It's AMD's equivalent to Intel's Core X-Series, and, for many users, a better value. Single board computers are used for a variety of things. We have particular favorites in each line, and have reviewed many of them singly, but on the whole, all are fine values for users who need lots of cores and threads on the cheap. The six-core AMD Ryzen 5 3600X is an excellent mainstream CPU, offering proficient performance, multithreading, and overclockability. You'll need to be sure you have a robust cooling solution to handle the extra heat, as well a motherboard and CPU that are suited to the task, since not all chips are unlocked for overclocking, and not all motherboards support it. But if you’re looking for the uncontested fastest gaming chip on the market, or thinking of getting into game streaming, occasionally edit video, or just like the idea of having more threads available when you need them, AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X is an incredible value. The Best CPUs for 2020. ... Low power use. On the whole, we'd chalk up most gains from CPU overclocking as modest at best for productivity users, and recommend leaving the endeavor to hobbyists and enthusiasts. The Ryzen 5 line is especially attractive as a mainstream value pick. Intel calls this trait Hyper-Threading (HT), while in the AMD world, it's referred to by the generic term SMT, for symmetric multithreading. All of the Ryzen chips run on the AM4 socket; older boards may require a BIOS update for newer chips, but compatibility is more streamlined than with 6th to 9th Generation Intel Core CPUs on Socket 1151 and their chipset-dependent complexities. In a nutshell, multithreading allows your PC to run two discrete processing assignments, or threads, on each core. Threadripper? Inexpensive four-core engine for a budget PC. Best-picks; Best Power Supplies 2020. (The second- and third-gen Ryzen desktop CPUs, along with some of the first gen, remain on the market at this writing.) That changes with the new-for-2020 10th Generation. 6. We also maintain a list of best CPUs for productivity, for those who frequently tackle high-end content creation, or other tasks that benefit from high core counts. So you want to check the specs carefully to make sure that the motherboard you have or are considering supports the exact chip you're looking at. Like with core count, these numbers are telling only within a given processor family; a 3.5GHz Intel Core X-Series chip and a 4GHz AMD Ryzen mainstream chip are not directly comparable on the basis of clocks alone. In the second generation of Threadripper, the line is broken into two tiers: the "ordinary" X series and the higher-end WX series. With the latest generation, all come bundled with a nifty-looking stock air cooler from AMD's Wraith line. Let's take a quick look at some basic specs you need to understand before digging into Intel's and AMD's lines. Two more cores and four more threads are definitely beneficial, ESPECIALLY at that price point. That's because a motherboard upgrade requires at least partial system disassembly, and sometimes replacing further parts to make the upgrade work. It’s the best power supply for gaming that supports ATX and … Picks: Intel Core i9-10980X Extreme Edition, Intel Xeon W-2295, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X. That means, assuming the motherboard has the appropriate video outputs, that you can use the IGP as your display solution, without needing a separate video card. Architecture: Zen+ | Socket: AM4 | Cores/Threads: 4/8 | Base Frequency: 3.7GHz | Top Boost Frequency: 4.2GHz | TDP: 65W. Best Memory What that means: Unless you're upgrading from a low-end chip early in a platform's lifecycle to a high-end CPU at the very end, you're not likely to gain too much from an in-place CPU upgrade on a dead-end platform. I'm actually curious about the i5-9600K too. But for detailed help on picking the best processor for your gaming rig, you can check out our 2020 CPU Buying Guide. It also uses a new socket, LGA 1200, which is incompatible with all else that came before. How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad, How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill, How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business, How to Get Started With Project Management, several distinct air coolers in the AMD Wraith family, Report: Microsoft Developing In-House ARM Chips for Surface Devices, Data Centers, Report: Apple Is Testing a Chip Design With 32 High-Performance Cores, First Tests: AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper Pro, New Muscle in Workstation CPUs, Despite 7nm Struggle, Intel to Keep Investing in 5nm, 3nm Chip Technologies, The Best Rugged Hard Drives and SSDs for 2021. Since this … Our AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 All We Know article has all the details on the new CPUs. I just ordered the 9700K for my new build. If you're looking for a new cooler to pair up with a new CPU, an important spec to be aware of is the chip's rated thermal design power (TDP) rating. When shopping for the best gaming CPU, you'll want to balance performance and features with your PC budget. Existing AMD owners with a 500-series motherboard will breathe a sigh of relief as the 5600X drops right into existing 500-series motherboards. Answering this question will set you on a narrow path or a broad one. While the cost is higher, I feel the 9700K covers all the bases. The Core i5-10600K's twelve threads also reduce the gap between it and competing AMD processors in heavily-threaded workloads. This is especially true for AM3+ CPU’s which are still viable options for low-end and even mid-level gaming PCs. Whether you're upgrading your desktop PC or building a new one, choosing the right processor is the most crucial and complex choice you will make. Intel and AMD CPUs support multithreading in certain of their chips. Unlike the long-running mainstream Intel line, the Core X-Series is only a few years old, at least in name. The third-gen chips and boards support the same lanes, but third-gen chips work only with third-gen boards and vice versa. Look at a Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU on Socket 1151 or 1200, or an AMD Ryzen 3 or Ryzen 5 on Socket AM4. These boards and chips are just hitting the market in late May 2020. Selecting the best CPU for your needs will largely depend on what you’ll be using your computer for. Some of them are passive also and most of them do not require … Motherboard makers often provide CPU compatibility lists for a given board. Tagged with a "G" (for "graphics") at the end of their chip names, these CPUs (the first of which debuted in 2018) are excellent values for budget systems emphasizing light gaming and productivity work. All are unlocked for overclocking, if you are so inclined. Best Budget CPU Windows Central 2020. These new motherboards support the PCIe 4.0 interface but provide lower entry-level pricing that's a better fit for this class of processor. (The overclockable chips end in "K" or "KF"; they are mainly Core i5, i7, and i9.). (Just make sure the motherboard has video outputs!). All of the Core X-Series chips end in "X" and are unlocked for overclocking. Below are links to deep-dive reviews of most of the CPUs recommended above. With Intel Socket 1151, you'll want a Z390- or Z370-chipset-based motherboard; with Socket 1200, look for a Z490 one; and on Ryzen, look for an X470, X370, or B350 board. By Stephen ... and it’s all the better when with the best CPU deals. Best Motherboards However, our cheat sheet below will give you a good basic idea of the chip lines to look at, depending on what you do. Best-in-class gaming performance, when paired with a dedicated graphics card. So, the first big one: Are you upgrading a PC, or building a new one from scratch? He served as Computer Shopper’s editor in chief from 2008 to 2017. The workstation-class Intel Xeon W-2295 CPU offers 18 cores of computing muscle and specialized features like ECC support, though it’s not as powerful as some competing enthusiast-class CPUs. AMD’s move to the 12nm manufacturing process, along with an optimized Zen+ design, yields solid performance improvements that include a nice bump to the CPU and GPU clocks. The best mini PCs put desktop power in sizes way smaller than any clunky PC tower. 14 Best Power Supplies of 2020: The Ultimate Guide. The last A series chips (dubbed "Bristol Ridge") work on the same AMD Socket AM4 that the Ryzen chips below support. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1650 OC 4G is probably the best low power graphics card that does not require an external PCI-E power connector. They don’t require much space, and they can easily be inserted into specified slots, and you don’t have to open your CPU. Practically speaking, it is the same thing. Corsair AX1600i is the best 1600w PSU you will get this year. TDP is relevant as a yardstick for the heat output that the cooler will have to handle. This article is updated regularly. Here are the best gaming CPUs for the money. Best PC Cases As we alluded to earlier, one thing to note with the 9th Generation Intel mainstream CPUs is that only the highest-end support the doubling of processing threads via Hyper-Threading. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X takes the top spot in the gaming PC market with a solid blend of Intel-beating performance in both gaming and application workloads. Rocking 8 cores and 16 threads, along with much stronger single-core performance, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is among the best CPUs for gaming – as well as less demanding creative work – right now. X570, meanwhile, debuted with third-generation Ryzen in 2019 and brings support for PCI Express 4.0, which is for now mostly of interest to shoppers looking to install the fastest possible PCI Express 4.0 SSDs. Measured in gigahertz (GHz), these are two of the primary specs for any given CPU, but they require a bit of context. 3. Picks: Intel Core i7-9700K, Intel Core i9-10900K, AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-cpus. Casual content creators can get by with the chips we recommended for the enthusiast gamers (the Core i7-8700K is 6C/12T, the Core i9-10900K is 10C/20T, and the Ryzen 7 2700X and 3700X are 8C/16T), with a possible step up to the Core i9-9900K (8C/16T). You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. Speaking of which, the Ryzen 3 3300X can overclock to the highest all-core frequencies we've seen with a Ryzen 3000-series processor, making it a great chip for enthusiasts. In descriptions of CPUs, you may see the core/thread count in a sort of shorthand (we'll do so below), for example, 8C/16T, meaning 8 cores and 16 threads. Does the maximum number of cores matter more, or does clock speed? Any reason not to recommend it? But in most cases, if you have a midrange or better CPU on a given dead-end platform, unless you're getting a new chip cheaply, you'll get more bang for your buck buying a new motherboard and CPU on a current platform. This processor chip, also called the central processing unit (CPU), is the chip that handles the processing of the data the computer needs to operate. Overclocking is easier than it has ever been, but it is still a process for the patient at heart. Chips like the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition are the forebears of the Core X-Series. John is PCMag's executive editor for hardware. The 3300X's four cores tick at a 3.8 GHz clock rate and boost to 4.3 GHz, providing snappy performance in lightly threaded applications, like games. Still, it's fine to leave liquid cooling to the overlcoking set. ... Are you looking for the best low profile CPU cooler but not sure what specs … 8 Best Wrist Rests in 2020. The multiplier is locked down on other chips. These cards are slimmer, have low power consumption and the powerful ones can be used for gaming too. However, if you feel the need for speed in productivity workloads, this chip's 12 cores will chew through those workloads with aplomb. So, one way to tell if a power supply is a cheap unit is to compare its +12V rating to other power … Gentoo Linux, Lubuntu, and Arch Linux are probably your best bets out of the 4 options considered. So be sure to check out Best Graphics Cards page, as well as our GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy to make sure you have the right card for the level of gaming you're looking to achieve. Still awake? Unmatched performance in multithread-aware tests, with 32 cores and 64 addressable threads. This new processor wields the Zen 2 architecture paired with the 7nm process to push performance to new heights while enabling new features for low-end processors, like access to the speedy PCIe 4.0 interface. For CPU-intensive tasks such as video rendering, support for HT/SMT is a very good thing. Given that the R5 2600 is only $1 more than the 2400G, why not replace that as the budget pick? Post Views: 22,110. For the last week I've seen it selling for about $10 to $30 dollars more for an appreciable increase in boost frequency. But if you're after the best gaming CPU, you're in the right place. For best performance, Lubuntu uses minimal desktop LXDE, and the apps are lightweight in nature. (Overclocking suitability varies from chip sample to chip sample, what's known in enthusiast circles as the "silicon lottery.") Intel and AMD produce the vast majority of them. Our tips and picks below will help you choose the best CPU for gaming. The A series is AMD's low-cost CPU line that features decent IGPs, meant as inexpensive engines for productivity work and education use, and in some cases light gaming. In terms of nomenclature, the performance pecking order within each Intel chip generation is Celeron (generally slowest), followed by Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7, and finally, Core i9 CPUs, the last introduced to Intel's mainstream Socket 1151 platform with its 9th Generation family. It is also the fastest graphics card in this list here. However, the Coral Dev Board comes with a heavy price tag costing $149.99. That makes this chip a great deal for gamers who prize high refresh rates, particularly if they plan to move forward to the new AMD or Nvidia graphics cards. There’s also support for PCIe 4.0 and overclockability to consider. That combination, along with a beefier bundled cooler and Solder TIM, makes the Ryzen 5 3400G the processor to beat for systems built around integrated graphics for low-resolution budget gaming rigs. AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X, with 16 cores and 32 threads, expands on its predecessors' mission of bringing HEDT-class performance to mainstream motherboards, lowering the bar for entry. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, The on-chip graphics aren't the equivalent of even a middling video card, but they outpace Intel's HD and UHD Graphics solutions and can manage some decent gaming if you dial down the resolution and detail settings judiciously. If the software you use is multithreaded (this especially applies to modern content-creation and -editing packages for graphics and video), more cores will help. One note that even those familiar with Intel's CPU lines over the years ought to know has to do with integrated graphics. With incremental improvements to multi-threaded performance, thermal management, and overclocking, the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X makes AMD's flagship consumer CPU lineup even better than it was before. ... Best 120mm AIO Liquid Cooler Reviews – Top 7 Picks Of 2020; Best Power Supply Brands Review – Top 7 Manufacturer Of 2020; You can stick with the value theme and drop this capable chip into existing X470 of B450 motherboards, but you'll lose access to the PCIe 4.0 interface in exchange for a lower price point. These chips should have a drastic impact on our recommendations for the fastest gaming CPU, largely due to a 19% increase in IPC and unified L3 cache that reduces latency. The best Intel processor: Core i5-10600K Intel. Intel's 10th Generation Core i9-10900K mainstream flagship CPU excels in elite gaming scenarios, but its aging architecture can't quite keep pace with AMD's newer, nimbler 7nm designs on value and multi-threaded performance. Expect to pay roughly $100 to $150 for one of these Ryzen "G" chips. (The heat output you'll need to dissipate will be greater than the chip's rating.). Best CPUs for Gaming November 2020. Intel's six-core "Coffee Lake" Core i5 trades blows away much pricier previous-generation Core i7 chips. The low … The Core i7-10700K sports eight cores and 16 threads, and can now be found for $375, though we expect we will see price reductions in the coming weeks as Intel responds to AMD's faster Ryzen 5000-series processors. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Which of the two big chip makers should you go with: AMD, or Intel? Best for Discrete-Card Gaming on a Budget, Best for Power-User Content Creators, Extreme Multitaskers, Best for Productivity Users, Extreme Budget Gamers, Best for Power Users, Gamers, Prosumer Content Creators, Best for Value-Minded (But Power-Hungry) Enthusiasts, Media Pros, Best for Thread-Hungry Content Pros, Extreme Enthusiasts, Best for Mainstream Gaming Rigs on LGA 1151, Best for Mainstream PCs and Gaming Rigs on AM4, Best for High-Frame-Rate Gaming, Esports Pros, Best for Content Creators, Hardcore and High-Refresh Gamers. It's a gross oversimplification, but think of core count like engine cylinders; more cores generally indicate more power, all else being equal. Other concerns—cost, energy consumption, the kinds of roads (read: tasks) you drive every day—matter just as much as out-and-out muscle. I'd still think an overclocked I7 8700K would be the best gaming CPU at the moment for the price and availability, but if I looked at it in a future sense the R7 2700X would be the best value choice considering how often Intel changes their sockets and leaves their customers high and dry with no upgrade path beyond two CPU generations. We generally don't recommend HEDT processors for enthusiasts that are only interested in gaming. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Two roads, splitting to four roads. For the CPU I went for the Intel Pentium Gold G5500, this CPU uses almost no power but has plenty of power. Why? Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The same applies to the Intel Core X-Series across the board, as well as the AMD Threadripper line: It's a BYO cooler party in these cases. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Intel's next-gen Rocket Lake processors will also be drop-in compatible with the LGA 1200 motherboard you'll need for this processor. AMD's 32-core Ryzen Threadripper 3970X performs so far ahead of the curve that it practically creates a new class of consumer-accessible CPU. You'll also need to factor in the onboard chipset, the motherboard's governing silicon. CPU is one of the important parts of the computer or laptop so it I very important to have the best quality CPU and for my point of view AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X, AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i5-8600K also can take help from windows error code 0x8024a105 and also has any query then also it will help you. Going against your own recommendations? Some are bare-bones kits. The first and second generation Ryzens are a mixed bag. Requires a new motherboard, despite Z370 chipset offering no substantive new features. Multithreaded, with eight cores and 16 threads. GTX 1650 is a budget GTX 16 series graphics card and is built on the Turing GPU architecture. I have my disagreements with these ratings. We check over 130 million products every day for the best prices, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Review: The Mainstream Knockout. You'll want to check at time of purchase what comes in the box. These latter two chips, each under $2,000, were the ultimate in consumer-attainable core and thread count until the third-gen Threadripper 3990X ($3,990) came along with its 64C/128TH design. Best Gaming CPUs I am going to play at 3440x1440p at 200hz and hdr with the new acer x35 should I get a 9900k or 8086k and a rtx 2080 ti for gaming only, for my upgrade of a fx 4300 and gtx 1050. Here are some pictures of the completed build. A Very high hash rate for specific coin: ... CPU is the Central Processing Unit of your computer. Cost can be very high. Best SSDs Support for 400-series motherboards will come next year, so those users will have to wait for a drop-in upgrade until then. This is where formal benchmarking and labs-based reviews like ours come to the fore. AMD Ryzen 3 3300X (Late-model mainstream AMD CPUs, on AMD's "AM4" socket, have broken that cycle for the moment. If all you care about is gaming and you prefer Intel chips, the Core i7-10700K is a speedy chip with plenty of overclocking headroom that nearly matches the gaming performance of Intel's flagship Core i9-10900K. Architecture: Zen 2 | Socket: AM4 | Cores/Threads: 6/12 | Base Frequency: 3.8GHz | Top Boost Frequency: 4.4GHz | TDP: 95W. This doubles the simultaneous processing potential, assuming that the software and operating system can leverage it. Although computers need quite a few components to run properly, the processor is the most important component. Untangling chip, board, and chipset compatibility can be really tricky with these chips, and you will often see four or five chipsets that work with a given chip generation, targeting different price strata and use cases. Best Power Supplies. In most cases, for running at stock speeds, air cooling is just fine, and you don't need more than the stock cooler. Most of them are CPUs only, requiring pairing with a dedicated video card (an added expense, if you don't have one). Picks: Intel Core i9-9900K, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X. There are edge cases on every line. Its price seems to be almost identical to the i5-8600K. Corsair RM750x $212 from Amazon. It evolved from Intel's traditionally distinct high-end CPU platform for content creators and extreme performance/gaming hounds, nowadays dubbed the "HEDT" (for "high end desktop") market. Everything above will do the job just fine. Consider one of the Ryzen "G" chips if you mean to do some very light gaming or just don't need a video card. If you mean to get a video card, though, consider a Core i5 or Ryzen 3 or 5 for maximum value. Especially as we wait for AMD's Ryzen 5000 stock and pricing to stabilize. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that … It's possible to objectively measure CPU performance across a range of applications and usage cases, and if you're not bound by mere-mortal concerns such as a budget, it's easy enough to get a pretty good idea of what "best" means. That eliminates the need for a discrete graphics card in your new system, which equates to more money for other high-performance additives, like an SSD. With some of Intel's 8th, 9th, and 10th Generation Core CPUs, the chip maker has begun issuing alternate versions without an IGP, set apart by the suffix "F." These F-chips are otherwise the same as their non-F equivalents. For very basic use, an under-$100 Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon CPU can suffice; we found the latest Athlons slightly better values. If your budget is tight and you're looking to build a system for modest gaming, you should check out our Best Cheap CPUs feature. Like with the mainstream Intel lines, you'll want to match up your motherboard chipset with your usage case here. ... Low vampire power. SMT goes up and down the mainstream chips in AMD's Ryzen desktop line. It depends on the family of CPU you're looking at, whether a cooler comes bundled in the box, whether your existing cooler will work with the new CPU (if it's being installed along with a new motherboard that has a new kind of socket), and if you intend to overclock. Best Elite Pick. September 16, 2020 The Tech Lounge Staff Computing 1 Comment. In fact, the chip generally matches the gaming performance of its more-expensive sibling, the $449 Ryzen 7 5800X. Like with the Intel Core X-Series, the X399- and TRX40-based boards are geared to extreme power users and serious enthusiasts. In the case of the last two, all of their supporting X399 and X299 motherboards support overclocking. Single-core performance is still a bit slower than cheaper Intel processors. Casual/enthusiast media-content creation. The Best Coins to Mine in 2020 with: CPU, GPU or ASIC. In recent years, chip sockets or chipsets are only compatible for a generation or two of CPU, and once the year or two passes, the next platform is no longer compatible with the ones that came before. Expect to pay roughly $150 to $200, possibly a bit less if you opt for a previous-gen chip. Note that Intel, with its 9th Generation mainstream Core CPUs for desktops, pushed HT further up its stack than ever before. The exceptions are the unlocked Core enthusiast CPUs, which come without any; the assumption there is that you will bring your own, enhanced cooler to the chip-tweaking party. ... 2020 - link Amd cpu's low … Examine the CPU's spec sheet and our individual chip reviews for per-chip details. You don't necessarily need a liquid cooler, but you'll want to be sure that any cooler you get has some extra TDP-support overhead if you intend to try overclocking. However, it will be perfect to power a rig with low-to-medium specs. Also factor in a deluxe motherboard. If you’re truly only concerned about the best gaming CPU and basic productivity tasks, you should go with the Ryzen 5 5600X and save yourself some money. If you're looking at Intel's mainstream CPUs on Socket 1151 or 1200, most come with Intel's capable, recently upgraded stock air cooler in the box. These Low Profile Graphics Cards from Nvidia and AMD can fit in a low profile or slim case easily. 14 Best Power Supplies of 2020: The Ultimate Guide. Discrete-card gaming on a budget. After all, a new board on Intel's or AMD's mainstream platforms can set you back as little as $50. Getting the best possible gaming CPU won't help you much if your GPU is under-powered and/or out of date. But just because these, the CPU equivalents of maximum-horsepower V12 or V16 engines, exist doesn't make them the right pick for every shopper, or even most shoppers. Indeed, buying a CPU is akin to a whole forest of decision trees. Cores and Threads. The real hearts of the Ryzen line, though (and what, in the main, brought AMD roaring back in the last few years in mainstream desktops), are the Ryzen 1000, 2000, and 3000 series CPUs, the first through third generations, respectively. Locked Versus Unlocked. Depending on the software involved, the CPU cooling hardware, and the traits of the CPU itself and its motherboard, an accelerated clock rate up to the boost rate might kick in on some or all of the system's cores, sometimes varying at any given time from core to core. At this ,id-2020 writing, Intel has several generations of its mainstream Celeron, Pentium, and Core i3/i5/i7/i9 CPUs on the market at the same time. Strong in single- and multi-threaded workloads, Works with existing 500-series motherboards, Excellent single- and multi-threaded performance, Leading gaming and application performance, Extremely limited manual and auto-overclocking headroom, Lower performance in applications than alternatives, Small performance advantage over previous-gen, Archived comments are found here: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3795320/cpus.html. All of the Ryzen 5 processors (excepting a handful of OEM-only chips meant for non-USA sale) support SMT (making them all 4C/8T or 6C/12T). As its aggro name suggests, the Ryzen Threadripper is all about maximum cores and threads for the money. Gamers are best served by mainstream processors (with fewer cores and higher clocks) that are often faster in games; the Ryzen 9 5950X also falls into the same category - AMD's lesser 5000-series models are a better value for gamers. Dubbed "Comet Lake-S" and headed by the Core i9-10900K, this new Intel line has HT up and down the stack. Let’s say that the average is around 100W TDP. The ones that are CPU-only end in a "0," or with an "X.". Backwards-compatible with older AM4 motherboards. 5. Are you upgrading, or building a whole new PC? Chips from any of these generations will fit in any Socket 1151-equipped motherboard. ), (Examples: See our reviews of the Core i5-8400, Core i7-8700K, Core i7-8086K Limited Edition, Core i7-9700K, Core i9-9900K, Core i9-9900KS, and Core i9-10900K.). It also comes with integrated graphics, which isn't an option with AMD's 5000-series processors. Requires new motherboard socket, but compatible with existing mainstream Intel coolers, AMD's 12-core Ryzen chips are a formidable foil, especially at current prices, Z490 platform doesn't bring much new to the table, and high TDP mandates liquid cooling, A few platform teething issues in early going. Of course, all else is seldom equal, and comparing core count is only really meaningful within a given CPU line and in the same generation of that line. I added 2 x 4GB sticks of DDR4 Unbuffered ECC RAM. (The very first Core i9 chips debuted in 2017 on Intel's Core X-Series; more about them below.) If you're a pro content creator with the ready cash, look no further: This is the V16 engine that makes your heart rate rev up. But it's most impressive when paired with a dedicated graphics card. AMD Ryzen 7 5900X If you're not looking to overclock, opting for one of the Ryzens that comes with a Wraith cooler in the box can save you $20 or $30. The majority of enthusiasts looking for a fast set-it-and-forget-it processor that can handle common computing tasks with relative ease will find incredible value in the Ryzen 5 3600X. Support for ECC memory with certain mainboards. You'll want to read our 2970WX review, though, for some caveats around these specific extreme chips. Both ultra-low-power AMD Ryzen Embedded APUs will be available for the next 10 years, meaning availability will stretch all the way till 2030.