What CPU to buy for GAMING Mid 2019
Buying a gaming CPU can be a confusing task, so I thought I’d run you through a few great options, across a nice range of prices – specifically for gaming. Without further adieu, lets jump in with the sub £50 category.
This one is a bit tight, but I’m going with the Athlon 200GE – it’s a dual core, 4 thread CPU with integrated graphics. It’s not going to be the best, but it is incredibly cheap. I went with this over Intel’s offerings for a few reasons, mainly that the Athlon is not only a Zen chip but also uses the AM4 socket, which means you can pick this up, then upgrade later on without having to change anything, including newer generations of Ryzen depending on your motherboard.
Sub £100 also goes to AMD, this time a proper Ryzen chip, the 3200G. Now, it is named 3rd gen, but only 2nd gen architecturally. Not the end of the world, just something you should know. Performance here is a good bit better than the 200GE, while still costing only £89 at the time of filming. Not bad! It’s also an AM4 chip, meaning you can upgrade with no problems later too.
Around £150 is an interesting one, this is about as close to a 50/50 split as you’ll get, as both the Ryzen 2600x and the Intel 9400f are pretty much neck and neck in terms of performance, and price, with the Intel chip being about £10 more, for an extra FPS or so on average in games. The downside of going for the Intel chip is that the whole platform is more restrictive. You can’t overclock it, normally at least, and you don’t have much of an upgrade path either, compared to the 2600X which you can do both on pretty easily. Personally, my money is on Ryzen here, but I’ll leave that up to you.
£200 gets you a lot of CPU for your money, and strangely, Intel has nothing here. Their i5 9600K is £235 right now, leaving the only choice being the brilliant Ryzen 3600. Again, this is overclockable, upgradable, and comes with a decent CPU cooler just like the 2600x, 3200G and 200GE’s we’ve mentioned already. It’s got great performance, and while can be beaten by the 9600K at 1080p, like I mentioned it’s a good £50 cheaper. This is the real value king, it’s crazy.
£250 gets you the 9600K we’ve just been talking about, or the slightly faster X version of the 3600, which happens to be about as fast in games, while still coming with a great cooler in the box, and the usual Ryzen benefits we have already covered to death. Both are great chips, but the extra threads that the 3600X offers, along with the cooler in the box AND still being around £10 less seal the deal for me.
Around £300 gets you either the Intel 9700 non-K – so no overclocking and lower performance than the K, or for £8 over you can get the Ryzen 3700X. Both are great options, with the Intel option being a bit slower than the 3700X for gaming, and having a good bit less multithreaded performance meaning if you were to say stream and game, you’d want the Ryzen option. Again, the Ryzen comes with a great cooler too. I think you know where I’d put my money.
And finally, the more-money-than-sense option, which is soon to be updated with a 16 core option from AMD, but for now your options are either a 12 core from AMD, the 3900X, or an 8 core with hyperthreading from Intel, the 9900KF. Now, the 9900KF is likely a slightly better choice if you are JUST 1080p gaming, especially since it’s around £100 cheaper, although if you want similar performance to this for around £100 less, the 3800X is also an option. But, if you aren’t exclusively gaming at 1080p, say if you video edit, 3d model, or even stream from the same PC, the 3900X is a killer choice.
So, as you can see, Ryzen really smashes it in terms of value and performance, and that’s just for gaming. Of course, there are some great Intel options too, but they’ve been a bit slow to combat Ryzen’s sweep of the market, so if you must have Intel, it might be worth holding on to see what 10th generation chips offer, but I wouldn’t keep my hopes too high there.
CPUs:
Ryzen 3900X – https://techteamgb.co.uk/3900x
Ryzen 3800X – https://techteamgb.co.uk/3800x
Ryzen 3700X – https://techteamgb.co.uk/3700x
Ryzen 3600X – https://techteamgb.co.uk/3600x
Ryzen 2600X – https://techteamgb.co.uk/2600x
Ryzen 3200G – https://techteamgb.co.uk/3200g
Athlon 200GE – https://techteamgb.co.uk/200ge
Intel i9 9900KF – https://techteamgb.co.uk/9900kf
Intel i7 9700 – https://techteamgb.co.uk/9700
Intel i5 9600K – https://techteamgb.co.uk/9600k
Intel i5 9400F – https://techteamgb.co.uk/9400f
Sources:
https://www.techspot.com/review/1698-amd-athlon-200ge/
https://www.techspot.com/review/1878-amd-ryzen-3400g/
https://www.techspot.com/review/1829-intel-core-i5-9400f-vs-amd-ryzen-5-2600x/
https://www.techspot.com/review/1871-amd-ryzen-3600/
https://www.techspot.com/article/1880-ryzen-3600x-vs-3600/
https://www.techspot.com/review/1899-ryzen-3800x-vs-3700x-difference/
https://www.techspot.com/review/1877-core-i9-9900k-vs-ryzen-9-3900x/
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TechteamGB assumes no liability for damage, misuse or misunderstanding of the information contained in this video. Use this information at your own risk. TechteamGB cannot guarantee any particular result from the information contained in this video, and all information was presented as correct as of filming. TechteamGB accepts no liability for information being proven incorrect after the creation of the video, and all information should be taken as opinion and guidance, not fact. This video was not sponsored by anyone, and TechteamGB does not accept monetary – or non-monetary – benefits to alter opinions or results.
