Best gaming CPUs 2026

Games rarely use every core at once: single-core speed and cache size matter more. That is why chips with a large L3 cache (AMD X3D) rank higher here than in the overall list.

#	CPU	Type	Task score	L3 cache	Score
1	Ryzen 9 9955HX3D	Laptop	100.0	128 MB	70.65
2	Ryzen 9 7945HX3D	Laptop	92.6	128 MB	61.29
3	Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100	Laptop	74.9	53 MB	80.33
4	Ryzen 9 9955HX	Laptop	74.1	64 MB	70.65
5	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-90-100	Laptop	73.5	53 MB	71.79
6	Ryzen AI Max+ 395	Laptop	71.4	64 MB	70.63
7	Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-94-100	Laptop	71.3	53 MB	77.13
8	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100	Laptop	69.7	53 MB	67.49
9	Ryzen AI Max 390	Laptop	68.4	64 MB	58.30
10	Ryzen AI Max+ 392	Laptop	68.4	64 MB	58.30
11	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-84-100	Laptop	67.1	53 MB	52.19
12	Ryzen 9 7945HX	Laptop	67.0	64 MB	62.37
13	Ryzen 9 8945HX	Laptop	67.0	64 MB	62.37
14	Ryzen 9 8940HX	Laptop	65.9	64 MB	60.93
15	Core Ultra 9 285HX	Laptop	65.8	36 MB	72.57
16	Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus	Laptop	65.8	36 MB	72.57
17	Ryzen 9 7940HX	Laptop	65.0	64 MB	60.02
18	Apple M5 Max 18-core	Laptop	64.6	—	66.96
19	Apple M5 Pro 18-core	Laptop	64.6	—	66.96
20	Core Ultra 9 275HX	Laptop	64.2	36 MB	68.09
21	Ryzen 9 7845HX	Laptop	63.6	64 MB	52.20
22	Core i9-14900HX	Laptop	63.5	36 MB	63.51
23	Apple M5 Pro 15-core	Laptop	63.4	—	59.84
24	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-80-100	Laptop	63.3	34 MB	52.19
25	Core i9-13980HX	Laptop	62.7	36 MB	67.93

Compare the top two: Ryzen 9 9955HX3D vs Ryzen 9 7945HX3D →

How we rank

Formula: 60% single-core speed, 10% multi-core, plus a bonus for L3 cache. In-game FPS depends more on the graphics card than on the CPU.

The score is our own estimate from the specs (cores, threads, clocks, architecture generation), not a benchmark run. 100 = the fastest CPU in our database.