5 Best PC Gaming CPUs You Can Buy Right Now

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For a while there, Intel was running a near-monopoly on CPUs. Thankfully, AMD has stepped up to the plate in recent years with the advent of Ryzen. Now, the CPU market in 2019 is the most vibrant its been in many a year, with exciting new processors released last weekend from AMD. We will incorporate those into this page very shortly.

If you’re on the hunt for a new CPU to buy in 2019 though, it can be tough to know where to start. The good news is that the performance of most mid-range and high-end processors massively outstrip the demands of today’s games. Once you start aiming above the best value threshold, you’re really paying for stronger performance in threaded workloads outside of gaming.

It means that, unlike the Best Graphics Cards, your CPU shouldn’t have a massive impact on frame rates. As long as it’s enough, you’re golden. Which then means that in today’s market, you don’t need to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a gaming CPU – there’s plenty of processors out there with great gaming performance for sub $200. Obviously, we all still eye the top-end processors and want that power for ourselves, but it’s not essential outside of those who crave ultra-high refresh rates on 144Hz monitors and their ilk.

Here we’ve outlined five of the best CPUs to buy in 2019, ranging from the best CPU on a tight budget all the way up to the best gaming processor that money can buy. We will continually update this article as better options at these price points become available, such as the newly launched AMD Ryzen 3000 processors.

Best on a Budget

Ryzen 3 3200G – 4C/4T @ 3.4 GHz / 4.0 GHz – Check Price

AMD really upset the market lately with its top-notch CPUs at fantastic prices. At $99, the Ryzen 3 3200G is, like the 2200G before it, a bargain, and not the sort you’d find thrown in a bin. To our eyes, the Ryzen 3 3200G is now the ultimate budget CPU in the world today, offering up quad-core performance and discrete Vega graphics which has a damn good stab at playing games at 1080p. It’s the ultimate all-in-one part for those who want to put together a dirt-cheap gaming built quickly.

Best Low-End

Intel Core i3-9100 4-Core 3.6GHz – 4C/4T @ 3.6 GHz / 4.2 GHz – Check Price

With a price that doesn’t exactly break the bank, the Intel Core i3-9100 offers solid quad-core performance albeit minus hyper-threading support. Dual-core just won’t cut it for gaming these days, so quad-core should be viewed as the minimum for a satisfactory gaming experience in modern titles. The Core i3-9100 is modest yet capable, offering a 3.6GHz base clock and 4.2 GHz boost right out of the box. It’s not one for performance gamers but if you’ve got a low to mid-range graphics card then the i3-9100 is a great pairing.

Best Mid-Range

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 6-Core 3.8GHz – 6C/12T @ 3.8 GHz / 4.4 GHz – Check Price

Unfortunately for Intel, AMD is in danger of becoming dominant across the entire spectrum of processors right now. Case in point the all-important mid-range, where the Ryzen 5 3600X now comfortably sits as the strongest pairing of price and performance at $220-250 range.

Performance-wise, the Ryzen 5 3600X is a smidgen faster than the Intel Core i5-9600K, with recent price drops from Intel putting these two on a comparatively level playing field. While enthusiasts can probably eke out more performance from a typical 9600K, the Ryzen 5 3600X offers great all-round CPU performance for both gaming productivity uses.

If you want to make some even bigger savings, you could also opt for a previous-gen Ryzen 5 2600X which is available for knock-down prices right now.

Best High-End Gaming

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core 3.6GHz – 8C / 16T @ 3.6 GHz / 4.4 GHz – Check Price

AMD has gone on upset the apple cart with this one. The Ryzen 7 3700X is an octa-core monster that can tackle whatever you’re going to throw at it both in terms of gaming and productivity. There are faster processors out there in terms of single-core performance but this is double the threads of an Intel Core i7-9700K for a comparatively cheaper price. Top-tier performance from a CPU has seldom come as affordable as the Ryzen 7 3700X.

Ultimate High-End CPU

Intel Core i9-9980XE – 18C/36T @ 3.0 GHz / 4.4 GHz – Check Price

The Intel Core i9-9980XE is utter insanity for those who want the absolute best of the best. If your core use of a CPU is intended to be gaming, this is a ludicrously unnecessary (and expensive) purchase. Multi-core performance on the i9-9980XE is through the roof, propped up by 18 cores and 36 threads courtesy of HyperThreading. Generational improvements to frequency and efficiency help the 9980XE to the top of the heap. This will just absolutely blitz through multi-threaded applications such as rendering, encoding, and compiling, although gaming applications will enjoy precious few benefits from the eye-watering price tag.

Our Favorite Comments

“Best price-performance value… Cos that’s what matters.And that’s where R5 3600 perfectly fits in.”

Komodo –

“I think for gaming the i5 is the clear winner for value for "gaming" especially at 5Ghz and beyond it easily keeps up with the i7 and i9 while the Ryzen 5 falls behind at stock let alone OCed perf. For versatility the r5 is the clear winner”

IlluminatiEyes –