Intel and AMD have been locked in a CPU arms race for decades, with no end in sight. In recent years, Intel has fallen behind, struggling to match the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of AMD's latest Ryzen processors. Intel hoped to reverse that trend with its new Arrow Lake chip family.

While they looked promising on paper, the Arrow Lake CPUs aren't as impressive as we (and Intel) hoped they would be, and they've already shown some wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Currently, the Ryzen lineup is a better choice for PC builders, so if you're assembling a new rig, here are our recommendations for the best AMD CPUs to buy over Arrow Lake.

Best AMD alternatives to an Arrow Lake CPU

The Ryzen 7 9700X is a stand-out CPU among AMD's Zen 5 CPU lineup. With a thermal design power rating of 65, this 8-core, 16-thread AM5 processor sets the gold standard for efficiency. Despite its low power draw, however, the Ryzen 7 9700X is a highly capable chip. It comes with a 3.8 GHz base clock out of the box, but with a 5.5 GHz boost clock speed, you've got plenty of wiggle room for overclocking.

In our benchmark tests, the Ryzen 7 9700X handily outperformed numerous Intel chips that have more cores. That's despite only drawing about 88 watts of power from the AM5 socket. This highlights exactly where and why Intel is falling behind. Finally, wIth a 40MB cache, PCIe 5.0 support, and compatibility with the latest high-speed DDR5 RAM, the 9700X is a perfect choice for newer builds. It also represents a pretty good value at around $300 retail.

One of the main draws of AMD has always been the value it offers relative to the competition (which includes both Intel and Nvidia). If affordability is an important consideration for your build, then the Ryzen 5 8600G is our top pick for a budget-friendly AMD alternative to Arrow Lake. In fact, its built-in graphics processing is good enough that you may not even need to fork over the cash for a GPU at all.

Along with six cores and 12 threads, the Ryzen 5 8600G features AMD Radeon 760M integrated graphics. That means that this APU precludes the need for a discrete graphics card to play many games. Of course, you'll still need a dedicated GPU if you want to crank up the settings on the latest AAA games, but the Radeon 760M iGPU is powerful enough to deliver respectable performance for 1080p gaming. We were able to enjoy smooth performance even on demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring at 40-60 FPS. Not bad for a CPU that costs around $200. The bad news is that, despite its relatively modest 65 TDP rating, the Ryzen 5 8600G can run a bit hot and the stock cooler can't always keep up – but you should have plenty of money left over to get a good aftermarket cooler for it.

If money's no object, however, then the Ryzen 9 9950X ranks high among the cream of AMD's Zen 5 crop. This flagship CPU packs 16 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock speed of 5.7 GHz, delivering plenty of muscle for enthusiast-tier PC builds. The 9950X was one of the highest-performing chips in our stress tests, consistently outpacing all but the highest-end Core i9 CPUs in multi-core benchmarks. However, it out-performed, or at least matched, pretty much everything in the single-core tests.

Even better is that, due to its newer Zen 5 architecture, the Ryzen 9 9950X delivers that beastly performance while drawing about 50 fewer watts than its predecessor, the 7950X. This, again, shows the strides that AMD is making when it comes to energy efficiency. If we have one caveat about the 9950X, it's that this CPU isn't the best choice for a high-end gaming build. It's tailored more towards workstation PCs, although there's no reason it can't sit inside a gaming PC – our next pick is simply a better option for that.

Ryzen 7 9800X3D is another shining star in AMD's 2024 lineup, and it's currently our favorite gaming CPU by a country mile. You might not think that your choice of CPU is the most important part of a gaming build, and you're not wrong – after all, unless you're running with an APU, your graphics card does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to running the latest games at high settings and resolutions. Your processor shouldn't be an afterthought, however. If you're putting together a high-end gaming PC, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is definitely the CPU to get.

The 9800X3D is a beefy 8-core, 16-thread CPU in its own right, but what makes it stand out for gaming is AMD's innovative 3D V-Cache technology. This puts a massive 104MB cache right on the chip, so it doesn't have to use the slower RAM for caching. Its updated Zen 5 architecture lets it deliver excellent performance with a 120 TDP rating (drawing around 150 watts from the AM5 socket), which is impressive. That said, it can still run a bit hot under load, so consider getting a top-notch cooler for it. But even with that potential added expense, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D still comes in cheaper than our premium pick with an MSRP of $479.

APUs are perhaps one of AMD's best innovations. These chips combine CPU and GPU cores onto a single die. While that's not a novelty in 2024 (just look at Apple's M-series silicon chips), AMD was among the first to do it. The term "APU" has been retired, but the technology remains, and the Ryzen 7 8700G is one of the best examples of it. This 8-core 16-thread AM5 CPU is similar to our value pick, the Ryzen 5 8600G, but with better specs. Most notably, it sports a more powerful Radeon 780M iGPU. This allows it to easily handle modern games at 1080p, although we were able to bump up the resolution to 1440p for many titles with some adjustments to the settings.

Temperatures were also very stable even with the stock cooler, barely exceeding 80C even under heavy loads. The Ryzen 7 8700G is simply one of the best APUs AMD has made to date and is a great choice for budget-friendly gaming builds or any other setup that doesn't need a discrete GPU. If you're set on 1440p gaming at high settings, though, you're still better off with a dedicated graphics card. But for around 300 bucks, we really can't find much to complain about with the 8700G.

Although the Zen 5 CPUs have just hit the market and Zen 4 remains the go-to standard for AMD builds, there are still some Zen 3 chips worth looking at if your needs are modest. If you're looking to go even cheaper than our value pick, or if you're just upgrading an older system that's not compatible with a Zen 4 or Zen 5 CPU for whatever reason, the Ryzen 5 5600X is a worthy prior-gen option. It's a couple years old now, but the 5600X is a capable (and cheap!) AM4 processor.

The Ryzen 5 5600X packs six cores and 12 threads with a boost frequency of up to 4.6GHz, delivering mid-range performance for a basement-level price. This chip is readily available for less than $150. It's a no-brainer for cheap builds or older systems in need of an upgrade. Its excellent thermal efficiency and 65 TDP rating ensure that you won't need a complicated cooling setup, either. Just bear in mind that the 5600X has no integrated graphics, so you'll need to pair it with a GPU, regardless of whether it's sitting inside a gaming PC or not.

We can't recommend Intel Arrow Lake CPUs (yet)

We can't deny that Intel is putting the work in with its new Arrow Lake CPUs, but in our analysis, they need some more time in the oven before they're ready for prime time. Although they're capable chips, the Arrow Lake processors are already having some problems. Intel is working to iron out these wrinkles, and we're confident they'll succeed. But until they do, and we're confident these problems are in the rearview, it's hard for us to recommend these CPUs from a reliability perspective.

That means that if you're building a PC and you're not married to Intel, stick with Ryzen for the moment. AMD's CPUs still outflank Intel when it comes to value and energy efficiency, and regardless of what your budget or build goals are, there's a Ryzen chip to fit. Our top recommendation is the Ryzen 7 9700X, which is a fantastic all-around processor for most builds. It's not just the best alternative to Arrow Lake, it's the best CPU, period, which is why it earned the top spot on our roundup of the best CPUs of 2024.

Of course, you have plenty of others to choose from. If you're on a budget, consider the Ryzen 5 8600G. Our value pick is an APU, meaning it combines CPU and GPU cores onto a single chip. It's good to go for work and gaming, even without a discrete graphics card. On the other side of the price spectrum sits our premium pick, the Ryzen 9 9950X. This beastly CPU is the perfect choice for beefy workstations. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is another premium choice tailored for enthusiast gaming builds. Whatever your needs are, AMD has a CPU to fit. Give Intel Arrow Lake a pass, at least for now.