AMD CPUs have evolved a lot over the years to become so much more than just an affordable alternative to Intel CPUs. They've been stomping on Intel chips for a few generations now in some areas, offering incredible value with an appealing price-to-performance ratio. AMD CPUs are ever-present in the collection of the best CPUs as well as the best gaming CPUs on the market right now.

Our top AMD CPU recommendations in 2024

It's a great time to be a PC builder when the mid-range CPUs are the best overall packages to get. As with the Ryzen 7000 series, most people will feel right at home with the Ryzen 5. In this case, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 can be bought around the $320 mark. The jump in performance with AMD's latest CPUs makes this a value package. And you don't even need a graphics card just to turn the PC on anymore. All Ryzen 7000 CPUs now come with very basic integrated graphics, but it comes in handy if you simply need the system to boot. The Ryzen 5 7600 is based on AMD's Zen 4 architecture built on a 5nm process.

It arrives with the first new socket from AMD, AM5, in some time, and as such will require a new motherboard. The new socket looks more like a traditional Intel one, working in partnership with the wild new heat spreader on the CPU. As is traditional with the Ryzen 5, you get 6-cores and 12-threads, though the TDP is lower at just 65W. There are some limitations of the new AM5 platform. The Ryzen 5 7600 supports PCIe 5.0, but it also only supports DDR5 memory, so you need to factor that in as well. Other important specs include 38 MB total cache, a boost clock of 5.1GHz, and a TjMax of 95C. On the whole, the Ryzen 5 7600 will run more efficiently than Intel's chips and is mostly cooler. Single-core performance has seen a significant increase on the new chips, too, which is important for gaming.

The Ryzen 5 7600 is the stand-out of AMD's current range. Unless you're building a workstation or something that needs as many threads as possible, say for streaming or creative work, buying this one is a no-brainer.

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is an interesting processor, and much like our top recommendation, it's a non-X version of another AMD chip. This is the less expensive AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, but it's capable of boosting just as high and has the same number of cores and threads. With the right cooling, you'll be able to quickly (and easily) configure your system to perform just about as well as an AMD Ryzen 9 7900X. With 12 cores and 24 threads of Zen 4 performance, this thing will easily handle just about anything you can throw at it, including productivity and gaming.

If you require a CPU with considerably more power than the AMD Ryzen 5 7600, the Ryzen 9 7900 is a great step up, skipping the Ryzen 7 range altogether. Install an AIO liquid cooler with a 360mm radiator and you'll be able to unlock the true potential of the chip and achieve positive overclocking results. Just like other Zen 4 processors from AMD, the best DDR5 RAM is a requirement.

The best processor for gaming on an AMD system is not the Ryzen 9 7950X but actually the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D. The main reason for this is the massive cache and use of AMD's 3D V-Cache technology. CPU cache could be viewed as extremely fast RAM, and as such, the more you have, the better the overall system performance will be. AMD decided to crank the cache of this processor up to 11. To put it into perspective, the 7950X3D comes with 128MB of L3 cache. The normal Ryzen 9 7950X has just 64MB, which is a fair amount in its own right.

There are still 16 cores and 32 threads present on the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, so the chip is just as good in other tasks. This processor is capable of beating even the mighty Intel Core i9-13900K at playing top PC games, but it's worth noting that the 7950X3D won't win at every game. Some titles won't take advantage of 3D V-Cache, so you'll find it performs closer to the normal 7950X. With a maximum draw of around 160W, you won't be able to push this chip as hard as other AMD (and Intel) processors and this will hurt productivity.

While the Ryzen 9 5950X and the Ryzen 9 5900X were the most powerful CPUs from the Ryzen 5000 series, we think it's the Ryzen 5 5600X CPU that offers the best package overall. The Ryzen 5 5600X comes with six cores and 12 threads powered by AMD's Zen 3 architecture fabricated on the 7nm process. This processor offers approximately a 19% improvement in instructions per cycle (IPC) over its previous-gen counterpart. It also brings a ton of other noteworthy features to the table, including improved memory overclocking, new cache topology, and more. The Ryzen 5 5600X is also a 65W TDP chip, which means it's one of the most power-efficient chips in AMD's Ryzen 5000 series and gives you a wide choice of cooling.

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X comes with a base frequency of 3.7GHz and boosts all the way up to 4.6GHz. While the official peak frequency is clocked at 4.6GHz, the chip is known to frequently cross the 5GHz mark under favorable conditions. Overclocking is also an option with the Ryzen 5 5600X with which users can get more performance out of this chip. Overclocking performance is obviously not going to be as good as the Ryzen 9 5950X, but it comes close for a fraction of its cost. It also boasts 36MB of L3 cache to topple the competition.

In terms of performance, the Ryzen 5 5600X beats most Intel chips in its category and trades blows with some of the high-end chips from the blue team, too. The 5600X even beats the Core i9-10900K in most single-threaded workloads, including gaming at 1080p. This makes it one of the best processors you can buy for your gaming rig without burning a huge hole in your pocket. The extra enticing thing about the Ryzen 5 5600X is that it drops right into existing motherboards with an AM4 socket, thereby reducing the overall platform entry cost. You won't be able to upgrade to a Ryzen 7000 without a whole new motherboard and set of DDR5 RAM, but the 5600X still has the bang for the buck to make it worth buying.

AMD's newest, most powerful Ryzen CPU will have the creators out there perking up their ears. One of Ryzen's strengths ever since it first hit the market has been incredible multi-thread performance, which is important for taxing workloads. Intel has gone down a different route with its hybrid designs, but AMD is still keeping it a little more traditional, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X has 16 cores and 32 threads of raw, immense power. Gamers can better spend their money elsewhere since 16 cores are overkill and then some, but where the 7950X comes in is those who want to game and create. Want to game and stream? Render high-resolution video? Use software such as Blender or Unreal Engine? In taxing processes like all of these, sometimes there's just no substitute for more. More cores, more threads, more performance.

The Ryzen 9 7950X is one of the first Zen 4, AM5 chips from AMD, the first time we've had a new socket in some years. As such, you'll need to upgrade everything in your rig. It only supports DDR5 RAM, so you'll need a new motherboard, too. It's built to support PCIe 5.0, though admittedly, there are limited use cases for that right now. But you can transfer over your existing PCIe 4.0 drives. In our testing, the Ryzen 9 7950X is every bit as impressive as you would hope it to be. It outclasses the Intel Core i9-12900K in almost every benchmark, even in single-core performance at times. Temperatures can get a little on the warm side but don't exceed the 95C (203F) that AMD has previously declared. At idle, it'll sit happily at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) under an AIO cooler, and you'd be able to drop that even further with some serious liquid cooling. It's still a bit toastier than Intel's competing CPUs though, and we're yet to see the 13th Gen Core i9 on the test bench.

Ultimately, AMD has made a pretty meaningful update to the Ryzen family and its flagship model is going to be popular with creators. The days of needing two PCs to stream with, for example, are increasingly looking like being over thanks to advances such as this one. It's pricey, yes, but it's as powerful as you can get right now on a consumer platform. And AM5 is going to be here for many years to come, so you're as future-proofed as it gets right now.

AMD has been making strong budget-friendly APUs for years and the Ryzen 7 8700G is the best and latest chip available. Based on Zen 4 and RDNA 3 architectures, this processor has plenty of power for computing and gaming, making it possible to build an AMD gaming PC without a discrete graphics card. Traditionally, the case for buying an APU is centered around being able to build a capable system, even for gaming, on a tight budget and without a graphics card. That's still true, but the 8700G will also perform well if you add a graphics card to it, making it the budget pick for all occasions. Inside the APU package is an 8-core CPU with a 12-core AMD Radeon 780M GPU. The CPU is capable of boosting from 4.2 GHz up to 5.1 GHz.

Although the CPU is capable of boosting up to such high speed, the TDP rating remains at 65W, the same as the outgoing 5700G this APU replaced. That said, the 8700G is not simply an 8700X with a faster GPU. There's no support for PCIe 5.0 and the cache isn't quite as large (24 MB vs. 80 MB), making performance suffer slightly. But this is a trade-off for an immensely more powerful integrated GPU. There is memory support for up to DDR5-5200, which is great since this Ryzen processor thrives the faster you can get the memory to run. Notably, the Ryzen 7 8700G also comes with AMD's excellent Wraith cooler, which is a nice addition. The Ryzen 7 8700G also drops right into one of the existing AM5 motherboards on the market, so it's possible to upgrade to another AMD CPU at a later date.

You will need to remember that the APU will portion off some of your system memory for the integrated graphics, though. So do ensure you get as much as your budget will allow.

While the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G is the best-performing APU you can buy right now, we think the Ryzen 5 8600G is better if you know an APU is all you want because of its incredible price-to-performance ratio. It performs close to the 8700G while undercutting it handily on price and is a perfect chip to put into a tiny PC build. The Ryzen 5 8600G is based on the same Zen 4 architecture, and it's paired with the Radeon Vega graphics engine. The 8600G comes with 6 cores and 12 threads. It comes with a base frequency of 4.3 GHz and a boost frequency of 5.0 GHz. This particular APU is rated for 65W TDP.

The Ryzen 8600G also supports DDR5-5200 memory speeds, which is ample. The integrated GPUs rely on shared system memory, so it's a good idea to pair it with as much as your budget allows. Compared to the Ryzen 5 8600X, you get integrated graphics but you miss out on the PCIe 5.0 support. You'll also be sacrificing clock speed and CPU cache. As for the gaming performance, the Ryzen 5 8600G isn't necessarily the best-performing CPU out there, but it's no slouch. It's good enough for casual games, but you will still be looking at a lower visual fidelity while playing some modern titles.

You can certainly get going without a graphics card, and if you're limited to lighter titles such as VALORANT or Rocket League, this is everything you need and more.

AMD's Threadripper 7000 processors dominate the HEDT space with incredibly powerful CPUs. We're adding the AMD Threadripper Pro 7995WX to this list as an option for those who want nothing but the best raw computing power. This chip comes with 96-cores and 192 threads and it's the leader of the pack when it comes to pure computing power. The AMD Threadripper Pro brings a lot of noteworthy features to the table to make it one of the best workstation CPUs on the market. The 7995WX can single-handedly outperform dual-socket Intel systems that come with up to 56 cores. Well, that's not a surprise considering AMD's been leading the workstation CPU space for quite some time now. Like other Threadripper 7000 series chips, the 7995WX has some premium features that you simply can't ignore, including eight DDR5-5200 memory channels with ECC.

AMD previously bumped the max memory capacity up to 2 TB in systems that support up to two DIMMs per channel. This is also a huge upgrade over AMD's consumer models that only support up to 256 GB. Notably, AMD has also increased the PCIe 5.0 support from 72 lanes on the standard Threadripper models to a whopping 128 lanes on the Pro models. This makes it very desirable for professional users looking to take advantage of high-performance PCIe peripherals. Just to put things into perspective, you can connect up to four Nvidia Quadro GPUs to a single-socket chassis, which is incredible.

It's, however, worth pointing out that this particular CPU demands special attention. The 'WX' suffix denotes that it's a professional workstation chip that drops into specialized single-socket TRX50 motherboards featuring the sTR5 socket. The supported motherboards are some of the most expensive ones you can find on the market right now as they tend to offer a robust power delivery system capable of handling the raw power of these monstrous CPUs. The 350W AMD Threadripper Pro 7995WX features a max frequency of 5.1 GHz, making it an incredible purchase for workstations.

Choosing the best AMD CPU

AMD's lineup of CPUs has a lot to offer, and we've reviewed countless AMD chips, comparing them against one another. We may well have reached a point where the platform has changed, but even so, there are a lot of good choices. Picking the right AMD processor for your PC depends on what you plan on using the OS for. If it's just for gaming and lighter tasks, you'll not require much more than a Ryzen 7 at most. Ryzen 9 processors come into play when you're using heavy multi-threaded applications such as video rendering.

If you want to stay on AM4, then the Ryzen 5 5600X is the one to get. If you're stepping up to the latest and greatest, it's the AMD Ryzen 5 7600. The 7600 is an amazing value proposition, undercutting the 7600X, and can boost up to its sibling matching it on performance. It may not be quite as good as the Intel Core i5-13600K, but it's still amazing for gaming and then some. If you want to build a PC for work and play, this processor will be a perfect match.