Best processors 2017: top CPUs for your PC

AMD and Intel are hot off the recent releases of Ryzen and Coffee Lake respectively, and through these releases, the two tech behemoths have officially ended a long period of stagnation – they’re finally at each other's throats again. AMD and Intel are both offering some of the best processors that have ever existed and, unlike previous generations, each offers a compelling and valuable solution for a variety of use cases and budgets.

This renewed rivalry makes today an extremely exciting time for anyone who is passionate about tech, but even further than that – the perfect time to shop for the best processors. One drawback though: the market for CPUs is notoriously unstable, especially concerning the pricing and availability of the most recent products. Don’t worry, though: we have your back, and we’ve found all the best processors you can buy today. Even if you can’t get your hands on that shiny new chunk of silicon you’ve had your eyes on – there are plenty of great Kaby Lake processors available at great prices that are still worth their weight in salt.

Now, more than ever before, there is a chance for anyone to get their hands on the processor of their dreams – no matter the budget. AMD and Intel both are offering a great variety of processors in every shape and size. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a cutting-edge enthusiast, or someone who just wants something that’ll make your computer run, this innovation and competition means precisely one thing: everyone wins.

We get it though, the second you look at the listings on Amazon or Newegg, it becomes immediately clear that finding the best processor isn’t exactly a walk in the park. This is one of the unfortunate side effect of having such a healthy and booming market. Luckily, though, the TechRadar editorial team has put their expertise to use to find the best processors you can buy today. Plus, every processor we’ve included has been tested or reviewed by us, so you know they’ve earned their spots. So, sit back, put your feet up, and get ready to elevate your PC to another plane of performance.

During the Coffee Lake-S launch, Intel claimed that it’d be giving us its best gaming processor ever; they weren’t wrong. This ’K’ series chip decimates AMD’s flagship in almost every way possible. Abandoning the company’s invisible rule to keep processors sporting over four cores out of the hands of the mainstream, the i7-8700K makes hexa-core the new vogue.

Read our full review: Intel Core i7-8700K

When AMD released its Zen architecture-based Ryzen chips back in June, they relied on the promise of a price-to-performance ratio that finally knock Intel off of their untouchable throne. Simultaneously, however, they fell quite short of Intel in terms of raw horsepower. That all changed overnight with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, a chunk of silicon that’s not only a better value than Intel’s Core i9-7900X, but it’s also easier to anchor into the socket of any x399 motherboard.

Read the full review: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that with its mid-range chip, AMD offers more cores for less money when compared to Intel. While in year’s past this has equated to making compromises in other areas to keep the costs low, the Ryzen 5 1600X remains economical without being shown up. After all, operating with six cores and 12 threads, there’s no shame in a 3.6GHz base frequency, not to mention the 4.0GHz boost in addition to overclocking capabilities.

Read the full review: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X

Many people will assume that because it requires discrete GPU to use, the AMD Ryzen 3 1300X is built solely for gaming. Once you drop your assumptions, though, you’ll see it as the little processor that could. That’s because, at a price that’s the definition of reasonable, you’re getting a chip that’s 53% faster at encoding video than the Intel Core i3-7350K in Handbrake and – with the right GPU attached – can easily help you attain 60 frames per second in Overwatch.

Read the full review: AMD Ryzen 3 1300X

Like the 7700K that preceded it on this list, the Intel Core i5-7600K is an unlocked, overclockable quad-core processor from Intel. However, it also suffers from the same integral shortcoming; that is that it’s barely an upgrade over the i5-6600K. Be that as it may, squeezing out only 300MHz over its precursor brings it nearly in line with the last-gen Core i7-6700K when overclocked. All the while, it won’t put too much of a dent in your budget either.

The primary contender to Intel’s Core i7-7700K, the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X poses a convincing threat to Intel’s flagship. While it’s unfortunately more expensive than the 7700K, uncharacteristic for the oft value-focused Red Team, the Ryzen 7 1800X most certainly keeps up with some of Intel’s older chips. Plus, unlike the Core i7-5960X and -6700K it most intimately rivals, the AMD Ryzen 7 1800X is much more qualified for VR now and into the future.

Read the full review: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X

The naming convention is confusing, given that the Intel Core i7-7820X is part of Intel’s “Skylake-X” series rather than the X-class chips built on the 14nm Kaby Lake node, but semantics matter very little when you get to go hands-on with an Intel CPU boasting this many cores. Although the fact that you’ll need a new motherboard to use this octa-core monster might be enough to scare some users off to Ryzen, Intel loyalists shan’t mind the upgrade.

Intel's 18-core processor is all about brute force. With the ability to kick up all of its cores to 4.8GHz (by our testing at least), this monstrous CPU brings performance to a new level of insanity. The only caveats are this processor power draw and price are equally beastly.

Read the full review: Intel Core i9-7980XE

With the amount of money you’ll save by purchasing the Intel Pentium G4560 over a Core i3 chip, we promise you won’t mind the ever-so-slight loss in performance you can expect from this hardy value chip. As the first Pentium processor in quite some time to feature hyper-threading, the G4560 goes out of its way to show us all what we’ve been missing. And, in benchmarks, it proves itself eerily adjacent to the more expensive Intel Core i3-7100.

Maybe you’ve probably heard some bad things about the AMD A12-9800, some of which are justified, but some salty impressions we’ve seen are just based on how AMD’s first AM4-compatible APUs aren’t Zen-based. Instead, the A12-9800 takes advantage of the Bristol Ridge architecture, which is basically just a refresh of the Bulldozer family AMD has been slowly iterating on since 2011. Even so, this is the best way single AMD chip build independent of a discrete GPU – for now.