PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming CPU of 2025
Check out more of the year's best tech in our PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2025 coverage.
It's been a relatively quiet year for new gaming CPUs, as AMD and Intel launched the bulk of their latest processors back in 2024. Ryzen 9000-series chips first appeared in the summer, with the Core Ultra 200S range making an appearance a few months later in October.
Since then, retailers' listings have mostly been filled with non-overclockable or low-power versions, but AMD did drop a few niceties for us in 2025. Admittedly, most of them weren't much of a surprise, as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D was expected right from the launch of Zen 5.
And the same is somewhat true of the Ryzen AI Max and Max+ processors, better known as Strix Halo. AMD announced them at CES, and we didn't have to wait too long before we saw mighty APUs in use in the Framework Desktop and even in some handhelds.
The real surprise was the Ryzen 5 7500X3D. Basically just a cut-down Ryzen 7 7800X3D, it pretty much popped out of nowhere in November, and given that AMD had already launched the Ryzen 5 7600X3D in August, few folks expected another version of it (we're still waiting for a Zen 4 version of the Ryzen 7 5700X3D).
Intel did launch its Panther Lake mobile processor architecture in October, but the chips themselves won't be available until after the official launch at CES 2026. Team Blue chipped away at improving Arrow Lake, but fresh desktop processors are for next year only.
So while 2025 hasn't been an outstanding year for new gaming CPUs, there are three that are more than good enough to warrant special attention for a PC Gamer Hardware award.
Best gaming CPU 2025: the nominees
AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D
Take a Ryzen 7 7800X3D gaming CPU, disable two cores, and lower the clocks a bit and what do you have? Answer: a Ryzen 5 7600X3D. Now take that chip and lower the clocks a teensy bit more, and you get this, the lovely little Ryzen 5 7500X3D.
With six Zen 4 cores, 12 threads, and a boost clock of 4.5 GHz, it's not a processor that would normally make you sit up and pay attention. Especially when you learn that its price tag is around $269.
Its secret sauce is, as the name points out, the slice of 3D V-cache bonding to the top of the cores. Thanks to the enormous 96 MB of L3 cache, it's a superb little gaming chip and surprisingly, not massively slower than the 7800X3D.
Sure, it's pricey for a six-core chip, but when it uses just 65 W of power, you just know that this would be perfect for any SFF (small form factor) gaming rig.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D review.
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
We had to wait a while for this monster of a processor, but it was worth the long, drawn-out months. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D arrived in March and immediately topped the charts for the fastest gaming CPU in 2025, even beating the 9800X3D.
AMD's dual-CCD processors used to be quite picky about working properly with games, but that was (mostly) resolved with the 9950X3D. The latest generation of 3D V-cache, bonded to the bottom of the first CCD, meant that AMD could push the clocks right up.
Where the 9800X3D enjoys a boost clock of 5.2 GHz, the 9950X3D can reach 5.5 GHz on the L3 cache-heavy CCD and 5.7 GHz on the normal CCD. For a jack-of-all-trades processor, it pretty much masters everything.
With nothing to touch it from Intel, though, AMD was free to set the price tag accordingly. Weighing in at $699 at launch, it's barely dropped in price since then. My 'AI summary'? Horribly expensive, outrageously capable.
Read our full AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D review.
AMD Ryzen AI Max/Max+ (Strix Halo)
This might seem like a bit of an odd nomination, given that we're looking at a range of processors, rather than just an individual one. However, all of AMD's Ryzen AI Max/Max+ have given us warm and fuzzy feelings this year.
Whether it was the range-topping Ryzen AI Max+ 395 in the Framework Desktop or handheld gaming PCs teased by Ayaneo and GPD that sport Strix Halo CPUs, it's a processor that has rekindled our excitement for such pieces of hardware.
That's because, by all rights, it has no business existing. AMD's Strix Halo design takes the two CCDs from a Ryzen 9 9950X and pairs them with an IO die that houses a huge 40 compute unit RDNA 3.5 GPU.
Oh, and a 256-bit memory bus, with up to 128 MB of LPDDR5x-8000 RAM. We all hoped it would be a monster at gaming, but it's barely on par with an RTX 4060. So why does it exist?
AI, of course. That amount of RAM and compute units makes it perfect for home-brewed machine learning shenanigans. Even so, we can't wait to get our hands on a Strix Halo handheld.
Read our full AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (Framework Desktop) review.
The winner of the PC Gamer Hardware Award for the best gaming CPU will be announced on New Year's Eve. It's obvious that AMD will win again this year, but as to which one gets all the glory, you'll just have to wait and see.