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Looking for the top AMD CPUs for your gaming PC? Here is our list of the five best AMD CPUs that will make your choice easier.
Whether you are building a gaming PC for competitive, casual gaming or content creation and streaming, selecting the right CPU is an integral part of the process. When you pick the right CPU for your needs, you will get the performance you are looking for. That said, if you are new to the market of PC parts, it can easily become harder and harder to finalize on the CPU for your build once you look at the vast options available.
AMD is one of the major players in the market for PC parts. In the early days of AMD, they were known for their budget-friendly products. However, they offer a wide array of products at this date. Ranging from high-end CPUs to CPUs optimized for gaming, they have a CPU for everyone’s needs. In this guide, we will offer our two cents on the 5 best AMD CPUs for your gaming PC.
1. AMD Ryzen 5 5600
Budget AMD Gaming CPU
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is the most affordable chipset in the Ryzen 5000 series. It is a great entry-level choice for gaming builds. The Ryzen 5 5600 delivers excellent single-core output. Built on the ‘Zen 3’ microarchitecture, this CPU functions on a total of 6-cores, utilizing SMT (Simultaneous Multiprocessing Technology) to power 12 threads at a time.
Specifications
- Cores: 6
- Threads: 12
- Base Clock Freq: 3.5 GHz
- Max Boost Clock: 4.4 GHz
- OC: Yes
- TDP: 65 W
- L3 Cache: 31 MB
- Price: $123.37
Due to the lack of an integrated graphics card, it becomes a less desirable option for non-gaming tasks. However, for gaming builds, that won’t be an issue, as you will need a GPU anyway. It comes with a stock Wraith Stealth cooler. Unfortunately, there are still reports of overheating in certain cases.
| Pros | Cons |
| Very budget friendly | No integrated GPU |
| Comparable to 11th-Gen Core i5 processors | Overheating issues may occur |
| Great entry-level option for gaming and content creation |
2. AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
Flagship AMD CPU
AMD’s flagship processor, the Ryzen 9 9950X, is a direct competitor for the 14th-Gen Core i9 processors by Intel. In most cases, its 16-core design arguably has managed to outperform the Intel counterpart. The thing about this CPU is that it is not designed to be the best at gaming. Despite that, it performs exceedingly well while gaming. When it comes to productivity and creative tasks, the output seems to be unmatched, giving supreme multithreaded performance.
Specifications
- Cores: 16
- Threads: 32
- Base Clock Freq: 4.3 GHz
- Max Boost Clock: 5.7 GHz
- OC: Yes
- TDP: 170 W
- L3 Cache: 64 MB
- Price: $659.98
When it comes to the Ryzen 9 9950X, the magic happens when all of the cores are loaded with threads. This is because of the ‘Zen 5’ microarchitecture by AMD, redirecting the focus to improve heavy vector performance, internal bandwidth, instruction per cycle throughput, and branch prediction.
Of course, all this demands a lot of energy. To counter that, there is an Eco-mode option available. This limits the base power limit to 105 Watts while having minimal changes to multithreaded performance. The Eco-mode serves to reduce energy consumption and the heat generated by the processor.
| Pros | Cons |
| Temperatures are much cooler than last-gen CPUs, even with a 170 W TDP | Demands a lot of power |
| Unmatched multithreaded performance | Less value for money than the last flagship chip |
| Eco Mode efficiently handles CPU-intensive workloads | Isn’t exactly the most suitable for gaming |
3. AMD Ryzen 7 8700G
AMD CPU with the Best Integrated Graphics Card
Lack of a graphics card can be one of, if not the biggest, obstacles to gaming. The high prices of the GPUs these days don’t help with this issue either. The same goes for small builds with barely any space to house a GPU. However, the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G completely combats this problem at the core, as it comes with the strongest iGPU in the market, the AMD Radeon 780M. This iGPU is aimed to compete against entry-level GPUs, negating the need to buy one in the first place.
Specifications
- Cores: 8
- Threads: 16
- Base Clock Freq: 4.2 GHz
- Max Boost Clock: 5.1 GHz
- OC: Yes
- TDP: 65 W
- L3 Cache: 16 MB
- Integrated GPU: AMD Radeon 780M
- Price: $279
The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G sports 8-cores with ‘Zen 4’ microarchitecture. They also support SMT (Simultaneous Multiprocessing Technology), making it possible to function on 16 threads simultaneously at a time. However, there is a clear lack when it comes to the amount of L3 cache with only 16 MB available.
| Pros | Cons |
| Equipped with the best iGPU | Might have instability issues |
| Extremely energy efficient | L3 cache amount is 16 MB, which is quite low |
| Value for money |
4. AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Best AMD CPU for Gaming
When talking about the best AMD CPU in the market for gaming, the one name that comes to mind is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D. In simple terms, it is the best processor for gaming PCs. Not only does it outperform some of the flagship chipsets by AMD or Intel, it does so at a lower cost while being very energy efficient. These factors also mean that the chip runs at relatively cool temperatures even at heavy workloads. It requires a 600-series MOBO and DDR5 RAM to work, which will cost you more than the last-gen options. Though it also eventually works to produce faster and better outputs.
Specifications
- Cores: 8
- Threads: 16
- Base Clock Freq: 4.2 GHz
- Max Boost Clock: 5.0 GHz
- OC: Yes
- TDP: 120 W
- L3 Cache: 96 MB
- Price: $476.76
Being the best CPU for gaming doesn’t mean that this processor is the best at everything. Though it doesn’t do a bad job at productivity and creative tasks, there are other chipsets that outperform the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. It is necessary that your motherboard supports AM5 sockets if you want to buy this CPU.
| Pros | Cons |
| Top performance when it comes to gaming | Lags behind at non-gaming tasks |
| Temperatures are well under control | Requires a motherboard that supports AM5 socket |
| Highly efficient at energy consumption |
5. AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
Best AMD CPU for Streaming
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is a beast for content creation, streaming, and productivity tasks. Its multithreaded performance output is comparable to a Threadripper processor. When it comes to streaming and content creation, transcoding video files, rendering scenes, and multithreaded workloads are essential. If the budget is not an issue, the Ryzen 9 7950X would perhaps be the best option for you. Consistent with every Ryzen 7000 series chip, this processor also requires an AM5 motherboard and DDR5 RAM. There is a noticeable difference in FPS when pairing this chip with 6000 MHz frequency RAMs. Moreover, the CPU is equipped with an iGPU.
Specifications
- Cores: 16
- Threads: 32
- Base Clock Freq: 4.5 GHz
- Max Boost Clock: 5.7 GHz
- OC: Yes
- TDP: 170 W
- L3 Cache: 64 MB
- Price: $496.89
The exceptional performance of this CPU is due to its heavy energy consumption. There is also the fact that under heavy workloads, the temperatures can get quite high. Although its price is quite steep, keeping the core count and features in mind, it becomes value for money.
| Pros | Cons |
| Value for money | Runs at high temperatures under heavy workload |
| Integrated iGPU | AM5 motherboard needed to function |
| Supports DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 |
With that, we conclude this post on the 5 best AMD CPUs for your gaming PC.
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