower-core CPU would actually be faster for our specific need (gaming).
The One CPU That Makes the 9700X a Bad Purchase.
The Product That Becomes Obsolete on Day One of its Release.
The Ryzen 7 9700X is like a brand-new phone that launches on the exact same day as two major competitors. One competitor is cheaper and offers the exact same performance. The other is slightly more expensive but is dramatically faster. The 9700X is a good product, but it’s completely overshadowed by its own siblings. It’s surrounded by such amazing deals (the 7700X and 7800X3D) that it becomes a logically bad purchase by comparison, a good phone in a sea of great ones.
Is It Ever Smart to Buy a 16-Core CPU for Just Gaming?
Using a Commercial Freight Truck to Pick Up a Bag of Groceries.
A 16-core CPU is a commercial freight truck, a magnificent piece of engineering designed to haul massive, parallel workloads. Gaming is like picking up a few bags of groceries from the store. Can the freight truck do it? Yes, absolutely. Is it an efficient, smart, or cost-effective way to accomplish that specific task? Not at all. You are paying a huge premium for a massive capacity and power that you will never, ever come close to using for that one job.
The “Zen 5%” Myth: How the New X3D Chips Shattered Expectations.
The Movie Sequel Everyone Thought Would Be a Disappointing Rehash.
When the regular Zen 5 CPUs launched, they offered only a tiny 5% improvement, leading everyone to believe the upcoming X3D “sequel” would be just as boring. Everyone expected a rehash. Instead, thanks to a clever engineering plot twist, the new 9000-series X3D chips delivered a massive, exciting, and completely unexpected leap in performance. They shattered the “Zen 5%” myth and proved that this sequel wasn’t just a lazy cash grab; it was a true, revolutionary step forward for gaming.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding the Best CPU For Your Budget.
A Treasure Map to Your Perfect Processor.
The website CPUs.gg is a treasure map, and here’s how you read it. Step one: Use the price slider at the top to draw the boundaries of your search area. Step two: Use the clickable tags like “Best Value” or “Gaming” to highlight the potential treasure spots on your map. Step three: Click on a CPU you’re interested in to see a list of different stores and their real-time prices—this is the “X” that marks the spot. This simple, three-step process will lead you directly to your perfect CPU without getting lost.
Why I’m Ranking a CPU I Can’t Even Find in Stock.
Reviewing a Legendary, Out-of-Production Sports Car for Posterity.
Even though a legendary sports car from a few years ago might not be in production anymore, it’s still essential to include it in a “Best Cars of All Time” list to provide historical context and a benchmark for greatness. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D is that legendary car. It’s mostly discontinued, but it’s a key member of the X3D family. By ranking it, we understand where it fits in the performance landscape, which is crucial information for anyone who might stumble upon one on the used market.
The Most “Upsetting” CPU Launch of the Year.
The Straight-A Student Who Suddenly and Spectacularly Failed a Test.
For decades, Intel has been the reliable, straight-A student of the tech world, consistently delivering powerful and competitive CPUs. Their “Core Ultra” launch was like watching that star student turn in an exam that was not only worse than their own previous work but also failed to even compete with their main rival. It was a shocking and “upsetting” failure from a company that everyone expected to ace the test, leaving the entire community baffled and disappointed by the lackluster results.
How a Simple Undervolt Can Turn a Good CPU into a Great One.
Tuning a Car’s Engine for More Power and Better Fuel Mileage.
A skilled mechanic can plug into your car’s computer and “tune” the engine to run more efficiently, often giving it more horsepower while simultaneously improving its gas mileage. “Undervolting” is that exact process for your CPU. By carefully lowering the amount of voltage it receives, you can often make it run significantly cooler and use less power, which in turn allows it to maintain its top speeds for longer. It’s a simple, free trick that can transform a good, hot-running CPU into a great, efficient beast.
The Hidden Cost of Intel’s “Dead-End” Motherboards.
The “Free” Printer That Only Works with Expensive, Proprietary Ink.
A company gives you a brand-new printer for an amazing price. But the hidden cost is that it only works with their unique, outrageously expensive ink cartridges. Intel’s LGA 1851 platform is that printer. You might get a CPU at a decent price today, but the hidden cost is that the motherboard has no future. When you want to upgrade your CPU in a few years, you’ll be stranded, forced to buy a whole new motherboard (and potentially new RAM), a far more expensive “ink” than you ever bargained for.
Why the 7800X3D is Still an S-Tier CPU in 2025.
The Retired Champion Who Can Still Knock Out 99% of Contenders.
A legendary boxer might have retired as the undisputed champion last year. Even though a new champion has since been crowned, that retired legend is still powerful and skilled enough to step back into the ring and knock out almost every other contender in the division. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is that retired champion. While the 9800X3D is the new king, the 7800X3D’s performance is still so phenomenal that, especially when its price drops, it remains an elite, S-tier choice for any high-end gaming PC.
The Real-World Difference Between 16MB and 32MB of L3 Cache.
A Chef’s Tiny Prep Station vs. a Full, Expansive Countertop.
L3 cache is the countertop space a chef (the CPU) has to prepare ingredients for a meal (a game). With a tiny prep station (16MB), the chef is constantly having to waste time running back to the fridge for new items. It’s slow and inefficient. With a full, expansive countertop (32MB), all the necessary ingredients are within arm’s reach. This massive difference in workspace is why CPUs with more L3 cache can deliver dramatically faster and smoother gaming performance, as the chef never has to stop working.
This Rumored “Ryzen 9999X3D” Could Change Everything.
The Secret Superweapon That Could Win the Entire War.
Two armies are locked in a fierce, competitive battle. But one army is secretly developing a new superweapon—a “bonkers” 16-core CPU with two powerful X3D caches—that could completely obliterate the competition. The rumored Ryzen 9 9999X3D is that weapon. AMD themselves said they would never build such a thing, but if the rumors are true, this monstrous, 200-watt CPU would be a game-changing release that could completely reshuffle the performance hierarchy and redefine what is possible for a gaming processor.
Why the “F” in an Intel CPU Name Can Save You Money.
Buying the Car Without the Built-in, Outdated GPS System.
A car dealership offers two identical cars. One has a pricey, built-in navigation system that you know you’ll never use because your phone is better. The other, without that feature, is a few hundred dollars cheaper. Intel’s “F” series CPUs are that second car. They are identical in gaming performance to the regular version but come without the integrated graphics (the outdated GPS). If you’re a gamer who is going to use a powerful, dedicated graphics card anyway, choosing the “F” version is a smart and easy way to save money.
The Most “Overwhelming” Part of Building a PC (And How to Solve It).
Standing in a Grocery Store with a Thousand Different Kinds of Cereal.
The most overwhelming part of building a new PC is choosing a CPU. It’s like standing in the cereal aisle, faced with hundreds of different boxes that all look vaguely similar. You are paralyzed by choice. The solution is a simple filter. A tier list or a smart website like CPUs.gg acts as a helpful store employee who instantly points you to the three best, most popular, and highest-value cereals, cutting through the noise and making the decision simple, fast, and stress-free.
A Logical Breakdown of Why the 9950X3D Isn’t Worth It (For Gamers).
Paying Double for a Car That Isn’t Any Faster in a Race.
A car dealership offers two cars. Both have the exact same top speed and 0-60 time in a race. However, one of them has a much bigger trunk and costs an extra $200. If your only goal is to win a race, it makes no logical sense to pay a premium for extra trunk space. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D offers the same gaming performance as the cheaper 9800X3D. You’re paying $200 more for extra cores (the trunk space) that games simply do not use.
The Only 5 CPUs You Should Actually Consider for Gaming.
The “All-Star Starting Lineup” of the CPU League.
In a professional sports league with dozens of teams and hundreds of players, only a handful are true “All-Stars” worth building a team around. This tier list is our official scouting report, and we’ve identified that starting lineup. From the budget MVP (7500F) to the versatile all-arounder (7700) and the heavyweight champions (the X3D series), these are the only CPUs you really need to watch. Any choice from this elite group of five is a guaranteed championship-winning pick for your gaming PC.
The Surprising Reason a Hotter CPU Can Be a Better Value.
The High-Performance Engine That Just Needs a Better Radiator.
You find two used car engines for sale. One is a newer, more efficient model. The other is a slightly older, more powerful engine that’s known to run hotter but is on a massive discount. If you know you can easily and cheaply install a better radiator (an aftermarket cooler), buying the hotter, cheaper, and more powerful engine is the much smarter value play. The Ryzen 7700X runs hotter than the 9700X, but its significantly lower price and similar performance make it a superior deal if you’re not afraid of a simple cooler upgrade.
Why the Best CPU Deal I’ve Ever Seen Was on a 9600X.
The Day the Stock Market Glitched and a Blue-Chip Stock Halved in Price.
Imagine you’re watching a blue-chip stock that you know is a great value at its normal price. Then, for a brief, magical moment, a glitch in the system causes its price to drop by 25%. You’d buy as much as you possibly could. That’s what happened when the Ryzen 5 9600X, a fantastic $200 CPU, dropped to an unbelievable $155 during a sale. It was a market anomaly, a moment where a great value became a legendary, once-in-a-lifetime deal that I had to jump on immediately.
The Ultimate Litmus Test: Will This CPU Bottleneck an RTX 5090?
Can a Go-Kart Engine Actually Power a Monster Truck?
An RTX 5090 is a giant, powerful monster truck. A CPU is its engine. If you try to install a tiny, underpowered go-kart engine (a budget CPU) into that monster truck, it doesn’t matter how big and powerful the wheels are; the truck is not going to go fast. This is a “bottleneck.” The ultimate litmus test for any high-end gaming CPU is whether its engine is powerful enough to keep up with the most powerful GPU on the market without holding it back, especially at lower resolutions where the engine has to do the most work.
How to “Future-Proof” Your PC with One Smart CPU Choice.
Choosing the Train Line with a Dozen Future Stations Already Planned.
When you’re deciding where to build a house, you can pick a spot on a small, dead-end train line, or you can choose one on a major line that has a dozen new stations planned for the next decade. Intel’s current platform is that dead-end line. AMD’s AM5 platform is the major line, with a clear and public roadmap of new, faster CPUs (“stations”) coming until at least 2027. Choosing AMD is the single smartest way to “future-proof” your motherboard, guaranteeing you an easy and affordable upgrade path for years to come.
The Most “Astounding” Part of the Modern CPU Market.
Walking into a Food Court with a Hundred Different, Amazing Dishes.
Imagine walking into a massive international food court with an “astounding” number of choices, from cheap and delicious street tacos to high-end gourmet burgers. The sheer number of excellent, viable CPU options available right now is that food court. From AMD’s budget champions to Intel’s efficiency kings and AMD’s high-end gaming monsters, consumers have an incredible, almost overwhelming, variety of great choices at every single price point. It’s a fantastic and exciting time to be a PC builder.
The Final, Definitive Ranking of Every AM5 and LGA 1851 Gaming CPU.
The Official Medal Ceremony for the CPU Olympics.
After a week of intense competition in various events, the Olympics holds its final medal ceremony. The athletes are brought out onto the field and placed on the gold, silver, and bronze podiums, while others are ranked accordingly based on their performance. This final tier list is that medal ceremony. We’ve run all the tests, and now we are presenting the final, definitive ranking. We’ll show you who won the gold in the budget, mid-range, and high-end events, and who didn’t even make it to the podium.
The One Time It Makes Sense to Buy an Intel CPU Over AMD This Year.
The One Race a Fuel-Efficient Car Can Actually Beat a Muscle Car.
In a short, quarter-mile drag race, a powerful muscle car will win every time. But in a special, long-distance endurance race where the only goal is to use the least amount of fuel, a small, hyper-efficient car would be the undisputed champion. For most gaming “races” this year, AMD is the muscle car. But if your one, overriding goal is to build the most power-efficient and coolest-running PC possible for a tiny, compact build, then the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, the king of “FPS-per-watt,” is the logical and winning choice.
CPU Gaming Tier List (2025)
Primary Gaming CPUs
| Tier | CPU Model | Ideal For | Key Reason for Ranking |
| S | Ryzen 7 9800X3D | Ultimate Gaming. | The undisputed fastest gaming CPU on the market, bar none. |
| S | Ryzen 7 7800X3D | High-End Value Gaming | Last year’s king, offering near-top-tier performance for a much lower price. |
| S | Ryzen 7 7700 | Best All-Around Value. | 8-core performance that’s nearly identical to the 7700X but runs cooler for less money. |
| S | Ryzen 5 7500F | Best Budget Gaming. | The unbeatable king of budget builds. Offers the best performance-per-dollar under $200. |
| S | Ryzen 5 9600X | Budget Gaming (On Sale) | A fantastic CPU that becomes an S-Tier steal when it gets a deep discount. |
| A | Ryzen 9 9950X3D | Hybrid Pro / Gamer | The absolute best of the best, but you’re paying a huge premium for 16 cores that games don’t use. |
| B | Ryzen 5 7600X3D | Entry-Level X3D Gaming | The cheapest way to get into the game-changing X3D ecosystem, but it’s still a 6-core CPU. |
| B | Ryzen 7 7700X | Mid-Range Power | A former champion that offers great 8-core performance, especially when on sale. |
| C | Ryzen 7 9700X | Decent Mid-Range | A good CPU that’s unfortunately surrounded by better-value options from its own family. |
| C | Intel Ultra 7 265F | Most Reasonable Intel CPU | The best value out of Intel’s disappointing lineup, but stuck on a dead-end platform. |
| D | Ryzen 5 7600 | Pointless Purchase | Completely overshadowed. It’s slower than the 7600X and more expensive than the 7500F. |
| D | Intel Ultra 5 245K | Entry-Level Intel | Slow for its price and offers no meaningful performance gain over cheaper Intel models. |
| E | Ryzen 9 (12-Core) | Not for Gaming | The “cursed” 6+6 core layout often makes these 12-core CPUs slower in games than cheaper 8-core CPUs. |
| E | Intel Ultra 9 285K | Terrible Value | Extremely expensive and gets beaten in games by AMD CPUs that cost hundreds less. |
| F | Ryzen 7 8700F | AVOID AT ALL COSTS | It’s a trap. The “8-core” marketing hides a crippled L3 cache, making it horrifically slow for gaming. |
APU Tier (For PCs Without a Graphics Card)
| Tier | CPU Model | Ideal For | Key Reason for Ranking |
| 1 | Ryzen 5 8600G | Best APU Value | The best all-around choice, offering great integrated graphics performance for a reasonable price. |
| 2 | Ryzen 7 8700G | Maximum APU Power | The absolute fastest APU you can buy, but you’ll pay a significant premium for that extra performance. |
| 3 | Ryzen 5 8500G | Budget APU Use | A slightly nerfed and slower version of the 8600G that should only be bought if it’s on a very deep discount. |