Choosing between Intel and AMD for games? These are the best CPUs at every price

If you want to completely revamp your computer to play the latest PC games, it’s smart to start with the processor and work outwards. Of course, the graphics component is the important half of the PC gaming equation along with the motherboard, system memory, and storage. But the processor is the heart of your machine, computing all the instructions required to create and maintain a believable, virtual environment.You really only have two contenders to deal with: Intel and AMD. We broke down our processor choices into price groups, kicking off with the gaming CPU bonanza with the ultimate chips from each company, down to the budget-friendly options that are still worth considering.Thanks to AMD’s Ryzen CPUs lighting a fire under Intel, the current crop of mainstream CPUs are some of the best gaming chips we’ve seen in years. Better yet, they’re fantastically affordable. You can get the top chips from both companies for just a few hundred dollars, so if you’re looking for top-gaming performance without breaking the bank, these are your best bets.