Best CPUs for Gaming: March 2021

[tarekma7]

In our series of Best CPU guides, here’s the latest update to our recommended Gaming CPUs list. All numbers in the text are updated to reflect pricing at the time of writing. Numbers in graphs reflect MSRP.

Market Overview
This month in our guide sees the initial arrival of Intel’s Rocket Lake processors, with pre-orders already being taken, as well as a bountiful stock situation for Intel as well. AMD’s stock situation is improving for the Ryzen 5000 series, although it still fluctuates day to day. This means that users are going to have to be opportunistic if they want an AMD processor for now.

Since our last guide, we’re also seeing CPU prices be a lot more reasonable, at least from the mid-range and high-end. The top processors that were rare to find last month are now in sufficient supply that they are floating around MSRP, which is a good thing. For example, the Ryzen 9 5950X is 42% cheaper than our last guide, and a number of Intel processors such as the i7-10700KF and the i9-10900 are 10% cheaper or more.

In contrast, the cheaper processors, such as the Core i3/Pentium or the Ryzen 3 are either still expensive, or even more so. The Core i3-10100F for example, usually considered a good $100 quad core processor, is around the $120 mark. During high demand periods for desktop processors, the priority is usually given to the high-end big margin products, and so stock of the low-end does reduce, raising the price. Though as the high-end fills out, we might see the low end come back to reasonable in the next few months.

We should discuss the GPU market, because we normally give our CPU suggestions based on a full system price. Because the GPU market is in the middle of crazy town without a paddle right now, there’s no way our recommendations for full-system price make any sense. Some users will just upgrade their CPU for now, and wait until the GPU market gets better, although lots of people are pointing to late 2021/2022 there and being very hopeful. Our recommendations this time around therefore are purely on CPU price.

Movers and Shakers: Intel
On the Intel side of the fence, the 11th Gen Rocket Lake offerings are starting to come to market for pre-order, anywhere from $10-$25 above the OEM pricing, and will launch on March 30th. This Core i7-11700K has a tray price of $399, and so will retail for $419 – and already sits as Amazon’s #13 best seller, which is crazy for a processor not yet formally released. The Core i5-11500 is $218, again a small bump over the tray price. The only CPU that isn’t in the same zip code is the Core i9-11900K, which has a tray price of $539, but Newegg had it listed for $614.


The Intel 10th Gen offerings, anything Core i5 and above, are getting some good discounts this month, averaging about 8% cheaper than our last guide. We’ve already mentioned the Core i7-10700KF which is 10% cheaper at $298 this month, and that is currently #17 on Amazon’s best seller list. The Core i7-10700K is also cheaper this month, but at $322 is bit more expensive than the KF, despite being #8 from Amazon (moving up from #32). The Core i5-10600KF actually looks a good price at $200 from Newegg, some 15% cheaper than last month, but the Core i5-10600K at $226 is still preferred at Amazon at #12. The biggest drop on that best seller list is the Core i5-10400, moving from #4 to #19, as it is now $15 more expensive at $175

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