Best CPU 2025 – the top AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors tested

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In this guide, we invite you to tap into our massive wealth of PC hardware knowledge to find the very best CPU for your needs. Whether your top priority is maintaining high frame rates in the latest games, hammering through multi-threaded rendering workloads, or just finding the cheapest CPU that will still do the job, we’ll direct you to your ideal chip.

CPU specs are a bit of a minefield at the moment, as we’re now long past the point where you could just make a decision based on clock speed and the number of cores. Clock speed used to be king when it came to gaming performance, for example, but now the huge slice of extra cache AMD’s X3D chips make them formidable gaming CPUs, despite having ostensibly lower frequencies than their non-X3D counterparts.

The huge slice of extra cache AMD’s X3D chips make them formidable gaming CPUs

Despite what many people would have you believe, you also don’t need buckets of CPU cores for gaming – eight will do the job nicely. That’s an important factor when looking at Intel’s CPUs, as it’s only really the P-Cores that are helpful for gaming. However, if priority number one is multi-threaded performance, you really do want as many cores as possible, and faster clock speeds help too.

We’ll cover all this and more in our rundown of the best CPUs in 2025, where all our recommendations are based on the Club386 team’s many decades of PC hardware experience and expertise. We include all the benchmark data and specs information you need to make a decision, while showing you exactly which CPU you should buy for your own preferences. Anyway, without further ado, let’s get this show on the road.

Best CPU shortlist

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

Best CPU overall

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

Best gaming CPU

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X

Best budget CPU

Intel Core i5-14600K

Best budget all-purpose CPU

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

Best CPU for content creation

Best CPU overall

The best CPU overall is the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D. AMD absolutely knocked it out the park with this CPU, almost nonchalantly demonstrating that you really could have the best of both worlds in one chip. Awesome gaming frame rates? Check. Massive multi-threaded performance? Double check. Under this chip’s heatspreader you not only get an 8-core chiplet equipped with 3D V-cache, just like the 9800X3D, but you also get another 8-core chiplet with a massive 5.7GHz boost clock.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

£595 / $679

Pros

• Unparalleled multi-core performance
• Outstanding gaming frame rates
• Surprisingly efficient
• Cool under load

Cons

• 9800X3D offers better value for gaming
• Very expensive

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While the 9950X3D has the same number of cores and threads as the previous generation flagship chip, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, there are some key differences. Firstly, it has the benefits of AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture, but it also repositions the 3D V-cache chip under its 8-core chiplet, rather than on top of it. This frees up some thermal headroom, meaning this chip not only runs surprisingly cool, but its 3D V-cache-enabled chiplet can also run at a faster clock speed than on the 7950X3D.

As you can see in the gaming graphs below, the 9950X3D is a formidable chip in Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Cyberpunk 2077. Basically, this 16-core chip is in a similar league to the 9800X3D when it comes to frame rates, while also being quicker than the 7950X3D.

When it comes to multi-threaded number-crunching, though, the 9950X3D is in a whole league of its own. As you can see in the Blender graph below, those 16 cores make it massively quicker than the 8-core 9800X3D, with the 9950X3D clocking up a huge 625.1 samples per minute. It’s substantially quicker than the 7950X3D here too. Comparatively, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K gets a result of 556.6 in this test, so the 9950X3D really is the king of the castle.

If you need the absolute best processing power, for both gaming and multi-threaded might, there’s simply no beating the 9950X3D. That said, you have to pay for these bragging rights, and the 9950X3D is very far from cheap. For those with deep enough pockets, though, the performance is worth it if you really want the chip that can do it all.

More detail, including all our benchmarks, can be found in our full AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D review. 

Best gaming CPU

The best gaming CPU is the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This cached-up CPU rocked the gaming hardware landscape when it launched at the end of 2024, knocking its predecessor, the 7800X3D, down the pecking order. Its eight Zen 5 cores give you plenty of power for most people’s multi-threading needs, while the huge amount of cache sitting under them makes it a veritable speed demon in games.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

£395 / $469

Pros

• Outstanding gaming performance
• Impressive multi-core chops
• Drop-in AM5 upgrade
• Reasonably energy efficient

Cons

• Limited overclocking headroom
• High price
• Only eight cores

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It’s this huge stack of extra cache that makes the 9800X3D such a great gaming CPU, and it’s the main reason why it’s so expensive compared to other 8-core chips. Basically, it significantly reduces the likelihood of your games having to page your slower system memory for data, meaning your CPU can carry on maintaining your frame rate. Unlike the 7800X3D, the 9800X3D also has its 3D V-cache under its eight CPU cores, rather than on top of them, which has enabled AMD to increase the clock speed to 5.2GHz.

The impact on games is amazing. As you can see in the two graphs below, the 9800X3D is well ahead of the pack in Cyberpunk 2077 running at both 1920×1080 and 2560×1440. We’re not just talking about a couple of fps when you’re comparing it to non-X3D CPUs either – its average is a massive 9fps ahead of the Core i9 14900K, and 26fps in front of the Core Ultra 9 285K, in our QHD tests.

Thanks to that extra clock speed, the 9800X3D is also a dab hand at multi-threading and number crunching as well. It’s still an 8-core chip, and one with a comparatively low clock speed at that, so you’ll get better multi-threaded performance from plenty of other chips, but it offers a significant speed boost over the 7800X3D here. Check out the Cinebench multi-core results below, and you’ll see that the 9800X3D is well ahead of the 7800X3D, as well as some other AMD 8-core chips. It’s not world-beating, and the cheaper Core i5-14600K is definitely quicker, but it holds up well in these tests compared to its predecessor.

What’s more, you can even overclock the 9800X3D, unlike the 7800X3D, and we’ve had it happily running at 5.4GHz in our tests. If gaming is your top priority, this is absolutely the chip to buy, and it can handle other workloads well too. The only fly in the ointment is the high price – there’s a lot of demand for this chip, and AMD knows it can charge a premium for it. If you have the cash, though, you won’t regret buying it.

For more detail, including all the benchmarks, check out our full AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review. 

Best budget CPU

The best budget CPU is the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X. After initially launching with a bafflingly high price, this 6-core chip has since plummeted below the £200 mark, meaning it can now settle comfortably into its niche. It might only have six cores, but they’re based on AMD’s potent Zen 5 architecture and clocked at 5.4GHz, making it a solid choice for gaming if you can’t afford an X3D chip.

AMD Ryzen 5 9600X

£189 / $199

Pros

• Cheap price now
• Loads of life left in Socket AM5
• Runs extremely cool
• Decent gaming performance

Cons

• Only six cores
• 65W TDP hampers multi-threaded potential
• Core i5-14600K quicker at multi-threading

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Not everyone can afford loads of cores or a huge stack of 3D V-cache, but the Ryzen 5 9600X shows you can still get a decent CPU without spending a bucketload of cash. We recently pitted it against the nearest-equivalent Intel chip test, and while the latter is undoubtedly a better CPU for multi-threading, the 9600X is a decent choice for gaming.

As you can see in the graph below, for example, the 9600X is quicker in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and its average frame rates also beat the Intel chip in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail, and 3DMark Speed Way. That said, there are also some games, such as Cyberpunk 2077, where the Intel chip has the upper hand.

What’s more, Zen 5 is really power-efficient, and doesn’t generate loads of heat, unlike Intel’s Raptor Lake architecture. As you can see in the graph below, the 9600X peaked at just 61.2°C in our tests, almost 23°C cooler than the 14600K. There are a few factors going on here, not least the fact that the 9600X has fewer cores, but the upshot is that you don’t need a mammoth CPU cooler to keep this chip in check.

By default, the 9600X has a TDP of just 65W, meaning you can tame it with a half-decent air cooler easily enough. On the downside, this power limit also gives this CPU less headroom to maintain its 5.4GHz peak boost clock when all its cores are enabled. Some motherboards have a setting that enables you to set the 9600X’s TDP to 130W, though, and while this has a negligible impact on gaming, it can give you a worthwhile improvement in multi-threading performance. Just bear in mind that you’ll need a decent CPU cooler to keep on top of the increased thermal demands.

Importantly, the 9600X’s main advantage over a 14600K is its use of AMD’s AM5 socket. Intel has already moved to a new LGA1851 socket with its Core Ultra 200-series desktop CPUs, and there are rumours that its forthcoming Nova Lake chips will require yet again another socket called LGA1954. This means the LG1700 motherboard you’d buy for a Core i5-14600K is a dead end in terms of upgrading to a next-gen CPU.

Comparatively, AMD has historically supported its sockets for several chip generations, and Asus appears to have confirmed AM5 support for Zen 6, while rumours point to even Zen 7 using Socket AM5 as well. As such, while the Core i5 14600K is arguably a better CPU in this price range, depending on your needs, there’s an extra cost hidden in the lack of socket longevity.

Read our full AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X review for more detail about this budget Zen 5 chip. 

Best budget all-purpose CPU

The best budget all-purpose CPU is the Intel Core i5-14600K. Now available for just £189, Intel’s 14-core Raptor Lake beast now offers great value for the performance on offer. There are some caveats, which we’ll get to shortly, but if you want a chip that can do a bit of everything, and you don’t have a huge amount of money to spend, a 14600K will stand you in good stead.

Intel Core i5-14600K

£189 / $209

Pros

• Great multi-threaded performance
• Low price
• Solid gaming pace

Cons

• Dead-end CPU socket
• Needs BIOS update
• Runs comparatively hot

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Unlike AMD’s 6-core Ryzen 5 CPUs, the main benefit of buying an Intel Core i5-14600K is that you get loads more cores. You get six P-Cores, which are the ones you want for gaming, but you also get eight E-Cores. The latter are basically cutdown cores engineered for power-efficiency, and they really help out when you chuck heavily multi-threaded workloads at this chip.

With a total of 14 cores at its disposal, the 14600K has a substantial edge over the 9600X when it comes to rendering. Just take a look at the Cinebench Multi-core benchmark graph below, and you can see that the 14600K is a massive 43.93% quicker than the 9600X. If you do a fair bit of content creation work that can make good use of extra cores, such as rendering or video encoding, this chip is a great weapon in your multi-threaded arsenal.

It holds its own in games as well, trading blows with the 9600X across our test suite, and out-performing it in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s certainly better than Intel’s current Core Ultra 5 Arrow Lake CPUs in the same price bracket if you want to play games.

There are a few factors to note, however. Firstly, this CPU requires an LGA1700 motherboard, and this socket won’t support Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs, nor its forthcoming Nova Lake chips, leaving you at a dead end. That’s ideal if you already have an LGA1700 board with an old chip like a Core i5-12400F – the 14600K makes a great upgrade here. If you’re building a new rig from scratch, though, buying a new LGA1700 motherboard now doesn’t give you room to upgrade to a next-gen Intel CPU later.

Secondly, the 14600K runs considerably hotter than the Ryzen 5 9600X, and consumes more power too. Intel states a base TDP of 125W for the 14600K, but a maximum turbo power of 181W. As such, you’ll need a decent CPU cooler on top of this chip to keep its temperatures in check.

Finally, Intel’s 14th-gen K-series CPUs have been plagued by a voltage issue (Vmin Shift) that can not only cause instability, particularly in games, but can even result in a dead CPU. This has now been fixed with several microcode updates, but you’ll need to flash your motherboard to the latest BIOS to make sure these updates are applied.

Read our full 9600X vs 14600K test for more detail, including loads of benchmarks.

Best CPU for content creation

The best CPU for content creation is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K. While Intel’s Arrow Lake architecture proved to be underwhelming when it comes to gaming performance, if you want a productivity chip that can churn through multi-threaded workloads without breaking a sweat, the Core Ultra 9 285K is a cracking choice.

Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

£499 / $519

Pros

• Fantastic multi-threaded performance
• Low power draw
• Runs really cool

Cons

• Disappointing gaming performance
• Potentially limited socket lifespan
• Expensive

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With eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores beavering away under its heatspreader, the 285K has a total of 24 cores at your command. Add in a top P-Core clock of 5.7GHz, and you end up with a CPU that can hammer its way through multi-core workloads with ease. Importantly, it also does this while running surprisingly cool, and without drawing 1.21 jigawatts from your power supply.

In terms of pace, the Core Ultra 9 285K trades blows with the 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, and indeed the 9950X3D. In several cases, it takes the lead, as you can see in our Cinebench and Geekbench multi-core results graphs below. In others, such as Blender, the 9950X is in front, but the Core Ultra 9 285K is consistently up there with the front runners.

What really makes Intel’s latest Arrow Lake architecture special here, though, is its power efficiency and cool temperatures. When idle, our Arrow Lake test rig draws just 70W from the mains, and even at full load you’re only looking at 306W. That’s a massive drop of 64W compared to the previous Core i9-14900K, and it’s also a little lower than the figure from the Ryzen 9 9950X. Meanwhile, the peak temperature we recorded from the Core Ultra 9 285K stands at 80°C, only marginally more than the 6-core Ryzen 5 7600X, and nearly 13°C off the 14900K’s toasty temperature.

It’s not a complete slam dunk for the 285K here. There are several tests where the 9950X has the upper hand, and its gaming performance is well behind AMD’s latest X3D chips – if you want multi-threaded might and gaming performance in one, the 9950X3D is your prime candidate. There’s also a question mark over socket longevity, with Intel’s forthcoming Nova Lake CPUs expected to use a new LGA1954 socket, meaning you’ll need a new motherboard to upgrade. However, if you just want a cool-running chip that can scythe through multi-threaded content creation workloads, and you want it now, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K does the job well.

For more detail and all the benchmarks, read our full Intel Core Ultra 9 285K review.

FAQs

Your choice of CPU will have a big impact on your system, whether you’re measuring its gaming frame rates or how long it takes to encode a 4K video. What’s more, your CPU will also dictate some of the other gear in your rig, from the motherboard to the RAM.

What do CPU model numbers mean?

AMD has three main CPU lineups – Ryzen 5 with six cores, Ryzen 7 with eight cores, and Ryzen 9 with 12 or 16 cores. This brand is then followed by a model number, and as a general rule, the higher the number the better your CPU. In the case of AMD’s Ryzen 9 chips, for example, the 9900X has 12 cores while the 9950X has 16. The model number can also refer to clock speeds, and levels of cache. For example, the Ryzen 5 9600 has six cores running at up to 5.2GHz, whereas the Ryzen 5 9500F only boosts to 5GHz.

Look out for letters on the end as well. An ‘F’ on the end means the CPU has no integrated GPU on both Intel and AMD CPUs, while an ‘X’ on the end denotes a CPU with a high clock speed. You also see some AMD CPUs with ‘G’ on the end of the model number, which stands for ‘graphics’ and denotes a more powerful integrated Radeon GPU than the simple one usually supplied in an AMD CPU. Meanwhile, any AMD CPUs with ‘X3D’ on the end of the number are equipped with an extra 64MB of L3 cache, which makes them faster in games.

Intel CPUs, on the other hand, often have a ‘K’ on the end, which means they’re multiplier-unlocked for easy overclocking. Intel has recently changes its branding from Core i-series to Core Ultra, but the principles are the same. Like AMD’s Ryzen chips, you’re looking at Core Ultra 5/Core i5 at the budget end of the scale, Core Ultra 7/Core i7 in the mid range, and Core Ultra 9/Core i9 at the very top end. As with AMD, there will also be a model number after the brand name, which refers to the number of cores and clock speed.

Which board and memory?

All AMD’s latest CPUs require a Socket AM5 motherboard based on a 600-series or 800-series chipset, and they also need DDR5 memory. If you’re currently rocking an AM4 system with a Ryzen 5000-series chip, then you’ll need to upgrade your RAM and motherboard if you want one of the latest chips.

Meanwhile, Intel’s last-gen Raptor Lake CPUs require an LGA1700 motherboard. The full spectrum of boards will work with the latest 14th-gen CPUs, as long as you update the BIOS to the latest version, from old boards based on budget B660 chipsets, to new ones using Intel’s top-end Z790 chipset. Look out for memory here too. Some older LGA1700 boards support DDR4, meaning you can use your old memory if you already have a DDR4 system, which could save you some money while RAM prices are so high. However, most newer LGA1700 boards require DDR5 RAM.

If you’re looking to buy one of Intel’s latest Core Ultra Arrow Lake CPUs then you’ll need a whole different socket again, as well as DDR5 memory. Look out for LGA1851 boards based on Intel’s latest Z890 and B860 chipsets for these chips.

What about socket longevity?

AMD is generally better than Intel at providing an upgrade path for future processors, and this is an important consideration if you plan to keep your system for a while. This means you can use the same motherboard and memory for future, much-improved processors. As a case in point, AMD’s AM4 socket spanned all the way from first-gen Ryzen CPUs to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D with 3D V-cache, and even now we’re still seeing new AM4 chips coming out. Likewise, AM5 is expected to last well into the Zen 6 and possibly Zen 7 era, so you’re likely to get plenty of life out of your AM5 board.

Comparatively, Intel’s LGA1700 socket has already been retired, so if you buy a Core i5-14600K with a new motherboard, you won’t be able to upgrade to a next-gen CPU. It’s looking increasingly likely that future Intel Nova Lake CPUs will use another new socket as well, consigning LGA1851 motherboards to obsolescence. As such, if you’re building a whole new rig from scratch, it’s important to think about how long you plan to use it before upgrading, and whether you’d be willing to buy a whole new motherboard next time you upgrade your CPU.