CPUs
Looking for the best CPU? Browse unbiased processor reviews sourced from Reddit's most active tech communities. Find the right AMD or Intel chip for gaming, streaming, or workstation builds.
Showing 1-12 of 84 products
7/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i5-14500
25
18
58% positive
Uses Alder Lake (C0 stepping) silicon, making it immune to the voltage degradation and instability issues that affect 13th/14th gen K-series processors — confirmed by multiple community members
65W TDP is well-suited for small form factor and home server builds; users running Proxmox with multiple VMs and Docker containers report sustained CPU usage rarely exceeding 15%
At $230–$280 retail, it faces stiff competition from the i5-12600K at ~$130 and the i5-14600K at ~$275, both of which offer better performance-per-dollar for gaming and productivity workloads
5/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i9-9900KS
10
32
24% positive
Guaranteed 5GHz all-core boost out of the box — no silicon lottery required, making it the easiest path to maximum single-core performance on LGA1151v2
Best gaming CPU for the LGA1151v2 socket, offering meaningful advantages in emulation workloads like RPCS3 that rely on Intel TSX-NI instructions
Thermal output is brutal — requires at minimum a high-end air cooler or 240mm+ AIO; stock cooler is completely unsuitable and VRM requirements knock out many Z370 boards
5/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
16
25
39% positive
Solid 8-core/16-thread Zen 2 performance for mixed workloads — handles gaming, photo/video editing, and productivity simultaneously without breaking a sweat
AM4 platform compatibility means it drops into existing B450/X470/X570 boards with a BIOS update, no new motherboard required
At launch MSRP of ~$400, the 3900X cost the same and offered 4 more cores — making the 3800XT a nearly indefensible purchase for most buyers
7/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
25
18
58% positive
Exceptional multi-threaded performance for the Zen 2 generation — users report 80fps average in H.265 1080p Handbrake transcodes and near-doubling of render times compared to older Ryzen chips like the 1800X
12 cores and 24 threads make it genuinely capable for demanding workloads: video editing in Premiere runs with no lag even on 6K timelines with effects, and Blender renders significantly faster than 8-core alternatives
Gaming performance is underwhelming for a flagship-tier chip — the dual-CCD design causes higher inter-core latency, and the 3900X often matched or was beaten by the cheaper 6-core 3600X in gaming benchmarks at launch
4/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i9-9980XE
7
34
17% positive
18 cores and 36 threads with AVX-512 support — useful for inference workloads, scientific computing, and heavy multithreaded tasks that specifically benefit from AVX-512
Quad-channel DDR4 memory with up to 128GB capacity gives it an edge in memory-bandwidth-heavy applications like video editing and large dataset processing
No ECC memory support despite a $2,000 launch price — a glaring omission that competitors like AMD Threadripper 2950X included at a lower price point
8/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i5-12400F
31
11
74% positive
Exceptional power efficiency for a performance chip — real-world all-core loads typically land under 65W, making it ideal for small form factor and thermally constrained builds without throttling
Strong 1080p and 1440p gaming performance that holds up well even when paired with high-end GPUs like the RTX 4070, with users reporting CPU utilization rarely becoming the bottleneck
No integrated GPU — the 'F' variant is completely unsuitable for Plex servers or any workload needing hardware transcoding via Intel Quick Sync; the non-F 12400 or 12500 are strongly preferred for those use cases
8/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
40
3
93% positive
Handles 1440p gaming with ease when paired with appropriate mid-to-high-end GPUs like the RX 6800 XT or RTX 3080 — users report 100+ FPS in most AAA titles at high settings
Exceptional value at current ~$100 pricing: originally launched at $300, it now offers the same performance for a third of the cost, making it ideal for budget and upgrade builds alike
Only 6 cores and 12 threads is a soft ceiling for CPU-intensive workloads like simultaneous gaming and software encoding — users running x264 streaming notice the constraint
7/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X
32
11
74% positive
Significantly lower thermals than the 5800X — runs at 60-65°C under gaming load where the 5800X often hits 90°C+, making it compatible with modest air coolers
Drop-in AM4 upgrade for B450/X470/B550/X570 boards with a BIOS update — no new motherboard or RAM needed for users already on the platform
Gaming performance is within 1-6% of the 5600 in most titles — users going from a 5600 to a 5700X will feel almost no difference, making the upgrade pointless without a significant price gap
5/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i9-10980XE
15
26
37% positive
48 PCIe lanes make it the go-to for builds requiring multiple GPUs, NVMe arrays, or high lane-count expansion cards — mainstream Intel and AMD consumer platforms can't match this
Quad-channel DDR4 memory support delivers real throughput advantages in memory-bandwidth-sensitive workloads like video transcoding and scientific computing
Performance-per-dollar is poor — 18 cores barely outpaced the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X at launch at double the price ($979 vs $499), and modern chips like the i5-13600K at $300 beat it in multicore
5/10
Intel
CPUs
Intel Core i9-11900K
12
32
27% positive
Drop-in upgrade for existing LGA1200 (Z490/Z590) builds — no new motherboard or RAM required, making it a practical if imperfect upgrade path
PCIe 4.0 support added to the platform, enabling faster NVMe SSDs and slight GPU bandwidth improvements over 10th gen
Fewer cores than its predecessor: the 10900K has 10 cores vs the 11900K's 8, and the 10900K wins in many multi-threaded workloads at a lower price
7/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
22
19
54% positive
Exceptional multi-threaded performance at launch — Cinebench R15 scores around 10,000+ put it well ahead of Intel's 9900K in all-core workloads, and it roughly matched Threadripper 1950X territory on the mainstream AM4 socket
16 cores on AM4 meant users could drop it into existing X570 boards without a platform change, making it a compelling upgrade path from lower-core-count Zen 2/Zen 3 chips
Single-threaded gaming performance is clearly behind Zen 3 — multiple Reddit threads agree the 5600X, a much cheaper chip, outperforms the 3950X in most games due to better IPC and lower inter-chiplet latency
7/10
Amd
CPUs
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
24
19
56% positive
12 cores and 24 threads at competitive price points — users highlight it as a steal for multi-threaded workloads like video encoding, Lightroom, DXO PureRaw, and Plex transcoding
Runs cooler than the 5800X due to heat spreading across two CCDs — multiple users report comfortable temps even with mid-range air coolers
Outclassed by the 5800X3D for pure gaming — the 5800X3D leads in 1% lows by 20-40% and averages by ~10-15% in cache-sensitive titles like CS2, WoW, and racing sims