The Best Processor for Gaming 2018

Processors are responsible for all the instructions and math found in gaming. The processors essentially tells all other gaming parts what the plan is constantly.

Games with fewer objects per scene like Dark Souls or Street Fighter V require overall less CPU power.

Games like Fortnite and PUBG both have hundreds of things happening at once per game, and the CPU needs to keep track all of that. GTAV and the Civilization series can take advantage of a strong CPU.

Generally, most games don’t need that much CPU power to run effectively, so you’re better off spending money elsewhere like graphics cards and RAM. VR requirements run similar to regular gaming, so if your CPU can run games at a higher resolution, it’s going to be good for VR as well.

Here are the top 5 best CPUs you can buy in 2018, we have picks for both AMD and Intel if you have preferences to the red or blue, but you should read our related post about Intel vs AMD for gaming.

The 6 Best Gaming Processors 2018

1. Intel i5-8400

Best value for gaming at around $200

Pros and Cons

If you’re building a system from scratch,then the Intel i5-8400 is the first CPU you should consider for gaming. At $180, the bang for buck in terms of gaming FPS here is unmatched. You can eke out some more frames for CPU dependent games, but the 8400 will still perform very well in those scenarios.

This is the de facto choice if you’re focusing solely on gaming performance, if you do other CPU intensive things such as edit video or stream, then another CPU might serve you better, but the 8400 will serve those purposes very well.

The reviews for this CPU are emphatic:

• PCGamesN calls the i5-8400 THE gaming Coffee Lake, find some of their benchmarks for the 8400 here
• Tom’s Hardware says the cpu offers incredible value to gamers on a budget

Intel i5-8400 Specs

Cores / Threads / Hyperthreading?	6 / 6 / No
Base Clock / Turbo Clock	3.8 GHz / 4.0 GHz
Overclockable?	No
Cache	9MB
TDP	65W
PCIe 3 Lanes	16
Process	14nm

2.  AMD Ryzen 5 1600X

Best value for gaming at around $200 for AMD and better overall value for streamers and video production on top.

Pros and Cons

If you’re looking for good value on the AMD side because you value a more future proof chipset, then the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X is your best bet, this processor will eat through games without a sweat with its 6 cores and 12 threads. Priced at around $200, it’s a great value and definitely the best value AMD gaming CPU.

For in-game performance, the 8400 is better than the Ryzen 1600X by a slight margin in most games. Some games that properly use all the cores and threads the 1600X offers like Civilization, PUBG and Fortnite, the 1600X will perform at equal or better frames per second.

On top of being future proof, you can eke out a little more performance out of the 1600X by overclocking the CPU to get near i5 8400 performance. Check out this overclocking guide if you do end up getting the 1600X. Unfortunately, the Ryzen line isn’t a very good overclocker, so expect modest gains.

PCGamesN calls the 1600X the most significant gaming CPU AMD have ever made.

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X Specs

Cores / Threads / SMT?	6 / 12 / Yes
Base Clock / Turbo Clock	3.6 GHz / 4.0 GHz
Overclockable?	Yes
Cache	16MB
TDP	95W
PCIe 3 Lanes	16
Process	14nm

3. Intel i5-8700K

Bar none top performer in gaming with enough cores for streamers and content producers at around $330.

Pros and Cons

For gamers with huge resolutions, content producers and larger budgets, we’d recommend the Intel i7-8700K. The 8700K outperforms everything in its price range once you factor in overclocking, making easy work of 1440p, 4K and streaming.

It outperforms its price rival the 1800X in gaming by a good margin out of the box, and that lead only increases when you start overclocking the 8700K. The average overclock seems to be around 5GHz which is a significant leap from its base clock of 3.7 GHz and a large improvement over the max clock of the Ryzen chip.

The major argument against this chip outside of being expensive is that Intel rushed this chipset out in response to the looming Ryzen threat. Being rushed, we don’t know how long this chipset will be supported for until Intel rolls out a different chipset.

What this means is, if you look to upgrade your CPU in 3 years, you might need to get a new motherboard for the CPU, Coffee Lake as a platform doesn’t seem to be sticking around for a while.