CPUs from AMD and Intel: Buying tips and current recommendations

In our special we offer you up-to-date purchase advice on processors for gaming PCs, in which we have also prepared some topics that also explain basic knowledge in more detail. First of all, this page is about sockets and CPU cores, on the second page we clarify the basic questions that most people ask themselves before making a purchase. After that, we’ll take care of overclocking and mainboards, and finally list the CPUs that are recommended in their price and performance class in an overview.

Socket: The base for the CPU

In shops, the processors are first divided into AMD and Intel, then again according to the so-called sockets. There is also a good reason for this, because the socket is the installation device for the CPU on the mainboard. From a purely mechanical point of view, the socket has to match the CPU exactly – that’s why you always look for a mainboard that offers the same socket for your desired CPU. As a rule, AMD and Intel always present new sockets when something fundamental changes in the CPUs. With a new socket, the two manufacturers always establish a completely new generation of CPUs, with which new, suitable mainboards then come onto the market.

In the years that follow, there may be new, more or less significantly improved CPUs for these sockets. The AMD Socket AM4, which is ideal for the mainstream sector, i.e. normal users and gamers, has been around for over five years.

The Ryzen CPUs from AMD offer good value for money, especially between 200 and 350 euros, although the Intel competition is usually a bit faster, but also more expensive.

Source: AMD

Over the five years, three main families of CPUs gradually came out: Ryzen 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000. Intel, in turn, released Socket 1200 for the mainstream sector in spring 2020, for which there were two CPU generations (Core i-10000 and i-11000), and since last October there is the new Socket 1700 with the Core i-12000 models.

Enthusiast Pedestal

In addition to the mainstream sockets, there are also other sockets that are not important for normal users and gamers – especially the sockets also known as “enthusiast sockets” hardly offer any additional performance for games, on the contrary: Some CPUs offer a particularly large number of cores for special applications, but are even slower in games than much cheaper mainstream CPUs because they offer a comparatively low clock.

The large number of cores does not pay off in games – more than eight cores usually do not offer any advantage in games. In addition, the mainboards for these enthusiast sockets are noticeably more expensive.

cores and threads

Processors have cores that can perform different tasks independently of each other. The more cores, the more tasks the CPU can manage in parallel – but everything has its limits. As already described, games do not use all cores, no matter how many there are, but from eight cores there is basically no longer any advantage with an otherwise comparable CPU architecture, especially since the cores of modern CPUs also master SMT (simultaneous multithreading). .