The Best CPUs for 2024

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CPU Consideration No. 1: Goals and Upgrades

It's important to set a goal for what you want to achieve with a change of desktop CPUs. What you're after is better performance, but is this performance boost desired to run games better? Is it for a system you will work on? Or do you simply have an older computer sitting around that you'd like to spiff up for internet use and watching videos?

We can't stress enough the importance of knowing what you want out of your system, to make sure you don't end up with a disappointing amount of horsepower in the end, whether that's due to overspending or underspending. This also will largely help you to determine if you want to upgrade your PC or build a new one.

First, we should be clear that upgrading is often a viable option, especially if you just want the system for light-duty use like web browsing. Technically, even antique PCs based on AMD's Phenom and Phenom II are still suitable for this task, as are Intel's Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad systems, but these would certainly show a good deal of slowdown if you pushed them very hard. These aforementioned chips certainly aren't worth upgrading or purchasing now—there are simply far better options available for the money.

If your computer is relatively modern, it might be better for you to upgrade your current PC instead of buying a new one. This makes your choice of processor far simpler, as there will be a limited number of chips that will work with your current system. Upgrading isn't always an option, as you might already have the best CPU that your current motherboard supports. But as long as that's not the case, upgrading is often the most affordable way to end up with a faster PC, as you won't need to purchase other components.

As to whether it's worthwhile to upgrade your system, a good rule of thumb is to consider the age of the system you're using. If that system was made within the last 10 years and doesn't already have the fastest CPU available for it (or close to it), upgrading may get you the performance boost you desire. Nothing older than this is remotely worth upgrading, as it becomes more practical to save for a newer system instead. And even with a system that's around 10 years old, it's only worth considering if you have something like an old Intel Core i3 or worse and you are upgrading to an old Core i7—but this is also only worth considering if you can find that processor for a cheap price.

A quick search shows that for older Intel LGA 1155 systems, which was the platform used by Intel's second- and third-gen Core "Sandy Bridge" and "Ivy Bridge" processors (now more than a decade old), you can buy second-hand Core i7-3770 processors for around $30 to $50 from take-your-chances sources like eBay. This processor today would lag behind a modern Core i3, but it would still be capable of web browsing or even use in a low-end gaming PC. Again we must stress, however, that this sort of upgrade only makes sense if you have one of the slower CPUs for that platform and are upgrading to one of the faster ones. Even if you had a Sandy Bridge Core i5, it would likely make more sense to save for a new system instead of upgrading.

Upgrading more recent systems also follows this same logic, i.e. it only makes sense to upgrade if you are making a substantial jump on the same platform—and you can do so cheaply. Even on an almost new system, we would be hesitant to upgrade from, say, an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, or from an Intel Core i5-12600K to an Intel Core i7-12700K. It's not that there isn't a noticeable and measurable performance boost to be had here (our reviews show that there clearly is), but the gains you receive for the cost of upgrading often don't make it worthwhile. This makes it exceedingly important that you buy the right processor for you from the start rather than waiting and trying to upgrade later.

If your goal is to simply fix up your old PC for web browsing or low-end gaming, then you may want to stop reading here and see if an affordable upgrade option is available for your system. Each motherboard, including the one in your PC, has a list of supported processors that you should be able to find on the manufacturer's product page. If none of the processors supported on your current motherboard is affordably priced or a significant step up, then just forget about upgrading and start thinking about building or buying a new system instead. If your goal was instead to get a faster system for work or high-end gaming, or if upgrading just won't cut it for you, then keep reading.

System Planning 101: Keep Your Motherboard, CPU, and RAM From Fighting

If you're going to build a new system, then you'll need to pick mostly new parts. If you had an older system, you might be able to re-use a few items, notably the power supply, case, or storage device, but everything else you'll likely have to buy. Some parts, like the ones we just listed that you could reuse, are compatible with a wide range of systems and can last for several generations. But motherboards, CPUs, and main system memory (RAM) are the opposite.

These items will only last for a few generations at most. All motherboards have a socket that the CPU is designed to be mounted in, and at the chip maker's level, that socket's design has to be changed every so often to allow for the addition of new features. As a result, motherboards only support CPUs that will fit in (and are explicitly compatible with) their sockets, and the same is true vice versa for CPUs. (Sometimes a chip will physically fit, but isn't supported.) RAM, similarly, has a custom set of slots that it mounts on a PC motherboard, and these slots only support one type of RAM and won't work with any others. (The latest types are known as DDR4 and DDR5.)

Due to sockets and, thus, motherboard platforms changing every few years, you will typically need to buy a new motherboard and, possibly, a new set of RAM if you want to buy a new CPU that succeeds your current one by more than a few years. The only time this won't be the case is if you are upgrading on the same platform, like in the possible scenarios discussed above. If you upgrade frequently, your old RAM might remain compatible with your new system.

In that vein: When buying parts, you'll want to make sure the parts you get will be compatible with each other. CPU sockets are typically numbered; for mainstream CPUs bought by most consumers, the latest are AMD's AM4 and AM5, and Intel's LGA 1200 and LGA 1700, and both motherboards and processors will be identified by this number to make picking a matching pair easy. Still, you'll want to make certain that a given CPU is explicitly supported by a given board according to the board maker's website.

RAM for several years now has also followed a simple numbering scheme as we've progressed from DDR to DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, and now DDR5. None of these will work in RAM slots made for the other, and this is pointed out on the motherboard specs page, which again makes finding a matching compatible part relatively easy.

Don't Build With Plans of Upgrading

Often, people consider the idea of building a PC with plans of upgrading it in the future. The idea is that if you get a motherboard and CPU now and can later upgrade to a faster CPU, this might help you avoid having to build another computer and save costs down the road the next time you feel your PC slowing down.

The problem with this train of thought? It rarely works out as planned. Intel over the last decade has changed to a new CPU socket every two or three years, typically once every two CPU generations. AMD postpones changing sockets longer, and it only recently introduced its AM5-socketed motherboards as a successor to its AM4 motherboards. AM4 was first launched in 2017, giving it a five-year reign during which time AMD pushed out four primary generations of processors for the platform. We don't know how long AM5 will be AMD's main platform at this time, but there's good reason to believe it will be used for roughly the same period as AM4 was.

Even with AMD's extended platform lifespan, you aren't overly likely to upgrade processors on the same motherboard. Compatibility remains a question mark even with AM4, as not all processors made for the platform are supported on all motherboards. AMD made efforts, especially towards the end of AM4's reign of dominance, to encourage board makers to push out updated BIOS versions for older motherboards to extend support for their newest AM4 CPUs to older motherboards. But this effort still relied on AMD's board partners to implement the new BIOS versions on dozens or even hundreds of boards.

Long story short: You cannot buy a motherboard today and have absolute confidence it will support processors released a few years down the road, even if they are released for the same socket as the motherboard you are buying today.

Even if you can upgrade the CPU on an existing board, strong reasons may arise why you might not want to. Newer motherboards with updated chipsets have their inherent benefits. These might include things like support for faster RAM, faster USB and storage connections, faster PCI Express slots and underlying buses, faster internet support, and myriad other potential benefits. Plus, after you upgrade, you'll be left with an orphaned CPU to then resell or put into a new motherboard, and it starts to make a lot more sense to just think about selling your old PC or giving it away and building new most of the time when you need something faster.

If you are buying into an Intel platform, this is doubly true; unless you buy a low-end CPU, to begin with, you aren't likely to want to upgrade in just one or two years before Intel introduces a whole new platform. Though there is some merit in the idea of doing just that (buying a low-end CPU to upgrade next year when high-end prices drop), overall, it still raises costs as you now have a low-end CPU you paid for in addition to a high-end CPU. You'd be better off just buying a high-end CPU to begin with.

All in all, though some may view platforms that are aging out or about to be replaced as dead ends, it's best to view all platforms in this same frame of mind. That's not to say that none of them is worth buying (that's not true), but upgradability shouldn't be first on your mind when selecting a motherboard and CPU to use in your new PC. Some things can be easily upgraded later, like the RAM, storage, or graphics card, but this is not an advantage that motherboards or processors have.

When you do buy a system, unless you are getting an exceptional deal, you should still buy into the newest platform available with the best processor you can afford that fits your needs. Currently, Intel's newest platform is the LGA 1700 platform, and AMD's (as mentioned above) is AM5. There's no harm in getting an AM4 system or a last-gen Intel LGA 1200 system, but, unless you're getting those steeply discounted from their launch prices, you're going to get a better system and more bang for your buck by going with what's newest.

Buying Basics: Four Key Concepts to Know About CPUs

Now that we've covered the basic considerations of whether to upgrade or buy new and the other hardware you'll need to consider when buying a CPU, let's talk about what differentiates one processor from another. A multitude of factors need to be considered here, but the most important ones are the microarchitecture, core count, thread count, and clock speed.

Microarchitecture

This is by far the most important aspect of any CPU, and indeed the same is true for just about any piece of technology. It's the design and internal blueprints of how the device is built and what makes it work.

Due to differences in architecture, you can have multiple CPUs that operate at the same speed but still perform drastically differently. It might be helpful for you to picture each architecture in a similar vein as you might consider different makes of cars or airplanes. In the same way that you can have multiple cars with their engines running at 2,000rpm and get drastically different performance and speeds out of the cars, the same is true for CPUs.

Judging architectures is exceedingly difficult, as they are incredibly complex, with billions of transistors and a multitude of other external factors that bear on their performance. To gain an idea of how different architectures perform, you should read our reviews that touch on the subject and also compare processors utilizing different architectures against each other.

An important detail about microarchitectures that you should know, and that is easy to understand, is how to identify products based on different architectures. This is surprisingly easy if you learn the numbering systems used by AMD and Intel.

If we take AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X as an example, for desktop chips the numbers break down like this...

• 9 = Generational number. AMD's microarchitectures of recent years are named "Zen," followed by a number. All modern AMD processors that start with a "9" utilize the Zen 5 microarchitecture, and all processors that start with a "7" utilize the Zen 4 microarchitecture. All modern AMD processors that start with a "5" utilize the Zen 3 microarchitecture. AMD has no desktop processors that begin with a "6"; these were mobile only. There were a few desktop Ryzen CPUs that begin with an "8", and these also run the Zen 4 microarchitecture.

• 9 = Product tier. AMD makes Ryzen 3, 5, 7, and 9 processors, which are included after "Ryzen" in the product name and as the second digit in the product number.

• 5 = Sub-product tier placement.

• 0 = Sub-product tier placement. Rarely used.

• X = "Extreme" or higher-end variant of a processor. May or may not have a non "X" variant.

(Note that AMD is moving to a wholly different processor numbering scheme for its very latest mobile CPUs. See the details here; the guidelines above will not apply to them.)

Intel utilizes a similar coding scheme for its desktop processors. Let's take Intel's flagship CPU the Core i9-14900K as an example...

• 14 = Generational number. Number "14" is assigned to Intel's 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. 13 = 13th Gen "Raptor Lake." 12 = 12th Gen "Alder Lake." 11 = 11th Gen "Rocket Lake." 10 = 10th Gen "Comet Lake."

• 9 = Product tier. Intel makes Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 processors, which are included after the "Core" in the product name and as the third digit in the product number (or the second digit, in processors older than 10th Gen).

• 0 = Sub-product tier placement.

• Second 0 = Sub-product tier placement.

• K = Indicates a higher-end variant of a processor with overclocking support. Several other "suffix" letters are used by Intel to indicate other differences, but the most common ones you will encounter are "K" (indicating overclockability), "F" (indicating no integrated graphics processor), and "KF" (indicating both aspects).

Using these numbers, you can also compare processors that are part of the same generation to each other in terms of relative performance with some accuracy. It's always best to check reviews when possible and compare other details about the processor to more accurately compare CPUs.

Core Count

Inside all mainstream desktop processors today are multiple CPU cores. In the past, processors only had one CPU core, but as technology has improved, more cores have been pressed into processors to increase performance. Each CPU core operates as a semi-independent component inside of the processor and is capable of completing tasks.

The advantage of having more CPU cores is simply that you can get more work done at a time. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think of the CPU cores as workers and the processor as the building in which they work.

Traditionally, all of these CPU cores would have been identical to each other, but this changed starting with Intel's 12th Gen Alder Lake processors. Intel now employs two different types of CPU cores inside most of its processors. Processors based on this design have what Intel calls "P-cores," which are built on a high-performance microarchitecture. Alongside the "P-cores," Intel also adds "E-cores," which utilize a different microarchitecture that enables these cores to be physically smaller and more energy-efficient.

If we return to our comparison of CPU cores to employees, you could think of Intel's P-cores as higher-level workers with larger offices who can complete more work due to their more extensive experience and larger workspaces. At the same time, the E-cores could be thought of as lower-level workers with smaller offices to work in and lesser skill sets. They may get less done, but you can cram more of them in for the money, and they take up less space.

Though the E-cores are slower, they still improve the performance of the processor by a significant amount. AMD hasn't adopted a similar scheme as of yet, which means all of the cores in an AMD processor are identical to each other.

Core count contributes greatly to a processor's overall performance, but this alone does not determine whether one processor is faster than the other. It's entirely possible for a quad-core processor to be faster than an octa-core processor, and vice versa.

Multithreading

Work that needs to be performed on the CPU cores comes into the processor in a somewhat chaotic fashion. Some processors take the work orders as they come in and simply proceed to work on them in the order they were received. Processors that do this implement what we know as an In-Order execution design. This has been shown to hamper a processor's overall performance.

Each work order sent to the processor requires instruction information and raw data for the work to be completed. When an In-Order CPU core goes to work on a task, it must have both of these; otherwise, it will sit and wait while the needed instruction information or data is fetched.

Processors that implement an "Out-of-Order" or "OoO" execution design largely circumvent this issue by re-ordering tasks as they come in. They can place work orders that have everything they need to run ahead of work orders that don't. Inevitably, some work orders still get to the CPU cores without everything they need, though, and this still leads to a stall while the required data gets fetched.

That is unless a processor implements simultaneous multithreading (SMT, for short). Essentially what this technology does is open up a second line for work orders to come into the CPU. The processor isn't able to work on two work orders at once, so when everything is running smoothly, the processor continues to run through work orders from each line in order back and forth. When a stall occurs, however, SMT technology enables the processor to set the stalled work order aside and work on items in the other line until the required data is fetched.

This technology significantly reduces processor stalls and drastically improves performance as a result. Processors that implement SMT will show as having two threads for each CPU core that supports it. This is why an AMD processor with eight cores and SMT technology will be sold as a 16-thread processor. The same is true for Intel processors, with the most notable difference being that Intel calls SMT "Hyper-Threading" on its processors.

Just like with core count, thread count doesn't tell you enough to determine which processor is best, but it can give you an idea as to which processor is better in a given line. A processor with more threads may well have a performance advantage over one that has fewer threads supported, in applications that can take advantage of the technology. But as we said with the core count, all of these factors need to be taken into consideration to know for sure.

Clock Speed

The last and easiest to understand of the key defining characteristics of a processor is its clock speed. This directly relates to a processor's overall speed and is measured in hertz. Processors today are so fast that this is typically reported in gigahertz (GHz).

A processor's clock speed is sometimes reported as the total number of operations that it can perform at any given second. For example, a one gigahertz processor can theoretically perform 1,000,000,000 operations each second. Modern CPUs operate at multiple GHz with some, like Intel's Core i9-14900K, peaking at 6.0GHz.

In truth, this description is inaccurate, as some operations require multiple clock cycles (multiple hertz) to complete, and this is where architecture comes in, coming full circle. When comparing processors that are part of the same generation and product line, it's safe to think the one with the most cores and the highest clock speed will perform the best. Comparing across different architectures and product lines, however, this is not always the case.

On modern processors, you'll often see a base clock listed, as well as a "Boost Clock" or "Turbo Clock." You can essentially ignore the base clock listing if you see either of these other clocks listed. A base clock is a processor's true speed, but modern CPUs are designed to increase their clock speed to a point, as long as the right conditions are met; those conditions are based on thermal and power-draw limitations.

Modern processors will run at these elevated clock speeds most of the time when under a heavy load, which is why they are far more important for determining performance than the base clock. It is also possible on some processors to increase the clock speed yourself by what is called overclocking, but that's for another guide.

To overclock, you'll need a lot more specific information on the topic, beyond the scope of this article. You'll also need special hardware for overclocking. We point out which processors can overclock in our reviews and while talking about specific products on this page, so you will know which to buy if you want to try your hand at overclocking. But you should make sure you do plenty of research on the topic first, as overclocking can be hazardous to your components.

How to Buy the Right CPU: Final Buying Advice

Think carefully about what your computing needs are and pick a processor that fits what you need it for, or buy one a little better if you have extra cash to spare and want to be extra safe.

One thing we would recommend against is buying the most expensive processor that money can buy or that you can afford without thinking through the decision. More expensive processors are typically better, in general—AMD and Intel charge more for them for a reason—but that doesn't mean you need that level of performance.

No matter how performant of a processor you buy, you will eventually want to upgrade to something newer and faster. Though you may be able to prolong how long you can use your PC by buying a newer and faster CPU, it might make better sense to opt for upgrading more frequently.

The rate at which technology has been improving makes it likely that, in five years or so, you'll be able to buy a midrange processor that will be just as fast—if not faster than—today's very fastest processors. If you buy or build a new midrange PC every five years or so, you'll likely have a faster computer than someone who is still running a five-year-old PC with a high-end processor.

Upgrading more often may not be better financially in the long term, as there is a definite cost and set of diminishing returns involved, but it does get you the improvements that come with changing platforms. As PC components eventually fail, it can also help to avoid unexpected downtime from old parts breaking. For further guidance, check our processor reviews for more detail on each CPU.