The Best Budget CPUs (2024) for work and play

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Over time, there has been a big improvement in the range of best budget CPUs. A lot of these cheap CPUs also have other benefits, like being compatible with a wide range of motherboards, coming with stock coolers, and more.

The best budget CPUs is one that is cheap and has all the specs you need. With a CPU that works well enough, you can play games, edit videos, and do many other things from home and the office.

Building your own PC doesn’t have to be expensive, and building on best budget CPUs starts right from the heart. We’ve put together a list of the best ones, and they all have graphics built in, so you won’t need to buy a separate graphics card.

Best Budget CPUs Comparison Table

Name	Genre	Cores/Threads	Base Clock/Speed	Boost Clock/Speed	TDP	Prices	Official Website
Intel Core i3-12100	CPU	4/8	3.0 GHz	4.6 GHz	65 W	$122.99 (MSRP)	Visit Website
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G	APU	6/12	3.9 GHz	4.4 GHz	65 W	$259.00 (MSRP)	Visit Website
AMD YD200GC6FBBOX Athlon 200GE	CPU	2/4	3.2 GHz	N/A	35 W	$55.00 (MSRP)	Visit Website
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D	CPU	8/16	3.8 GHz	4.7 GHz	105 W	$399.99 (MSRP)	Visit Website
Core i9-13900K	CPU	8/16	3.5 GHz	5.0 GHz	125 W	$599.99 (MSRP)	Visit Website
Intel Pentium Gold G5400	CPU	2/4	3.7 GHz	N/A	54 W	$64.99 (MSRP)	Visit Website

Intel Core i3-12100

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.10 GHz
Cores/Threads	4/8
TDP	65 W
Intel Smart Cache	12 MB
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 750
Socket	LGA 1200

The Core i3-12100 is now the best budget CPUs on the market, and it’s also pretty good at running apps with few threads: In single-threaded work, none of AMD’s chips are as fast as the 12100, so you’ll need to look at other Alder Lake chips to find faster performance.

The Core i3-12100 has a base power rating of 60W PBP and a peak power rating of 89W MTP. The chip has a base speed of 3.3 GHz and a boost speed of 4.3 GHz. It also has an L3 cache of 12 MB.

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AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.9 GHz
Cores/Threads	6/12
TDP	65 W
L3 Cache	16 MB
Graphics	AMD Radeon Graphics
Socket	AM4

You might have thought that the Ryzen 5 5600 looked nice but cost too much. The best budget CPUs is Ryzen 5 5500, however, is a good alternative. For the average user, the 5500 is just a cheaper version of the 5600.

The 5500 is a lot like the 5600 in a lot of ways. It is a 7nm Zen 3 CPU with six cores and 12 threads. It comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler and plugs into AM4 motherboards that support DDR4 RAM.

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AMD YD200GC6FBBOX Athlon 200GE

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.2 GHz
Cores/Threads	2/4
TDP	35 W
L3 Cache	4 MB
Graphics	AMD Radeon Vega 3
Socket	AM4

The 3.2 GHz Clock Frequency of the AMD YD200GC6FBBOX Athlon 200GE is the best thing about it. With this central processing unit, it’s much easier to edit videos. Also, having the option of a 5MB cache and being able to use DDR4 2667.

People often think of the AMD YD200GC6FBBOX Athlon 200GE as the best budget CPUs model with a good platform and a significant result that gives amazing performance. This device might be one of the best tools for regular use by people who are good at editing videos.

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AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.8 GHz
Cores/Threads	8/16
TDP	105 W
L3 Cache	32 MB
Graphics	None
Socket	AM4

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a great choice if you have a bit more money to spend and want all-out performance. With that much cache, this CPU unlocks an great amount of power that is on par with Intel’s Core i9-1200KS, which costs a lot more.

This CPU isn’t part of best budget CPUs, so it doesn’t have a built-in cooler. However, given how powerful it is, an integrated cooler probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with its heat needs.

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Core i9-13900K

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.5 GHz
Cores/Threads	8/16
TDP	125 W
Intel Smart Cache	24 MB
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 770
Socket	LGA 1700

AMD got the first word in best budget CPUs when it released its Ryzen 7000 desktop processors. These processors were the first to use the Zen 4 architecture and the Socket AM5 platform update, which was a big deal for AMD.

They set a new standard for performance and put AMD in the lead, at least for a little while. This is where they get to show off what they’ve been working on for the past few years and see if they can stay ahead of AMD in this new generation of processors.

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Intel Pentium Gold G5400

Specifications
Processor Base Frequency	3.7 GHz
Cores/Threads	2/4
TDP	54 W
Intel Smart Cache	4 MB
Graphics	Intel UHD Graphics 610
Socket	LGA 1151

If a Core I is a little too expensive for your Intel-based best budget CPUs, the Pentium Gold G5400 is a good alternative that can be used to build a variety of PCs. It only has two cores, but it is 3.7 GHz and has hyperthreading to help it do more than one thing at once.

The built-in graphics can handle 4K video, and they don’t use a lot of power or make a lot of heat, which makes them good for a HTPC. You could even use it in a cheap gaming PC, since it’s not as far behind a Core i3 as you might think.

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FAQs

What is the best CPU for gaming without GPU?

AMD Ryzen APUs have built-in graphics processors and use the system memory to give you a great gaming experience. AMD’s 5000-series of APUs are some of the best on the market.

Which CPU processor is the fastest?

The Core i9-13900K is Intel’s fastest gaming processor. It’s not quite as fast as AMD’s Ryzen 9 5900X3D, but it’s faster than the other chips in the Ryzen 7000 family and has a more balanced performance profile.

What is the least CPU you need to play games?

If you want to play games and stream at the same time, you need a computer with an Intel® CoreTM i7 processor or better and at least 8GB of RAM. If you want to have less of an effect on how well your games run, an Intel® CoreTM i9 processor makes things even smoother.