The best gaming CPU - leaderboard 2023
Which CPU is best suited for computer games? We'll give you the answer in our up-to-date leaderboard. With a gaming CPU, the clock frequency, the intermediate memory (cache) and of course the number of CPU cores and the CPU architecture are particularly important. We tested the following processors in the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark, but the popularity of each processor is also included in this list.
Find the best processor
It's not always easy to find the best processor for your needs. While many visitors only pay attention to the theoretical speed of a processor, others want to read detailed test reports that also deal with the processor's speed in practice. Therefore, we have collected a large number of benchmarks in order to meet as many requirements as possible.We have not only listed our results for you in map form at the top of this page, but also in a clear table at the bottom of this page. So everyone can quickly find their way around and find the best processor for themselves.
What is important in a good gaming CPU
At the beginning we already listed some criteria that are important for a gaming CPU. Above all, the clock frequency or the clock in turbo mode of a processor is important, as many games (including modern ones) still cannot use all of a processor's CPU cores evenly. This is also due to the fact that a significant part of the computing tasks is outsourced to the graphics card and the processor has to pass this data on to the GPU.If you now decide on a gaming CPU, we recommend a minimum of 16 GB of RAM, which should ideally be operated in dual-channel mode. To do this, at least two main memory sticks (always in pairs, e.g. 4 are also possible) must be installed in the computer, otherwise only one memory channel is used, which halves the memory bandwidth of the processor. Memory speed can also have a major impact on gaming performance.
The best games CPUs clearly listed
In this list view, we have presented the currently best desktop processors in tabular form for you. We sorted the processors by popularity and the Geekbench 5 multi-core result achieved.| Processor | Socket | TDP | Memory | ||
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Intel Core i9-13900KS 24C 32T @ 3.20 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 150 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16C 32T @ 4.50 GHz |
AM5 (LGA 1718) | 170 W | DDR5-5200 | |
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Intel Core i9-13900K 24C 32T @ 3.00 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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Intel Core i9-13900KF 24C 32T @ 3.00 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12C 24T @ 4.70 GHz |
AM5 (LGA 1718) | 170 W | DDR5-5200 | |
 |
Intel Core i7-13700K 16C 24T @ 3.40 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
|
Intel Core i7-13700KF 16C 24T @ 3.40 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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Intel Core i9-12900K 16C 24T @ 3.20 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800 | |
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Intel Core i9-12900KF 16C 24T @ 3.20 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800 | |
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Intel Core i5-13600K 14C 20T @ 3.50 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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Intel Core i5-13600KF 14C 20T @ 3.50 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-5600 | |
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Intel Core i7-12700K 12C 20T @ 3.60 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800 | |
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Intel Core i7-12700KF 12C 20T @ 3.60 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800 | |
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AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8C 16T @ 4.50 GHz |
AM5 (LGA 1718) | 105 W | DDR5-5200 | |
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Intel Core i5-12600KF 10C 16T @ 3.70 GHz |
LGA 1700 | 125 W | DDR4-3200, DDR5-4800 | |
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AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6C 12T @ 4.70 GHz |
AM5 (LGA 1718) | 105 W | DDR5-5200 |
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