Best CPUs for streaming 2026

While streaming, the CPU does two jobs at once: runs the game and encodes video in OBS. You need fast cores for the game and spare cores for encoding.

#	CPU	Type	Task score	cores/threads	Score
1	Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100	Laptop	100.0	18 / 18	80.33
2	Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-94-100	Laptop	95.7	18 / 18	77.13
3	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-90-100	Laptop	90.8	18 / 18	71.79
4	Core Ultra 9 285HX	Laptop	90.5	24 / 24	72.57
5	Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus	Laptop	90.5	24 / 24	72.57
6	Ryzen 9 9955HX	Laptop	89.2	16 / 32	70.65
7	Ryzen 9 9955HX3D	Laptop	89.2	16 / 32	70.65
8	Ryzen AI Max+ 395	Laptop	88.5	16 / 32	70.63
9	Apple M5 Max 18-core	Laptop	86.4	18 / 18	66.96
10	Apple M5 Pro 18-core	Laptop	86.4	18 / 18	66.96
11	Core Ultra 9 275HX	Laptop	85.4	24 / 24	68.09
12	Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100	Laptop	85.4	18 / 18	67.49
13	Core i9-13980HX	Laptop	84.9	24 / 32	67.93
14	Core i9-14900HX	Laptop	80.5	24 / 32	63.51
15	Core Ultra 7 265HX	Laptop	79.0	20 / 20	62.29
16	Ryzen 9 7945HX	Laptop	78.8	16 / 32	62.37
17	Ryzen 9 8945HX	Laptop	78.8	16 / 32	62.37
18	Apple M5 Pro 15-core	Laptop	78.7	15 / 15	59.84
19	Ryzen 9 7945HX3D	Laptop	77.6	16 / 32	61.29
20	Core Ultra 7 255HX	Laptop	77.5	20 / 20	61.11
21	Apple M4 Max 16-core	Laptop	77.4	16 / 16	59.47
22	Core i9-13950HX	Laptop	77.0	24 / 32	60.83
23	Ryzen 9 8940HX	Laptop	77.0	16 / 32	60.93
24	Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus	Laptop	76.4	20 / 20	59.91
25	Core i9-13900HX	Laptop	75.9	24 / 32	59.94

Compare the top two: Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 vs Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-94-100 →

How we rank

Formula: 60% multi-core, 40% single-core. If you encode on the graphics card (NVENC, AMF), the CPU load is much lower.

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.