Best CPUs For 2021

The CPU is the core of any computer and is key to its performance. If you want a high-end computer, you have to be willing to spend an appropriate amount to get a suitable CPU. If you decide to get a really cheap model, you can end up bottlenecking your computer, wasting the performance of your other components.

That’s not to say you need to get the top-of-the-line model for every computer. The latest AMD Ryzen CPUs have finally managed to take the single threaded performance crown from Intel, having claimed the multi-core performance crown years ago. The top tier models, however, offer really high core counts that are excessive and would be wasted for most purposes. While having multiple cores is useful for everyday tasks, and for gaming, benefits start to taper off after four cores. For workstations, however, many tasks can happily scale to as many cores as you can offer. Be sure to know what your workload will be before spending your hard-earned money on a CPU that is overkill for your needs, or doesn’t offer the performance you want.

To help you find the right CPU, we’ve drawn up a list of the best CPUs in 2021.

The Ryzen 9 5900X is the second of the Ryzen 9 chips in the 5000 series. This means it has a lot of performance, but not at a noticeably cheaper price point than the top chip. At 12 cores and 24 threads, this is still four more cores than any comparable Intel CPU.

This many cores is generally overkill for general usage or for gaming, but it offers great flexibility if you also need your computer to double up as a workstation or if you also want to do some content creation. No cooler is included, but for this much CPU, you’ll almost certainly have chosen to get a high-end third-party air or water cooler.

The Intel Core i9-11900K is the top of Intel’s latest lineup and it works great for gaming. While 8 cores are generally overkill for gaming, they give flexibility towards productivity or creative workloads too. While Intel is still stuck on the 14nm node compared to AMD’s 7, it is now extremely mature and has benefitted from years and generations of optimisations, although further improvements are getting harder and harder to achieve.

The reported 5.3GHz boost clock is only achievable via a relatively new technology called “thermal velocity boost” which looks at overall performance and temperatures, and then boosts a single core as high as possible for maximum single-threaded performance for bursty workloads. It is not a long-term boost speed, and it will require a lot of cooling to even achieve.

The Ryzen 9 5950x is the ultimate in the Ryzen 5000 series, it brings a huge 16 cores and 32 threads, and still manages to operate a boost clock of just under 5GHz. For content creation and productivity, this CPU is king.

For gaming, this CPU is honestly massive overkill but still one of the best options. The main downside is that as the current peak, you will have to pay a fair price premium, so only people who really need the extra cores should buy this. If you’re not going to make full use of it, it’s probably better to buy the 5900x, save a few hundred dollars and get a better cooler.

The AMD Threadripper 3990X is a true monster, with 64 physical cores and 128 threads. It rips through any highly parallel workload faster than any other CPU on the market. The only possible way to get better multi-threaded performance is to get a pair of ultra-high core count AMD EPYC server CPUs.

Threadripper supports but does not require ECC RAM, this allows you to be certain your dataset remains uncorrupted. It also supports quad-channel RAM and a massive max capacity of 512GB of RAM. Single-threaded performance isn’t stellar, but that is not what this CPU is designed for. As you might expect, this does not come cheap, with the RRP set at $3990 appropriately, although you’ll generally pay more.

The Ryzen 5 5600X is our budget pick, it’s almost $50 cheaper than the competing Intel 11600KF and the boost clock is only slightly lower, well within the range of overclocking with a solid cooler. The 6 cores and 12 threads are more than enough for almost any gaming scenario, although as high-core-count CPUs become more common, this may change.

The $299 asking price is very budget-friendly, but you don’t have o worry about getting a weak product as the clock speeds are only slightly behind the higher-end models. A cooler is included but you will be able to get better performance and cooler operating temperatures with a quality third-party cooler.

Those were our recommendations for the best CPUs in 2021. Have you been able to get your hands on one of them, how well does it suit your workload? Do you have any other CPU recommendations to share?