The 9600X is a great CPU at current pricing, if you can stomach the RAM cost that is. I’m not sure we can call it the best budget gaming 4K gaming CPU for several reasons:
- budget 4K DLSS gaming is an oxymoron
- 7500X3D is a faster pure gaming CPU
- some Intel CPUs should be able to match this gaming performance while offering a different balance when it comes to productivity, let’s see what that 250K Plus brings to the table
Where the 9600X shines is a combination of gaming and browser performance, I would argue it’s the best value option for gaming and lightly threaded workloads. For a mix of everything, the upcoming 250K will probably be a strong choice. For pure gaming the 7500X3D will offer the most consistent performance while still allowing a future upgrade on AM5.
There’s plenty to chose from for a value gaming build when it comes to CPUs, there’s only pain when it comes to RAM and storage.