2025 was quiet for CPUs but great for gamers
On paper 2025 looked like a slow year for new gaming CPUs. AMD and Intel did most of their big launches back in 2024 with Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 processors and Intel’s Core Ultra 200 series. Since then we mostly saw non overclockable and low power variants trickling onto retailer shelves.
But for PC gamers there were still some exciting standouts. AMD dropped a few surprise chips plus a very unusual APU family that has people rethinking what a compact gaming rig or handheld can do. Intel meanwhile focused more on preparing its future Panther Lake architecture for 2026, so this year’s spotlight really belongs to AMD.
PC Gamer’s Hardware Awards 2025 pulled out three CPUs and APU families that deserve special attention. If you are planning a new build or upgrade, these are the ones to keep on your radar.
Ryzen 5 7500X3D: Small chip, big gaming performance
The most unexpected arrival was the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D. It is essentially a trimmed down version of the hugely popular Ryzen 7 7800X3D, and it arrived with almost no warning late in the year.
On the spec sheet it looks modest:
- 6 Zen 4 cores and 12 threads
- Boost clock around 4.5 GHz
- 65 watt power rating
- Launch price around 269 dollars
Those numbers would not normally get enthusiasts excited, especially when many eight core chips sit in the same price bracket. The magic comes from AMD’s 3D V Cache technology. The 7500X3D packs a huge 96 MB of L3 cache stacked on top of the compute cores. That extra cache feeds the cores game data faster and more efficiently which can dramatically improve frame rates.
In real gaming benchmarks the Ryzen 5 7500X3D ends up surprisingly close to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, despite having fewer cores and slightly lower clocks. For pure gaming workloads six fast cores with tons of cache is often enough and the extra threads of larger chips mostly matter for heavy creation tasks.
This makes the 7500X3D an excellent choice for:
- Small form factor gaming PCs that need low power and low heat
- 1080p and 1440p gamers who want high frame rates without paying flagship prices
- Builders who care more about gaming than streaming or heavy multitasking
It is still relatively pricey for a six core CPU, but its efficiency and gaming performance give it a strong argument as one of the best mainstream gaming chips of 2025.
Ryzen 9 9950X3D: The no compromises gaming monster
At the opposite end of the scale sits AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D. This is the flagship gaming chip that enthusiasts waited months for and it delivered. When it landed in March it immediately took the crown as the fastest gaming CPU of 2025 even beating AMD’s own Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
The 9950X3D uses a dual chiplet design. Earlier dual chiplet Ryzen X3D parts had a reputation for being awkward with some games because only one of the chiplets carried the 3D cache. With the 9950X3D AMD mostly solved these issues and also pushed clocks higher thanks to a new generation of 3D V Cache technology bonded beneath the first compute die.
Boost clocks tell the story:
- Up to 5.5 GHz on the cache heavy chiplet
- Up to 5.7 GHz on the standard chiplet
Combined with a large core count this makes the 9950X3D a true do everything processor. It is outstanding in games, but also very strong for productivity, content creation and heavy multitasking. With no direct answer from Intel in 2025 AMD was able to price it aggressively at the high end. The launch price of about 699 dollars has barely moved which shows how dominant it is.
If you want the best possible gaming performance today and do not mind paying for it, this is the chip to beat. For most gamers it is clearly overkill, but for high refresh 4K rigs, multi GPU experiments or a single machine that has to handle gaming, streaming, editing and more, it is outrageously capable.
Ryzen AI Max and Max Plus Strix Halo: Desktop class APU power
The third nominee is less a single CPU and more a family of processors: AMD’s Ryzen AI Max and Max Plus chips, better known by their codename Strix Halo. These arrived first in systems like the Framework Desktop and are also being teased in upcoming handheld gaming PCs from companies such as Ayaneo and GPD.
Strix Halo is unusual because it blends high end CPU cores with an extremely beefy integrated GPU and a wide memory interface. At a high level the design looks like this:
- Two compute chiplets similar to a Ryzen 9 9950X
- An I O die with a 40 compute unit RDNA 3.5 graphics core
- A 256 bit memory bus feeding up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X 8000 memory
On paper this sounds like a portable gaming monster and there was a lot of hype that it might rival dedicated midrange desktop graphics cards. In practice, early testing shows that its gaming performance is closer to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060.
That is still very impressive for an APU but the real reason Strix Halo exists is right there in the name. The combination of many GPU compute units, fast memory and efficient CPU cores makes these chips perfect for local AI and machine learning workloads. For small developers, tinkerers and power users, a compact system or handheld with Strix Halo can run AI models that previously needed a discrete GPU.
From a gaming perspective Strix Halo is exciting because it opens up new possibilities for powerful handheld PCs and ultra compact desktops. You can get respectable 1080p performance without needing a separate graphics card which keeps systems smaller, simpler and potentially quieter. Even though it is not replacing dedicated GPUs any time soon, it is one of the most interesting steps forward in APU design in years.
We will have to wait until New Years Eve to see which of these contenders wins PC Gamer’s Best Gaming CPU award. It is a safe bet that the winner will be AMD again this year. The real question is whether voters favor the affordable efficiency of the Ryzen 5 7500X3D, the raw power of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, or the innovative hybrid approach of the Strix Halo family.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/processors/pc-gamer-hardware-awards-the-best-gaming-cpu-of-2025/
