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Best CPUs for programming 2026

Compiling big projects, Docker and virtual machines like many cores, while the IDE, tests and small builds like one fast core. Both count equally here.

# CPU Type Task score cores/threads Score
1 Ryzen 9 9950X Desktop
100.0
 16 / 32 100.00
2 Ryzen 9 9950X3D Desktop
100.0
 16 / 32 100.00
3 Core Ultra 9 285K Desktop
91.0
 24 / 24 90.61
4 Ryzen 9 7950X Desktop
89.3
 16 / 32 89.63
5 Ryzen 9 7950X3D Desktop
87.8
 16 / 32 87.61
6 Core i9-14900K Desktop
84.8
 24 / 32 82.96
7 Ryzen 9 9900X Desktop
84.7
 12 / 24 80.49
8 Core Ultra 7 265K Desktop
81.6
 20 / 20 79.26
9 Core i9-13900K Desktop
81.5
 24 / 32 79.58
10 Ryzen 9 7900X Desktop
76.0
 12 / 24 72.58
11 Core i7-14700K Desktop
75.4
 20 / 28 72.52
12 Core i7-13700K Desktop
67.5
 16 / 24 63.13
13 Ryzen 7 9700X Desktop
67.5
 8 / 16 58.31
14 Ryzen 7 9800X3D Desktop
67.0
 8 / 16 59.36
15 Core Ultra 5 245K Desktop
66.5
 14 / 14 60.91
16 Ryzen 9 5950X Desktop
65.8
 16 / 32 65.39
17 Core i5-14600K Desktop
61.4
 14 / 20 55.56
18 Core i9-12900K Desktop
61.3
 16 / 24 56.63
19 Ryzen 7 7700X Desktop
60.4
 8 / 16 53.14
20 Ryzen 5 9600X Desktop
60.0
 6 / 12 49.02
21 Core i5-13600K Desktop
59.5
 14 / 20 54.01
22 Ryzen 7 7700 Desktop
57.7
 8 / 16 50.07
23 Core i7-12700 Desktop
56.8
 12 / 20 52.02
24 Ryzen 9 5900X Desktop
56.5
 12 / 24 53.58
25 Core i7-12700K Desktop
56.2
 12 / 20 50.82

Compare the top two: Ryzen 9 9950X vs Ryzen 9 9950X3D →

How we rank

Formula: 50% multi-core, 50% single-core. For virtual machines and big databases, also check the maximum memory.

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.