AMD's best processors are some of the best processors across gaming, professional workloads, and more casual day-to-day browsing and streaming. Our top pick for the best AMD CPU right now is the Ryzen 9 9950X because of its incredible 16 cores, impressive performance in gaming and productivity, and its relative efficiency compared to the Intel competition.
From the best Ryzen CPU for gaming to the best AMD processor on a budget, we have plenty of options for fans of Team Red to counter what Team Blue has to offer in terms of the best Intel CPUs.
The best, most powerful AMD Ryzen CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X
- Compatible with existing AM5 motherboards
- Steals Intel's performance crown in productivity apps
- More efficient than Zen 4
- Dedicated 512-bit data path for AVX-512
- Little to no performance gains
- Last-gen Zen 4 options are much cheaper
Why should you buy this: It's got the highest specs among AMD Ryzen desktop processors.
Who’s it for: Content creators and professionals looking for core CPU performance.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X:
Sitting on top is the Ryzen 9 9950X, which is a powerhouse and an overpowered chip for most users. It comes with 16 cores and 32 threads that can boost up to 5.7GHz . It has a whopping 80MB of combined L2 and L3 cache, which doesn't quite compete with the X3D variants, but it's a lot of cache either way, helping to accelerate this chip's performance in gaming and productivity workloads.
As is the case with most high-end components, the 9950X’s power is clear from the specs, but it takes a little more digging to see its performance benefit in real-world use. Its additional four cores and eight threads don't give it a giant leap in most applications compared to the 12-core 9900X, but the 9950X really shines when it comes to multithreaded performance. It doesn't perform dramatically better than the last-generation 7950X in most tasks, so that chip remains a viable alternative if you want something more affordable. But the peak performance is still found in this newer Zen 5 CPU.
If you game in your off hours, the 9950X is an amazing CPU for that too, but it's not where its true strength lies. The 16 cores are complete overkill, leaving you with idle cores in even demanding games. For pure gaming, the X3D CPUs are much better. The 9950X3D is expected to debut next year, and may offer the best of both worlds like its last-generation counterpart.
The best AMD processor for gaming
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- Chart-topping gaming performance
- Great value
- Solid multi-core and productivity performance
- AM5 is getting cheaper
- Weak single-core performance
Why should you buy this: It's the best CPU for gaming
Who’s it for: Gamers who want flagship gaming performance at a fair price.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D:
The Ryzen 7800X3D is an eight core, Zen 4 CPU with a 5GHz clock speed, making it, on paper at least, a little slower than its Ryzen 7000 counterparts. However, this is an X3D CPU, with an additional 64MB of L3 cache stacked on top of the processor, and that extra bit adds up to make it the best processor for gaming. It easily competes with the likes of the Intel 14900K, which has three times its cores, and an extra gigahertz of clock speed to work with.
The 7800X3D manages this not just with eight cores but a fraction of the power draw, too. It does have to sacrifice for that gaming power, though. The 7800X3D's lower clock speed makes it weaker than its non-X3D counterparts in productivity, and eight cores sees it fall well behind higher-end options with more cores for heavily multithreaded workloads.
For a best of both worlds, you could opt for the 7950X3D, which gives you eight high-clocked Zen 4 cores alongside eight Zen 4 cores with 3D V-Cache, giving you a middle ground between the 7800X3D's gaming performance and the 7950X's improved productivity performance. But that chip can be hundreds of dollars more expensive for not much more gaming power.
For raw gaming power, the newer 9800X3D is slightly faster and has better productivity performance, but at the time of writing it's hard to get hold of and too expensive to easily recommend.
The best budget AMD processor
AMD Ryzen 7600
- Great gaming performance
- Easy to cool
- Respectable single and multithreaded capabilities
- Bundled cooler
- Lacks 3D V-Cache
Why should you buy this: It's a great value-for-money processor for PC gaming.
Who’s it for: Gamers looking to build new or upgrade their PC.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 5 7600:
Priced at around $190, the Ryzen 5 7600 is a great AMD CPU if you're on a budget. While it's one of the cheapest processors out of AMD's current Ryzen 7000 lineup, the 7600 is squarely targeting the mainstream. For the money, you get six cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 4.7GHz, and a boost clock of 5.3GHz — a big uplift over the last generation. This processor doesn't have the V-Cache of its X3D counterparts, but it still comes with 38MB of combined L2 and L3 cache, which helps make this chip very competitive at this price.
The CPU uses AMD's Zen 4 architecture, improving instructions per clock (IPC) and memory management, and when paired with a powerful graphics card, it can work wonders for gaming. It's also decent enough for productivity if you want to do some photo or video editing when you aren't gaming. It's a few dollars less than the Ryzen 5 7600X, too, and offers almost identical performance, while coming with a bundled cooler.
It's the bang-for-buck king of its generation.
The best Ryzen CPU with integrated graphics
AMD Ryzen 5 8600G
- Powerful integrated graphics for 1080p gaming
- Bundled Wraith Stealth air cooler
- Respectable thermals and power consumption
- Affordably priced
- Weaker CPU performance than 7600
- Less cost effective when paired with dedicated GPU
Why should you buy this: It has some of the best integrated graphics performance of any desktop CPU.
Who’s it for: Casual gamers who don't wish to invest in a dedicated graphics card.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 5 8600G:
If you don't have the budget for a graphics card, or want to build the most compact gaming system possible, a powerful accelerated processing unit (APU) like the Ryzen 5 8600G is a great pick. It has more onboard GPU cores than standard Ryzen 7000 CPUs whilst maintaining most of the CPU performance — it's not as strong as a 7600, but it's not far off — making it an all-in-one gaming system.
It's priced very affordably at around $180, and it comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler, too, helping cut down on cost even further. You can always add a dedicated graphics card later for greater GPU performance, too, though note that this CPU isn't as strong a value proposition when you aren't using its onboard GPU.
If you want more graphical and processing power, the 8700G has more cores of both and performs better, but it's 50% more expensive, making it harder to recommend. The 8500G is slightly weaker than this one, but it is slightly more affordable.
The best last-gen CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 5700X3D
- Great value for money
- Cheaper than 5800X3D with similar performance
- Great thermals and power consumption
- Misses on PCIe Gen 4 and DDR5
Why should you buy this: It's the best bang-for-buck CPU of its generation.
Who’s it for: Gamers and anyone wanting strong general performance from an AM4 CPU.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D:
The AMD Ryzen 5000 generation has a lot of great processors, from the high-end 16-core 5950X, to the ultra-affordable 5600, but it's the 5700X3D that remains the enduring CPU of its generation. It offers comparable gaming performance to the 5800X3D — the previous king — at a much more affordable price.
It lacks the cores and higher clock speeds of the 5900X and 5950X, so grab one of those if you want the ultimate multithreading performance on socket AM4, but for gaming and general use, the 5700X3D is an absolute steal at around $200. Combined with cheaper motherboards and DDR4 memory, and this processor is a killer budget gaming chip that punches well above its weight. Pair it with a strong GPU, and you won't notice a big difference between this and the latest CPUs at higher resolutions.
Fastest CPU for gaming
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- Exceptional productivity gains
- Fully unlocked for overclocking
- Supports existing AM5 motherboards
- Still very efficient
- Single-digit gaming gains
- More expensive than the previous generation
Why should you buy this: It's the fastest gaming CPU in the world.
Who’s it for: Gamers who want peak performance and are willing to shop around to find it.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D:
The 9800X3D is the fastest gaming processor ever made, easily beating the Intel competition and eclipsing even the iconic AMD Ryzen 7800X3D. It should be a simple case of slotting this into our lineup where the 7800X3D once was, and calling it a day. But the 9800X3D is proving so popular, and its early launch stock so elusive, that actually finding it is almost impossible.
Sure, you can find it secondhand or marked up by scalpers on eBay, but nobody should be paying over $600 for this CPU. As our review notes, while it is incredibly fast and boosts general productivity way beyond what its last-generation counterpart can achieve while raising performance in games once again, it's not a real game changer in terms of frames per second. If you're playing at higher resolutions, you won't notice much difference at all between this and more modest gaming CPUs, and even at lower resolutions, the 7800X3D is almost as good.
When pricing comes down and this chip is more widely available, it'll be the best gaming chip for just about anyone. Until that happens, though, while the 9800X3D might be faster, the 7800X3D is still the better buy.
Best AMD CPU under $250
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X
- Massive uplift from AVX-512
- Support for AM5 socket
- Cheaper than the previous generation
- Huge single-core performance improvement
- Some lopsided performance results
- 3D V-Cache is waiting in the wings
Why should you buy this: It's an affordable current-gen CPU.
Who’s it for: Anyone looking to upgrade from AM4 or older Intel systems.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X:
If you're looking for an affordable upgrade, but you can stretch your budget a little further than the Ryzen 5 7600, then the 9600X is the next best chip in the lineup. At around $250, this six core, 12-thread CPU offers impressive performance that helps boost games and productivity software well beyond what its older counterparts could manage. It does so with excellent efficiency, too, and pairs fantastically well with compact GPUs to create a lightweight gaming system.
Although pure gamers might want to consider an AM4 system with a 5700X3D CPU, that generation has very limited upgrade potential, likely leading to an upgrade again in a few years. With the 9600X, you get in on the ground floor (technically the first floor) of a new generation of AM5 motherboards that will be supported for many years to come, all while enjoying greater overall performance right now.
Best budget productivity CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
- Fast 12 Zen 4 cores
- AM5 socket gives lots of upgrade potential in the future
- Very affordably priced
- Lacks X3D gaming performance
- Not as fast as 16-core alternatives
Why should you buy this: It's a very fast, modern CPU at a heavily discounted price.
Who’s it for: Anyone wanting to boost their productivity work without breaking the bank.
Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X:
The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X was always an also-ran to the more-impressive 7950X, but in late 2024 with the launch of the new Ryzen 9000 generation, it's found a new niche. At a heavily discounted $290, it's an absolute steal for anyone looking to boost their video-editing capabilities, or manage other demanding tasks with ease.
With 12 fast Zen 4 cores and access to DDR5 memory, the 7900X absolutely demolishes high-demand workloads, or just acts like a superfast multitasking chip. If you like to work with a lot of web browser tabs open, or run many apps at once, it'll have no trouble doing that. It's solid for gaming too, and though it's certainly not as impressive as the X3D alternatives, it's much cheaper than all but the AM4 variants, so it represents a great option for anyone working and gaming on the same system, too.
Frequently Asked Questions
The AMD vs. Intel rivalry will probably never have a definitive winner.
AMD processors can compete directly with Intel on almost everything. AMD offers the better gaming performance at lower power draws, especially with its X3D CPUs. However, Intel chips tend to have more cores, so are often better at productivity workloads.
Just budget for more cooling and more power on Intel, as its top chips pull over 250W all by themselves.
No. An important factor when buying an AMD CPU is that while the newest Ryzen 7000 and 9000 CPUs do have onboard GPUs, and its older APUs have very strong onboard graphics, most other AMD chips do not. That's almost all the Ryzen 5000 and earlier processors, so make sure you have a graphics card if you're going to use one of those chips.
For the latest generation of AMD's Ryzen 7000 and 9000 processors, you need a 600-series and 800-series AM5 motherboards, as those are the only generation that support the newer socket and DDR5 memory. For Ryzen 5000 CPUs and older, you can get away with 500 series or even 400 and 300 series motherboards with a BIOS update.
Buying a new processor is not an easy task. Instead, it requires plenty of research, preferably by reading and watching reviews of the devices you have in mind. If you know what your budget is, you're halfway there. Our CPU buying guide explains what you need to look for.
