Introduction
The choice of CPU for a gaming setup is hugely important if you want to achieve high FPS and have a smooth gaming experience. Picking the wrong one can bottleneck your graphics card which means that in turn your performance will be disastrous with many FPS drops. This article will take you through the steps of selecting the right CPU for your budget and needs, as well as giving specific CPUs recommendations.
The CPU or processor is the second most important component when it comes to gaming, especially if you want to achieve a high FPS smooth experience. If you get this component wrong, you are probably going to be bottlenecking your graphics card, which means that the performance is going to be a disaster with a bunch of FPS drops. For that reason, I wrote this article where I will explain to you how to find the perfect CPU for your budget and needs, and I will also give you specific CPU recommendations. With that being said, let’s start.
How to Find the Perfect CPU
The reality is that if you want to find the best CPU for your budget and your needs, firstly, you need to know if it’s going to be a good choice for your graphics card. These two components work together, so buying the most expensive CPU and not having the most expensive graphics card will not give you the fastest performance possible unless the games that you play are very CPU-demanding. More on that later. To be fair, in most games the main component is going to be the graphics card, and it’s going to determine the amount of FPS that you get. So the level of performance. That being said, you should always pick a CPU that’s good enough not to bottleneck your graphics card. This does not mean you have to use a low-end CPU with some high-end graphics card as long as your CPU is not bottlenecking a Graphics card you are good to go, so look for a perfect CPU for your GPU
Esports Games and CPU Importance
However, there’s a caveat to this. If you play esports games at 1080p competitive settings, well, my answer is going to be different. Here, the CPU is quite more important, which means that you should get a more balanced CPU and GPU combo, especially in Fortnite and CS2. In one of the latest tests from Hardware Unboxed, it’s been shown that getting a faster CPU with a slightly slower GPU is going to give you faster performance in these types of titles at 1080p. So here, it’s not about getting a CPU that’s good enough not to bottleneck your GPU. Faster CPU means the same case applied to CS2. You will see on the screen board that the numbers are much better at 1080p when one has a faster CPU and a slow GPU. But let it be known that this is only at 1080p resolution, hence if you want to play 1440p or 4K, this does not apply to you.
Identifying CPU and GPU Bottlenecks
So, how do you know if your CPU is going to bottleneck your GPU? Let’s say you are searching for the best CPU for your GPU. In that case, I made an entire video talking about CPU and GPU combos that you will have in the top right of the screen because the answer is not so straightforward and it would take a lot of time from this video to explain to you how to find the perfect CPU and GPU combos.
Best CPUs for Gaming in 2024
Now, let’s see some of the best CPUs of 2025 for gaming with different budgets. I will show you the best CPUs with the minimum, maximum, and best value graphics cards you should pair with these CPUs. Because remember, as I said before, I cannot give you a CPU recommendation if I do not know your graphics card. Keep in mind that prices change all the time, so maybe when you’re watching this, the price is slightly lower, or maybe it’s a bit higher
Budget CPUs:
- Ryzen 5 5500 or i3-12100F:Both of these CPUs are going for under $100 and they are amazing when it comes to gaming, especially if you have a 144Hz 1080p monitor. With these CPUs, you will be able to achieve 144 plus FPS in games like CS2 or Valorant at competitive settings depending on your graphics card. In more high GPU-demanding games, the GPU is more important.
- Minimum GPU: RX 5600 XT (used market)
- Ideal GPU: RX 6600 or Intel Arc A580
- Maximum GPU: RX 6750 XT (great for 1440p resolution)
Mid-Range CPUs:
- i5-12400F: This one is going on a nice discount for $110. In my opinion, this is an amazing price for a CPU like this one because you can pair it with a lot of GPUs in the market, especially if you want to play at 1440p but you can also play at 4K depending on the graphics card. You can achieve 240 plus FPS on average at 1080p competitive settings in games like Fortnite or Valorant depending on the graphics card.
- Minimum GPU: Intel Arc A580 or RX 6600
- Ideal GPU: RX 6650 XT or RTX 4060
- Maximum GPU: RX 6700 XT or RTX 4070 (good for 1440p or 4K)
Upper Mid-Range CPUs:
- Ryzen 5 7600: An amazing 6-core 12-thread processor that you can pair with basically any graphics card in the entire market except for the RTX 4090. This CPU will allow you to play at 360 plus FPS on average.
- Minimum GPU: RTX 4060
- Best Value GPU: RX 7900 XT or RTX 4070 Super
- Maximum GPU: RTX 4080 Super or RX 7900 XTX (ideal for 4K resolution ultra settings)
The reason why I didn’t pick the i5-13600K, which is the current CPU I have on my PC, is that it is more expensive than the 7600. It is not as power efficient and it needs a bigger CPU cooler, so it’s going to be more expensive overall. In terms of gaming performance, it is the same as the 7600. So, in my opinion, there’s no reason to go with the 13600K unless you are a content creator and you are not going to do just gaming. Even then, for content creation, the 7600 is going to be fine for most people.
High-End CPUs:
- Ryzen 7 7800X3D: In my opinion, this is the best option possible out there for high-end CPUs when it comes to their price performance relationship. This highly efficient processor costs approximately $340 in recent days, making it possible that you will get more than 500 frames per second on average at competitive settings of esports games based on GPU.
- Minimum GPU: RX 6700 XT or RTX 4070
- Best Value GPU: RTX 4070 Ti Super or RX 7900 XT (ideal for 1440p ultra and 4K ultra settings)
- Maximum GPU: RTX 4090 (not good value but best performance if you have the budget)
And the reason why I didn’t go with the Intel i7-14700K here is because it’s a bit more expensive, it’s not as power efficient, and in terms of gaming performance, it’s going to be basically the same at 4K resolution. However, keep in mind that if you play at 1440p or 1080p, the 7800X3D is quite faster than the 14700K depending on the game.
Bonus CPUs:
- Ryzen 7 7700 or 7700X: There’s nothing wrong with these CPUs. The only thing is that the Ryzen 5 7600 has very similar performance for almost $100 less. If you have around $300 to spend on your CPU, then I recommend you spending a bit more and going with the 7800X3D which is quite faster than the Ryzen 7 7700 or 7700X. So yeah, it’s just kind of an awkward price really but there is nothing bad about these CPUs. If you already have one of these, then you are getting an amazing level of gaming performance anyway.
You may be wondering why I didn’t mention a Ryzen 9 or i9 CPU like the i9-13900K or Ryzen 9 7950X. The reason is that these CPUs are meant to be used for content creation and productivity work rather than just gaming. Trust me, spending $200 to $400 extra on a CPU that will give you no benefits for gaming is not ideal for you. Even if you do content creation, the Ryzen 7 or i7 processor is going to be perfectly fine for most people
