The best processors for gaming

If you want to completely revamp your computer to play the latest PC games, it’s smart to start with the processor and work outwards. Of course, the graphics component is the important half of the PC gaming equation along with the motherboard, system memory, and storage. But the processor is the heart of your machine, computing all the instructions required to create and maintain a believable, virtual environment.

So what are the best processors for gaming? You really only have two contenders to deal with: Intel and AMD. We broke down our processor choices into price groups, kicking off with the gaming CPU bonanza with the ultimate chips from each company, down to the budget-friendly options that think are still worth considering. These days, there’s even interesting products like AMD’s new Ryzen APUs to consider, which gives you a reasonable CPU with a graphics chip that offers some basic gaming performance too.

Setting all that aside, let’s start with the best of the best:

HIGH END ($600+)