It’s been eight years since AMD launched its first-gen Ryzen processors and it’s incredible how far we’ve come. But while AMD might be the king of gaming CPUs now, you shouldn’t dismiss Intel just yet.

Sure, Intel’s position in desktop CPUs feels tenuous against AMD. Indeed, it’s been several generations since I was genuinely excited for something Intel was putting out. But as we close out 2025, that’s starting to feel unfair—not because Intel has somehow made its top chips into gaming powerhouses again, or because its E-core-dominated chips have been fine-wined into competitive options, but because Intel’s value proposition has grown pretty strong over the years.

Today, if you’re building a budget PC, I’d argue that Intel represents the best value option. That’s especially true if you’

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