PC Gamer Hardware Awards: The best gaming CPU of 2025

Gear of the Year

(Image credit: Future)

Check out more of the year's best tech in our PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2025 coverage.

It's been a relatively quiet year for new gaming CPUs, as AMD and Intel launched the bulk of their latest processors back in 2024. Ryzen 9000-series chips first appeared in the summer, with the Core Ultra 200S range making an appearance a few months later in October.

Since then, retailers' listings have mostly been filled with non-overclockable or low-power versions...