In this video I break down the best CPUs to buy for your next gaming PC build at every budget, starting under $200 and scaling all the way up to the “do you actually need this?” tier. My under-$200 pick is a bit spicy: the Core Ultra 5 250K. Hear me out—at its $199 MSRP it’s aiming at chips like the Ryzen 5 9600/9600X, and in gaming benchmarks it straight-up dominates while still delivering great overall performance. Once you’re in that $250–$300 range, I explain why you might still choose the Ryzen 5 9600X even if it leaves some performance on the table: the AM5 platform is in a better state and the upgrade path is the real win. For sub-$400, I’m still a huge fan of last-gen’s 7800X3D because it’s been brilliant in loads of my builds—and unless you’re pairing something extreme like a 5080/5090, you probably don’t need more. If you are pushing top-end GPUs, the Ryzen 9800X3D/9850X3D are my gaming picks, and if you want great gaming plus extra cores for streaming/editing/rendering, the 9950X3D is my ~$600 recommendation (even if it hurts the wallet).