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’re looking to sit out the next few years of AI-induced mania that’s sweeping PC components and various other industries along with it. Prices for memory, storage, graphics cards, and everything else are going to be quite unstable for the foreseeable future. Grabbing a cheap Intel option while you can might be your best bet, even if just to tide you over for now.
Table of Contents
Older Intel options can be had for cheap
I know Intel’s 13th and 14th generations didn’t really impress when they debuted. The former was just a revamped, slightly overclocked 12th generation while the latter just seemed to suck up so much power and pump out so much heat that it’s amazing we didn’t have melting power cables for CPUs at the time.
But several years on from the scandals and semi-hyperbolic news coverage, we’re now seeing a great stock of these old chips—and that means their prices are competitive with modern entry-level alternatives. For example, consider the Intel Core i3-14100F. It’s the absolute bargain basement of its generation and a mere quad-core CPU, which seems like something a caveman would’ve gamed on… but it plays many games just fine when paired with a reasonable RTX XX60 GPU, and you can get it for under $100 at sites like Newegg and Provantage.
Intel
The only true downside to this chip is that it needs a graphics card to go with it, otherwise it would be an awesome option for building out a budget machine for the kids’ homework. In fact, if you have an old GPU lying around that you can use to just get it up and running, this is about the cheapest modern CPU you can buy.
Don’t care about power efficiency or upgrade potential? The Intel Core i5-14600K is about $300 but drops down to under $200 on sale at sites like Walmart and Best Buy—and that puts it in the same range as the AMD Ryzen 9600X and Intel Core Ultra 5 245K, which are both worse for gaming (though the latter wins for professional workloads).
Arrow Lake isn’t entirely useless
Arrow Lake was one of the most underwhelming CPU launches I’ve ever experienced live. Worse gaming performance and mostly just improvements in performance per watt? Cool… But it’s unfair to malign the entire generation as, once again, with some time having passed, the value options have risen to the top.
Forget the top models with their sky-high prices (and impressive professional capabilities). We want the ones that actually offer good gaming value for the money…
Intel
Right now, that’s the Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF. This 20-core CPU has had its price slashed repeatedly over the past year and regularly retails for under $280. On sale, you can grab it for a mere $250 at sites like Newegg and Walmart, undercutting the Ryzen 9700X and even the 7700X. With the latest Intel 200S overclocking profiles applied, the 265KF is a gaming match for those AMD alternatives, plus it’s much faster for professional workloads.
Note: One caveat is that you have to pair the 265KF with a graphics card, whereas those AMD options ship with a few basic graphics cores on board so you can run them without a dedicated GPU.
Although there isn’t a huge upgrade path with Intel’s Arrow Lake, there are refresh options coming down the pipe and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is still the fastest of the bunch for now. If you imagine you’ll be upgrading again in a year or two, a faster version of what you have might just be what you need (instead of a full system overhaul).
Intel offers better memory support
With memory becoming ever more expensive, it helps to have options—and you get those options with Intel CPUs. Firstly, older 13th- and 14th-generation chips can take advantage of either DDR4 or DDR5 depending on the motherboard they’re paired with. Although neither are exactly cheap right now, you might find it easier to pick up some second-hand DDR4 sticks to kit out a new 14th-generation build.
Micron
Additionally, Intel’s latest CPUs support far faster memory than AMD’s latest chips, including the newer CUDIMM standard. These are crazy expensive, mind you, so it might feel like it’s undermining our value argument here… but with Intel’s Arrow Lake chips, you can run 8,000MHz+ memory with no problems and benefit from the full bandwidth without messing with AMD’s complicated infinity fabric clock tie-ins and frustrating CUDIMM “bypass mode.”
In short, if your workloads require crazy fast memory, just know that Intel can handle it in ways that AMD can’t.
Intel’s holiday bundles are no joke
Intel’s current status as the value king is a timely one, so I apologize if you’re coming to this a few months later and maybe it’s no longer relevant. But if you’re in the market for a new PC right now—or a new CPU for your PC—then also know this: Intel’s options can get you a ton of free software and games along with your purchase.
Intel
Intel is currently running several bundle schemes:
- If you buy your CPU (or a qualifying Intel laptop) before this holiday offer ends, you can take advantage and claim a free game of your choice between Battlefield 6, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Civilization VII, and Dying Light: The Beast.
- Buy a select laptop from MSI or Newegg and get Battlefield 6 Phantom Edition or Assassin’s Creed Shadows Deluxe Edition included with your purchase for free.
- You also get free DLC for Marvel Rivals and several free months of Xsplit Broadcaster, Magix Vegas Pro Edit 365, and Canvid.
- Buy a qualifying Z890 or B860 motherboard to get a copy of Star Wars Outlaws Gold Edition, itself worth over $100.
Intel is also running a number of giveaways in the lead up to the holidays for qualifying purchases. They’re worth checking out. There’s even free AI Playground access for any Intel system running Arc graphics (either onboard or via Intel’s dedicated GPUs).
Intel is the CPU value king right now
If you want the best gaming CPU in the world and have the money to pay for it, there’s still no beating AMD’s Ryzen X3D options. Ryzen 7000 and 9000 CPUs also offer better upgrade paths for the future, with at least one more generation to be supported by the AM5 socket.
But if you want a great value CPU right now, and if you’re going to sit out and watch as the whole AI bubble collapses and the world rebuilds itself afterwards, then grabbing an Intel CPU is an easy recommendation—especially if you can take advantage of the Intel holiday bundles.
Further reading: Tips for buying AMD and Intel CPUs for gaming