If you're looking for gaming though, this is unquestioningly the best gaming processor we've ever tested, and it's overall productivity scores and general performance is top notch. While it's content creation chops are decent enough, it still lags the Intel Core i5-12600K in many content creation tasks, so if content creation is your priority, there are better chips out there. Nowehere is that more clear than with the Ryzen 7 7700X, a midrange-ish chip meant for more serious content creation and gaming performance that easily outperforms the best chips of the previous generation while not costing a fortune.

The Ryzen 7000 series has definitely impressed us with its massive generational leap over its predecessor – as well as its rival, Intel. Whether you want something to power your family desktop PC or are looking for a powerful chip for content creation, we have a terrific option for you below. And, we're here to help you make the right choice for your needs and budget. We've tested the best CPUs on the market, putting them through their paces to see how they perform in the real world. Although, if you are looking for high-end builds, you'll find some excellent high-end CPUs are going to provide outstanding levels of performance when it comes to content creation or playing the best PC games at high frame rates, making them worth the splurge. With the release of Intel Raptor Lake and the AMD Ryzen 7000-series processors, the very best processors from the previous generations are getting some healthy price cuts, which means more savings for you.

If you do not need a dedicated GPU, that is.

In addition to performing the vital operations that actually make the machine run, the best Intel processors and the best AMD processors even come with integrated graphics processors, which offer massive savings since the best graphics cards can cost hundreds of dollars.

Upgrade 8 core mac pro to 12 core