Best budget Intel CPU for a high-performance gaming PC build?

Question

Hey everyone! I am finally putting together my first high-performance gaming rig after saving up for months. I managed to get a great deal on an RTX 3070, but now I need to find the right Intel CPU that won't blow the rest of my budget.

I am working with an LGA 1700 motherboard and I am trying to keep the processor cost under $200 if possible. I have been looking at a few options:

Core i5-12400F

Core i5-13400F

I really want to avoid any major bottlenecks while playing titles like Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p. Which budget Intel CPU do you think offers the best performance for the price right now?

mkirgrkgrf · Accepted Answer

Honestly, if you want to stay under that 200 buck mark, the Intel Core i5-12400F 6-Core 2.5 GHz LGA 1700 is basically the sweet spot for budget builds right now. I have used this chip in a couple of mid-range setups and it is a total workhorse. Since you are gaming at 1440p with an RTX 3070, your GPU is gonna be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway. You wont really notice a massive frame rate difference between the 12th and 13th gen at that resolution. The Intel Core i5-13400F 10-Core 2.5 GHz LGA 1700 is a solid upgrade if you can find it on sale tho, mostly because those extra E-cores help with background tasks like Discord or streaming. But if you wanna save some cash for better RAM or a nicer cooler, the 12400F is the way to go. It definitely wont bottleneck a 3070 in Cyberpunk.

PM_ME_YOUR_CRYPTO · Answer

Which motherboard are you using tho? Im worried about VRM reliability with higher chips... if its solid, look at Intel Core i5-13500 14-Core 2.5 GHz LGA 1700, but definitely update your BIOS first.

uzueovetem · Answer

Nice snag on that 3070! Quick question tho, what kind of cooling setup are you planning to run? If you have a decent tower cooler already, you should really look at the Intel Core i5-12600KF 10-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1700. It drops under 160 bucks pretty often lately and those extra E-cores actually help quite a bit with 1% lows in heavy games like Cyberpunk compared to the locked chips.