In our collection of Best CPU guides, right here’s the newest replace to our really useful Gaming CPUs record. All numbers within the textual content are up to date to replicate pricing on the time of writing. Numbers in graphs replicate MSRP.
Best CPUs for Gaming Q1 2020
Sometimes selecting a CPU is difficult. So we have you lined. In our CPU Guides, we provide you with our decide of a few of the finest processors obtainable, supplying information from our critiques. Our Best CPUs for Gaming information targets a lot of the widespread system-build value factors that sometimes pair a beefy graphics card with a succesful processor, with the perfect fashions being appropriate for streaming and encoding on the fly.
| AnandTech Gaming CPU Recommendations: Q1 2020 (Prices appropriate at time of writing) |
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| Segment | Recommendation | |||
| AMD | Intel | |||
| The $1500 Gaming PC | Ryzen 7 3800X | $340 | Core i7-9700F | $320 |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | $290 | Core i5-9600KF | $206 | |
| The $1000 Gaming PC | Ryzen 5 3600 | $175 | Core i5-9400F | $150 |
| The $700 Gaming PC | Ryzen 5 1600 | $100 | Core i3-9100F | $80 |
| The $500 Gaming PC | Ryzen 3 3200G | $95 | – | – |
| The $300 Gaming Potato | Don’t Bother | |||
| Athlon 3000G | $63 | Pentium G5400 | $60 | |
| Ones to Watch | Intel Comet Lake AMD Renoir Desktop APUs + B550 Motherboards AMD Zen 3 ? |
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| To see our Best CPUs for Workstations Guide, comply with this hyperlink: https://www.anandtech.com/show/11891/best-cpus-for-workstations |
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The majority of our suggestions goal to hit the efficiency/value curve excellent, with a aspect nod to energy consumption as nicely.
The $1500-$2000 Gaming PC
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X ($340)
Intel Core i7-9700F ($320)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X ($290)
or
Intel Core i5-9600KF ($206)
For anybody a robust 4K gaming construct, we’ve got to take a look at the premium finish of the buyer market as a way to assist drive these high-end graphics playing cards. Based on our testing at this decision, the CPU begins to make little distinction in body charges, though as we take a look at increased refresh charges/decrease frequency, getting a excessive frequency and excessive IPC does assist. Both AMD and Intel have produced literature stating how their CPUs carry out the perfect in relation to gaming, however our decide right here would be the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X.
At a value of $340 the place obtainable, and bundled with the Wraith Prism LED cooler, customers will probably be considered one of NVIDIA’s Super playing cards for graphics, after which hopefully put collectively the remainder of the system with an honest sufficient motherboard, storage, and DRAM. If we began trying on the $499 CPUs, then it will lower into that graphics card price range. Plus, at $349 we get the advantages of PCIe 4.zero with AMD, and in single chiplet mode there isn’t a argument about cross-chiplet communication latencies.
If customers completely need Intel, then the Core i7-9700F is an efficient selection. It is barely cheaper, however doesn’t include a bundled cooler. It does peak at 4.7 GHz, and there’s prone to match the 3800X on variable core efficiency, though the place the 3800X has eight cores and 16 threads, the Core i7-9700F solely has eight cores and eight threads, in addition to barely slower really useful supported reminiscence.
We’ve additionally put the Ryzen 7 3700X right here as a 3rd possibility, due to the $50 price financial savings over the Ryzen 7 3800X. The distinction right here, other than the cooler shedding the RGB, shouldn’t be just a few hundred MHz in frequency, but additionally the TDP: 65W for the 3700X and 105W for the 3800X. In this occasion, the 3800X will provide the next frequency for heavier workloads for longer (assuming the cooling surroundings is appropriate). For customers on this bracket, that could be a major factor to have within the system, in comparison with an additional $50 to spend on different elements. Experienced customers may get the 3700X and modify the ability limits in software program to make it act equally to a 3800X.
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