The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is one of the best graphics cards for playing games at 1440p and 4K resolutions. To make the most of this available performance, we’d recommend pairing the GPU with an equally capable processor. AMD and Intel make some impressive chips, some designed specifically for gaming. There are lots of choices available on the market, but lucky for you, we’ve rounded up our favorites in this collection.
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Source: Intel
Intel Core i5-14600K
Best CPU
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AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D
Runner-up
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Source: Intel
Intel Core i9-14900K
Best CPU for performance
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AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Best gaming CPU
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Source: Intel
Intel Core i5-13500
Best budget CPU
Intel Core i5-14600K
Best CPU
This is our favorite processor for playing games
$310 $320 Save $10
The Intel Core i5-14600K is the latest Raptor Lake CPU, and it sports higher clock speeds than last year’s model. It’s a straight-up refresh, though, and you won’t miss out on anything if you’re already on a 13th-generation CPU.
Pros
- Great value
- Good gaming performance
Cons
- Will struggle with more intensive workloads
- Power hungry
You don’t need to spend hundreds on the very best processor available from either AMD or Intel if all you plan to do is play some games. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is a great GPU, but the Intel Core i5-14600K is good enough to handle 1440p and 4K gaming. It offers the best value, while still packing a punch with its 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores. The best part about this chip is its lower TDP, so you shouldn’t have any trouble cooling it.
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D
Runner-up
A great value CPU for 4K gaming
$470 $599 Save $129
AMD’s Ryzen 9 7900X3D is a high-end gaming and productivity CPU with 12 cores and 3D V-Cache. It’s primarily for gaming but can also perform well in core-intensive workloads.
Pros
- Impressive gaming performance
- Massive cache
Cons
- No DDR4 RAM support
- Weaker productivity performance
AMD released a special version of its Ryzen processors with a 3D suffix. These processors are designed for gaming and other intensive tasks thanks to an expanded cache. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D isn’t quite the flagship processor for gaming on AMD, but it does offer an easier price to swallow for those who don’t feel comfortable spending more than $500 on a single component. The Ryzen 9 7900X3D has 12 cores, 24 threads, and 140MB of 3D V-Cache. The Intel Core i9-13900K has just 36MB of cache.
Intel Core i9-14900K
Best CPU for performance
Need to work and play? This is the chip for you!
$540 $581 Save $41
The Intel Core i9-14900k is the high-end refresh of the older Raptor Lake process that intends to succeed the i9-13900k. This is just a refresh model, however, and the gains in performance aren’t huge enough to warrant an upgrade.
Pros
- The best performance
- Good price
Cons
- Requires beefier CPU cooling
- Higher power draw
There’s no overlooking the fact the Intel Core i9-14900K is one of the very best CPUs you can buy. The available performance is simply unmatched when focusing on single-core benchmarks, which is more important for playing PC games. There are 24 cores inside the Core i9-13900K with a grand total of 32 threads. This makes the processor not only great for gaming, but also for handling more serious workloads like video editing.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Best gaming CPU
Nothing beats this processor for playing games
$602 $699 Save $97
AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU is a 16-core chip equipped with 3D V-Cache technology, allowing it to be one of the best CPUs for both gaming and productivity. With its massive 128MB L3 cache and extremely high turbo clock speed of 5.7GHz, this premium processor can tackle all graphically taxing games with ease.
Pros
- The best gaming performance
- Amazing energy efficiency
Cons
- Expensive
- Weaker productivity performance
If you have a high budget for this, we’d go for the best AMD has to offer in the form of the Ryzen 9 7950X3D. This is the best gaming CPU available to this very day. It offers great in-game performance thanks to its impressive 144MB of 3D V-Cache, 16 physical cores, and 32 threads. As an added bonus, the processor has ample power to get through heavier tasks, though it falls short of AMD’s own Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel Core i9-13900K.
Intel Core i5-13500
Best budget CPU
Impressive performance at a reasonable price
Intel’s Core i5-13500 is one of the most affordable Core i5 processors around and it’s a fantastic little unit. It’s a 65W CPU with 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores for some impressive results. It’s ideal if you’re on a budget.
Pros
- Low price
- Same cores as i5-13600K
Cons
- Older CPU
- Will struggle with heavier workloads
To save the most money, you can go with the Intel Core i5-13500. It’s affordable enough to make it possible to build a budget-friendly PC without sacrificing too much on performance. In fact, this CPU has the same core configuration as our top Intel Core i5-13600K recommendation. The only downside is the lack of grunt for heavier workloads outside of gaming, and you’ll also need to use DDR5 RAM to get the most out of this chip.
AMD Ryzen 7 7700
Best value CPU
An AMD Ryzen 7 7700X in disguise
$292 $307 Save $15
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core processor with 16 cores, the ability to boost up to 5.3GHz, and yet has a TDP of just 65W. It’s a solid mid-range chip from AMD for general use or gaming.
Pros
- Just as fast as Ryzen 7 7700X
- Great value and efficiency
Cons
- Fewer cores than Intel’s counterpart
- No DDR4 RAM support
The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an interesting processor. It’s essentially a pared-down version of the Ryzen 7 7700X. This allows you to save money on this excellent mid-range 8-core chip from AMD and boost it up to match the X version with a single setting change in UEFI BIOS. While there’s no DDR4 RAM support like other AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, this does unlock considerable performance gains if you’re considering some of the best DDR5 RAM modules.
What you need to know
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is a very capable graphics card. It’s impressive when put to the test with a 4K monitor and some of the latest games. Nvidia’s DLSS and ray-tracing technologies also make it possible to enjoy some incredibly realistic lighting effects without decimating performance. This makes it easier to lose oneself in a virtual world, and we’d recommend pairing the GPU with one of these excellent AMD or Intel CPUs.
Intel’s Core i5-13600K is not the fastest, most powerful processor from Team Blue, but it does have more than enough firepower to keep up with the RTX 4080. Inside are 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, resulting in a total of 20 threads to work with. Throw DDR5 RAM into the mix and you will have an incredibly powerful gaming system. If you’d like to spend more on the very best gaming processor, however, there’s nothing better than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D.
It has plenty of cache capacity for high-fidelity gaming, but all this comes at a high cost. We’d recommend looking at the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 if you’d prefer to pick up a better value processor. An interesting feat of the 7700 is the ability to quickly (and easily) transform the chip into an AMD Ryzen 7 7700X with the click of a button in UEFI BIOS. Regardless of which CPU you end up buying, you’ll have a great time with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080.
Intel Core i5-14600K
Best CPU
$310 $320 Save $10
The Intel Core i5-14600K is the latest Raptor Lake CPU, and it sports higher clock speeds than last year’s model. It’s a straight-up refresh, though, and you won’t miss out on anything if you’re already on a 13th-generation CPU.