What are the best Intel and AMD Ryzen processors (CPUs) in 2022?

Are you looking for a new processor for your computer and you are lost in this vast market? Here is our selection of the best processors to take full advantage of your games and applications.

Long dominated by Intel, the PC processor market has evolved enormously in recent years with the return of AMD to the front of the stage, powered by its Ryzen processors. If Intel has been able to retain some of its market share, the choice of a processor is no longer as obvious as it could have been in the not so distant past.

Alder Lake: The Empire Strikes Back

After six years of giving us rehashes of Skylake, Intel has finally released Alder Lake, a product capable of competing with AMD's 5000 series. Alder Lake is therefore the 12th generation of Core processors and inaugurates not only a new architecture, but also a 10 nm manufacturing process.

As a bonus, the Z690 platform is also the first to use DDR5 and PCI-Express 5.0. Two features that therefore raise the bill, even if Intel is extremely aggressive on the price of the processors themselves. At the same time, AMD chips have seen their prices drop sharply, especially on the high end. Like what, competition is really good for consumers!

To make your job easier, we have selected a motherboard and RAM to accompany each selected processor. If you are in the process of building a new PC, do not hesitate to consult our dedicated guides:

Mid-range AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors

Intel Core i5-12400F: the hot deal of the moment

In recent years, the Core i5-1X400 have often represented one of the best performance/price ratios on the market, especially for video games. Suffice to say that this twelfth generation was expected at the turn as Alder Lake is so efficient. And the promise is indeed kept, the Core i5-12400F is on par with the 5600X from AMD and even exceeds it in many scenarios.

Not very impressive at first glance, but the latter sells for almost €100 less than its direct competitor. Add to that surprisingly affordable motherboards and you have one of the best value for money on the market.

There remains the question of the motherboard and the RAM: DDR4 or DDR5? Let's not go there by 4 paths: given the awful price of DDR5 at the moment, the 5% more performance is not justified. We therefore recommend a good motherboard based on the B660M chipset and 16 GB of DDR4 3600 and roll young!

The advantages of the Intel Core i5-12400F:

AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: the choice of reason at AMD

Among the processors announced by AMD at the end of 2020, we retain here the Ryzen 5 5600X and its 6 physical cores and 12 threads. With its base frequency of 3.7 GHz (4.6 GHz in boost), it comes to catch up with AMD in the game and even if it has fewer cores than the 5800X, it is more interesting for this use. A little expensive when it was released, it is now sold everywhere at its recommended retail price and therefore remains quite competitive.

We will accompany this CPU with 16 GB of RAM, but we will recommend that you choose a 32 GB kit instead, which will be suitable for the heaviest tasks. If you are not interested in RGB, the Corsair Vengeance LPX are still a good option and are available for 110 euros. As for the motherboard, a fairly balanced model like the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus will be ideal.

The advantages of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X:

High-end AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X: the CPU for streaming and more

If the Ryzen 5 5600x is suitable for the overwhelming majority of uses, more demanding users who want to start streaming, for example, will be more inclined to turn to the Ryzen 7 5800 X. On the menu here: 8 cores and 16 threads with a base frequency of 3.8 GHz which can reach 4.7 GHz in boost mode. Suffice to say that this chip is perfectly suited to the heaviest tasks and that it will obviously do the job in game.

Consumption and TDP are still reasonable here, even if we recommend that you invest in a good cooler if you want quiet operation. Once again, we can thank the 7 nm engraving.

This powerful processor will generally come with at least 16 GB of RAM, but we recommend that you go directly to a 32 GB kit, which will be suitable for the heaviest tasks. If you are not interested in RGB, the Corsair Vengeance LPX are still a good option and are available for 110 euros. Regarding the motherboard and with such a processor, the most demanding users can turn to a fairly high-end model such as the X570 AORUS PRO from Gigabyte available around 240 euros.

The advantages of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X:

Intel Core i7-12700KF: the blues back to the top

After years of stagnation, Intel is coming back to the fore with an Alder Lake architecture that is a real break with the past. In addition to the transition to 10 nm, it is above all a profound change in philosophy that is coming. Forget all identical cores, the 12700 K embeds 8 cores dedicated to performance (P-Cores) and 4 cores favoring efficiency (E-Cores). A distribution that is reminiscent of that of ARM chips.

All these little people go respectively up to 5 GHz for the P-Cores and 3.8 GHz for the E-Cores. Without going into technical details, this new approach coupled with ultra-fast DDR5 results in a chip around 10% more efficient than the Ryzen 5800 X. A great success that applies to video games as well, a category in which Intel has always been comfortable only on the application.

On the other hand, the 12700K consumes a lot, easily passing the 250 W bar under load! It's a lot and it will therefore require a rather muscular radiator or water cooling to keep this little world cool.

There remains the fateful question of the price: at 470 euros, the i7-12700K offers a more than solid performance/price ratio. However, you have to reckon with expensive motherboards, a Gigabyte Z690 UD trading at around 225 euros. It is above all DDR5 that makes the bill explode since a basic 32 GB kit costs 469 euros! That's twice as much as a DDR4 equivalent, with around 5% more performance for most uses. Choosing a DDR4 motherboard will therefore be an option, even if it will logically be less future proof.

Intel makes us almost faultless here, with an innovative processor at an attractive price. There remains a DDR5 platform which is a bit expensive for our taste, but if you are looking for the best, this is where you will find it!

The advantages of the Intel Core i7-12700K:

Entry-level AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors

Intel Core i3-12100F: for the broke gamer

With its new architecture built around performance cores and low-power cores, we wondered how Intel was going to equip its entry-level processors. And the surprise is pleasant since the four cores of this i3-12100F are performance cores.

And that makes this processor a real beast of a race for gamers, the vast majority of titles being limited by the graphics card and not the CPU. For this use, it is on a par with the 5600X from AMD for 170 € less! However, it shows its limits for productivity, due to its low number of cores.

Despite these few limitations, the Core 13-12100F instantly stands out as one of the best bargains of recent years. If you're looking to save some cash for a successful graphics card purchase, this processor is a great start.

As with the rest of the range, we advise you to start with a DDR4 platform based on B660M. Using an H610M chipset will save you a few bucks, but the trade-offs are too big for us. So go on a good motherboard accompanied by 16 GB of DDR4 3600.

The advantages of the Intel Core i3-10100F:

Choosing the right processor

Frequency, cores, usage… how to find your way around?

Modern processors (and by extension their performance) are conditioned by several characteristics. First of all, there is the frequency, most often expressed in GHz. This is simply the number of instructions your CPU is able to process per second. In general, the higher its frequency, the higher its raw power. Be careful though, having the processor with the highest frequency on the market does not guarantee that it will be the most efficient. The architecture, the design, the number of cores and threads are all other data to take into account to characterize a processor.

It will therefore be necessary to be attentive also to the number of cores and threads. The cores can be seen – to simplify – as sub-processors within the CPU. They allow you to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Modern processors also use mechanisms that allow software to multiply these simultaneous tasks by using hyper-threading or SMT, which makes it possible to “virtually” create two logical processors per core.

The choice of a processor must also be made according to your uses and the other components that will accompany it. For example, using an entry-level CPU with a multi-thousand dollar graphics card is often nonsense. The choice of your processor will also depend on that of the motherboard, because obviously, not all of them are compatible with each other. Not to mention the fact that currently only AMD Ryzen 5000 and Intel 11th gen processors are compatible with the PCI Express 4.0 standard, in particular allowing the use of certain very fast SSDs.

How many hearts do I need?

The number of cores needed will logically depend on your usage. For office automation, 4 cores are the bare minimum. This will also be suitable for old or low-power games, but we strongly recommend that you switch to 6 cores. Going beyond six cores won't do much for the average gamer, but 8 cores might come in handy if you're going to be streaming.

Choosing a CPU with more than 8 cores will be useless for the vast majority of people, prices are exploding and uses are becoming more and more specialized. For video or 3D modeling, for example, it will be interesting to invest in more cores.

How do I cool my CPU?

Consumption and heating are two very important variables that will determine the choice of your power supply and your cooling system. To help you in your choice, the manufacturers specify for each model the Thermal Design Power (TDP, "thermal envelope" in French) which indicates the thermal release, expressed in Watts, which the chip needs to function correctly. The higher this TDP, the more efficient the cooling system will have to be.

Some models are supplied with a small ventirad (fan coupled to a radiator) which will technically do the trick. However, it is still interesting to replace it with a more efficient model that will offer you both cooler temperatures and a more reasonable noise level. A processor that does not heat up too much will be satisfied with a good cooler and we recommend switching to water cooling for processors that tend to heat up more or if you want to start overclocking.

Note that AMD remains ahead of Intel in terms of consumption and temperatures.

How important is the processor for video games?

We can think that only the graphics card is really important to properly enjoy the latest fashionable video games. However, it would be counterproductive to neglect the processor. Indeed, it must be taken into account that at one time or another, everything goes through your processor. Therefore, if it does not keep pace, it will limit the performance of your entire system and therefore your in-game graphics card.

If the graphics card is obviously used for the graphic calculations of the latest fashionable 3D games, the processor will also be very important on certain titles requiring a lot of calculations such as strategy games for example.

If there is no general rule as to the ideal characteristics of a processor for gaming, you should still know that all games do not necessarily benefit optimally from processors with many cores. This is one of the reasons why Intel processors and their higher frequencies are generally recommended. Nevertheless, at the present time and at an equivalent range, the Ryzen from AMD are just as recommendable as their counterparts from Intel for playful video use.

Which processor to choose for video editing or heavy tasks?

Editing software and other demanding applications of the genre generally take full advantage of the possibilities offered by processors with many cores. It is partly for this reason that the first generations of Ryzen CPUs, with their many cores, were acclaimed when they were released.

Intel having finally caught up on this point, things are a little different today and the two brands will do well on applications like Premiere Pro or Da Vinci Resolve. By staying within reasonable price ranges and excluding professional use, you won't really take any risk by choosing one or the other of the two brands currently on the market.

Intel or AMD, what are the differences?

During your search for the ideal processor, you may have already come across somewhat barbaric terms such as Skylake or even Zen, Zen+ and Zen 2. Behind these designations are actually the names of the architectures used by Intel and AMD. It is the architecture that defines the internal construction of the processors and by extension their operation.

Intel has been using the Skylake architecture since 2015, engraved in 14 nm. Although the names of the different generations have evolved over the years, the base remains the same and we can consider the current generation as being a refresh of Skylake refresh. It must be understood by this that the chips evolve over the years, but that the base remains the same.

As for the ranges, Intel has been breaking them down in the same way for many years. We will first find the Pentium and Celeron for the entry level then the Core i3, i5, i7 and i9. These processors will generally take place on motherboards equipped with socket (connector between the CPU and the motherboard) LGA 1151.

On the AMD side, we will benefit here from the Zen 3 architecture (the latest) engraved in 7 nm, but also from some always interesting references in Zen 2 (7 nm). The range consists, in order, of Ryzen 3, 5, 7 and 9. The brand's latest processors have the advantage of being compatible with the PCI Express 4.0 standard, which Intel still does not currently support. Note that just like Intel, AMD uses its own connector on motherboards where it will be necessary to turn to a model equipped with an AM4 socket.

How to choose a motherboard compatible with your processor?

When choosing your processor, beyond its performance, you must also be attentive to the socket and the chipset with which it is compatible.

The socket is actually the connector used to interface the processor and the motherboard. AMD and Intel do not use the same sockets and you can even find different sockets within the same brand. The choice of your processor will therefore logically depend on the choice of the socket and by extension that of your motherboard. Finally, cooling systems are also socket dependent.

At AMD, things are quite simple since all Ryzen use the same socket: AM4, so you just have to pay attention to the chipset (we'll come back to this later).

Intel has used the LGA1151 socket since the arrival of Skylake processors, however, the latest generations we have added in this buying guide now require an LGA1200 socket.

If we do not go into the details of the operation and usefulness of a chipset here, it is also very important information to take into account when choosing your motherboard. Indeed, even if the latter has the correct socket, this does not guarantee that it will be compatible with your CPU.

Each generation of processor is accompanied by one or more new chipsets whose name is generally composed of a letter and a series of numbers. Buying a motherboard equipped with the chipset associated with your generation of processor will generally guarantee its compatibility. Previous generation motherboards will need to be updated, otherwise your machine will refuse to boot. As with processors, there are several "ranges" of chipsets, sometimes suitable for office automation, sometimes for gaming.

This buying guide offers you a suitable motherboard for each of the processors listed. That way, it's impossible to go wrong!

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