While graphics cards have typically been seen as the most important piece of hardware for gaming, a computer’s processor also heavily weighs into how well games will perform on a gaming PC — especially if one plans to run multiple programs in the background simultaneously, such as video recording or live streaming software.
Today, we’ll be taking a look at some of thebest CPUs for gaming and streaming, ranging from high-end models to more low-budget options. Regardless of which one you go for, you should be getting the best CPU for the money..provided you’ve chosen in accordance to your needs. (If all you’re doing is playing games, don’t buy a Threadripper, okay?)
How to Choose a CPU for Gaming
Research Before You Buy
It’s very important to do your research before purchasing your processor, to ensure that it will be compatible with the rest of yourPC build.
Motherboards are the most tricky — many newer CPUs won’t be compatible with older motherboards and vice versa. Every CPU has specific sockets and form factors that they can attach to, so you’ll need to ensure your motherboard supports your CPU before buying one.
Number of Cores/Threads
The number of cores and threads directly correlates with how many programs you may run at once or how powerful the computer will be.
So, more cores/threads = better, right?Yes and no.Forgamingspecifically, you generally won’t see performance benefits past the quad-core or quad-thread mark. Extra threads come in handy for multitasking and other tasks, like video rendering, streaming, and more.
There are also a few games that are optimized to utilize more than four cores- while these are on the cutting-edge and don’t usually make a massive difference, these scenarios do exist.
In general, however, if you’re looking for more threads…you shouldn’t be running a gaming-only system. You should be streaming or rendering semi-frequently to make the investment worth it.
Part of the reason that Intel CPUs have an advantage in single-core performance is that Intel CPUs are able to push higher clock speeds than AMD’s, even before overclocking. Out-of-the-box turbo frequencies on modern Intel CPUs are going as high as 5 GHz, while AMD doesn’t seem to be able to push too far past 4 GHz yet.
Overclocking can push these numbers even higher, but the trend doesn’t change. That being said, clock speed generally doesn’t work as an effective measure of speed across different architectures. 3 GHz on 4 Ryzen cores will perform very differently from 3 GHz on 4 Coffee Lake cores, for instance. When running clock speed head-to-head, it’s best to do it between the same or similar architectures: modern Intel CPU vs modern Intel CPU, as opposed to Intel CPU vs AMD CPU.
Keeping Your System Cool
Definitely ensure that the CPU you purchase is able to handle the cooling solution you want it to run with — if not, you might end up frying your brand new CPU before it even has a chance to overclock.
