By Nick Evanson

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A gaming benchmark face-off between AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme and Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V is surprisingly close, proving once more that Lunar Lake is the best chip Intel has made in years

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Steam Hardware Survey shows AMD CPUs are more more popular than they’ve ever been in 17 years

It’s the scantest of rumours but given AMD’s track record, I actually believe the claim that the Ryzen 9000G series will be nothing more than an 8000G refresh

Intel’s future might be rosier now that Nvidia is partially on board but at this moment in time, AMD rules every roost in the CPU coop

Nick Evanson

19 September 2025

Budget or mainstream, outright gaming or do-it-all-wonder, there’s a Ryzen processor for everyone.

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(Image credit: Future)

If there’s one thing that’s predictable about the tech world, it’s that it’s all very unpredictable. I mean, who would have thought a few years ago that Intel would become financially unstable, dropping projects and thousands of staff, and then randomly announce a sizeable investment from Nvidia and a plan to collaborate on new chips? Not many folks, that’s for sure.

Likewise, I should imagine only die-hard Team Red fans at the start of the decade would have predicted that the best choice for a new CPU, regardless of price point or use scenario, would be an AMD processor.
And yet, all of the above have come to pass, and in the case of the last point, we’ve decided it’s time to change our recommendation for the best budget gaming CPU. That honour used to go to Intel’s Core i5 13400F, but no longer, as AMD’s Ryzen 5 7600X is the sensible choice.

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‘The game is ass on anything else but a 9800X3D’: Esports players are complaining about using Intel CPUs at sponsored tournaments rather than AMD X3D chips, with multiple claims of crashing and significantly worse performance

(Image credit: Future)
There’s nothing actually wrong with the 13400F, as such, it’s just that the 7600X is simply a better option. It’s faster in games, and because it uses AMD’s AM5 processor socket, you get far superior upgrade options. With the Core i5 13400F, all you can do is replace it with a 13th Gen or 14th Gen Core i7 or i9 chip, but that’s it. And there’s practically no difference between those two generations.

With any AM5 motherboard, you can fit any Ryzen 7000 or 9000-series chip, and while AMD hasn’t officially confirmed this yet, the next generation of Zen-powered CPUs will also just drop right in (you’ll almost certainly need a BIOS update, of course). Building a high-end, outright-gaming desktop PC? A Ryzen 7 9800X3D is the obvious choice, but if your budget is tighter, then a Ryzen 7 9700X or Ryzen 5 7600X are still more than fast enough.
For pure content creation and nothing else, a 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 9950X is perfect. Want a PC that can do it all? Then grab a Ryzen 9 9950X3D and enjoy the best of every world, with no compromises, other than the sting to your wallet. Ultra small PC builders can grab a Ryzen 7 8700G and not have to worry about getting a discrete graphics card for a spot of simple gaming.

(Image credit: Future)
AMD really does have everything for everyone, regardless of budget or needs. How long it’ll be before Intel gets a nod for a particular situation is anyone’s guess (though the Core Ultra 7 265K is great for content creation on a mainstream budget), but it certainly won’t be until next year, as that’s when its next-gen Nova Lake chips are scheduled for release.
I really do want Intel to come back strongly, though, because as the graphics card market clearly demonstrates, it’s not good for consumers to have one manufacturer dominate everything for a long period of time. For now, though, just enjoy the fact that no matter what Ryzen CPU you buy right now, it’ll be one of the best pieces of hardware in your rig by far.

Best CPU for gaming 2025All our current recommendations

1. Best overall:
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
2. Best budget:
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
3. Best mid-range:
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
4. Best high-end:
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
5. Best AM4 upgrade:
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D
6. Best CPU graphics:
AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

👉Check out our full guide👈
The best gaming CPU for every budget

Best overall

1. AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D

£389.46 at Amazon

£409 at Currys

£422.99 at CCL

£471.99 at Argos

The best gaming CPU
We expected it to be good, but we didn’t think it would be this good. Now fully unlocked for overclocking, the powerful and efficient Ryzen 7 9800X3D is by far the best CPU for gaming, though its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, is still very good.
Read more here

Best budget

2. AMD Ryzen 5 7600X

£179 at Currys

£179 at very.co.uk

£179.99 at Scan

£280 at Overclockers

The best budget CPU
It might only have six cores and 12 threads, but they’re potent little pipelines. Thanks to its low price these days and all those AM5 upgrade options, the Ryzen 5 7600X is the clear pick for any new budget gaming build in 2025.
Read more here

Best mid-range

3. AMD Ryzen 7 9700X

£254.99 at Amazon

£284.99 at CCL

£285 at very.co.uk

£309.99 at Argos

The best mid-range CPU
While only a little faster than its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 9700X sips away at power and runs a lot cooler. And thanks to a steady drop in the price tag, it’s the perfect all-round, mid-range gaming CPU.
Read more here

Best high-end

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D

£594.10 at Amazon

£629.99 at Currys

£629.99 at CCL

£704.99 at Argos

The best high-end CPU
When it comes to demanding multithreaded workloads, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the fastest desktop CPU. There’s nothing to beat it, not even the Core i9 14900K. It also happens to offer stellar performance in games at the same time.
Read more here

Best AM4 upgrade

5. AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D

£239.47 at Amazon

£259 at Currys

£359.99 at Argos

The best AMD AM4 upgrade
The AMD AM4 motherboard platform has been around since before Ryzen appeared, so chances are that if you have an older Ryzen-based PC, it’s using AM4. The Ryzen 7 5700X3D is currently the best bang for your buck you can get for the older platform and it’s a great gaming CPU.
Read more here

Best CPU graphics

6. AMD Ryzen 7 8700G

£227.99 at CCL

£239 at very.co.uk

£240.99 at Argos

£306 at Amazon

The best integrated graphics
As a Phoenix laptop APU in a desktop chip format, the Ryzen 7 8700G has the full 780M iGPU, which is able to deliver 1080p gaming without a graphics card. For a $330 chip, it’s something you could create a great budget machine around.
Read more here

Nick Evanson

Hardware Writer

Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in the early 1980s. After leaving university, he became a physics and IT teacher and started writing about tech in the late 1990s. That resulted in him working with MadOnion to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its PC gaming section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com covering everything and anything to do with tech and PCs. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open-world grindy RPGs, but who isn’t these days?

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A gaming benchmark face-off between AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme and Intel’s Core Ultra 7 258V is surprisingly close, proving once more that Lunar Lake is the best chip Intel has made in years

AMD made major gains on Intel in the desktop CPU market over the last year, but still lags significantly behind in mobile, according to a Mercury Research report

‘The game is ass on anything else but a 9800X3D’: Esports players are complaining about using Intel CPUs at sponsored tournaments rather than AMD X3D chips, with multiple claims of crashing and significantly worse performance

Steam Hardware Survey shows AMD CPUs are more more popular than they’ve ever been in 17 years

It’s the scantest of rumours but given AMD’s track record, I actually believe the claim that the Ryzen 9000G series will be nothing more than an 8000G refresh

Best gaming PC builds: budget, mid-range and high-end recommendations

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