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6-core and 8-core CPUs are the best options to choose from if you are building a mid-range gaming rig. Both Intel and AMD have launched several budget and enthusiast-grade chips to target a wide range of the market. While this gives you multiple options to choose from, it can also complicate choosing the components for your next rig.
AMD, for example, has five 6-core offerings this generation: the Ryzen 5 7600X, the Ryzen 5 7600, the Ryzen 5 7500F, the Ryzen 5 8400F, and the Ryzen 5 8600G. On top of this, you have the 8-core options.
The insane number of options has complicated the choosing process. To help you make the right decision, we will try to dissect some popular 6 and 8-core Intel and AMD chips and try to answer which is the better option.
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Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and reflect the writer's opinions
Both 6-core and 8-core CPUs are competitive for gaming
Gaming primarily relies on single-core performance metrics. Most of the latest titles can't utilize more than two cores, which means much of the computing prowess of 6- and 8-core chips is redundant. The gaming performance of such processors relies on how much they can push out in the latest titles.
How do 6-core and 8-core AMD CPUs compare?
As mentioned before, AMD has a ton of 6- and 8-core CPUs. All of these are capable options for playing the latest titles when paired with a powerful graphics card. Most 6-core chips, however, are available for less than $300 these days. The more expensive 8-core processors will set you back by $300-350.
Below is a detailed performance analysis of the Ryzen 5 7600 and the Ryzen 7 7700. Thanks to multiple price cuts, these processors are some of the best value-for-money options for gamers these days. We have sourced the numbers from the YouTube channel PC Performance Benchmarks.
As evident, the performance gap between the 6-core and 8-core CPUs is almost non-existent. This is because the processors are quite close to each other in terms of single-core performance. This makes them about as good as each other in some of the latest titles.
The story is slightly different when looking at the enthusiast-grade Ryzen 5 7600X and the Ryzen 7 7700X. Thanks to slightly better single-core performance on the costlier chip, the 7700X takes a considerable lead over the Ryzen 5 across several games.
Below is a comparison of the two processors in some of the latest titles. We have sourced this data from the YouTube channel Benchmark for Gamers.
How do six-core and eight-core Intel CPUs compare?
When it comes to Intel CPUs, we see a similar trend across the 14th gen lineup. Much like AMD, Intel has launched a ton of chips starting from $250 up to $500. We will look at their flagship offerings, the Core i5-14600K and the i7-14700K, in this article.
The key difference with Intel chips, however, is that they have no proper 6- or 8-core CPUs. This is primarily because of the hybrid architecture the company has been utilizing for the last three generations. All Core i5 and i7 processors have 10 or more cores. We only looked at the performance core count for this comparison.
The Core i7-14700K, just like the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, has a slight lead in single-core performance. This translates to about 7-10% extra performance in some of the latest titles when paired with an RTX 4090.
Check out the detailed benchmark framerate data below. We sourced this information from the YouTube channel Testing Games.
As it turns out, both 6- and 8-core CPUs are competitive enough for the latest video games. However, while shopping for enthusiast-grade chips, the performance difference is larger than usual. For budget CPUs, the 6- and 8-core variant could be much closer than it appears.
We recommend going for the 6-core Ryzen 5 and Core i5 CPUs. This will unlock some extra budget that you can invest in a beefier graphics card. A more powerful GPU will deliver way higher framerate gains than a chip with two extra cores.
