What's the best CPU that you can build a system around to guarantee console-beating performance? It's a great question from DF supporter Justin Valero, especially on the eve of the reappearance of the classic Ryzen 7 5800X3D as a cheaper yet still capable alternative to CPUs that require expensive DDR5 memory.

It's easy to finger the 5800X3D as the solution, given that the AMD CPU is perennially mentioned as a great value option that approaches later generation non-X3D CPUs in terms of performance, but as Rich rightly points out in the video version above it's not quite that clear-cut.

In short, every game has its own performance profile, which can swing between CPU-bound and GPU-bound in the space of a scene, let alone an entire playthrough.

What's the best "good enough" console-beating gaming CPU? 2
This image of path tracing in Cyberpunk 2077 is one way to visualise the gap between CPU and GPU performance. The green line represents maximum frame-rates if the CPU bottleneck was eliminated, while the orange and blue lines represent the CPU limit and the actual achieved frame-rate respectively. The gap between orange and green shows the chasm of "lost" performance due to CPU bottlenecking.

The 5800X3D might be overkill for some games and not nearly fast enough for another, so a blanket recommendation is hard to provide. The 5800X3D is certainly fast, and was great value, but what you actually need could vary massively depending on the sorts of games you play, the resolution and refresh rate your monitor supports, and a range of other factors. Plus, how sensitive are you to latency? And what frame-rate is the bare minimum for you?

We spent some time a few weeks back speccing out Steam Machine alternatives on PCPartPicker, as many gaming outlets (and no doubt unaffiliated enthusiasts) have done as well, and what struck me while doing it was that the last-gen platforms aren't necessarily a slam dunk in terms of value.

Yes, DDR4 sticks are still cheaper than DDR5 at the low-end - we spotted a 16GB DDR5-6000 stick at £158 versus just £112 for two sticks of DDR4-3200 - but there's essentially no gap in AM4 vs AM5 CPU and motherboard prices. Even looking at the "new" AMD X3D CPUs, the more powerful 7700X3D is actually $20 cheaper than the old 5800X3D, so wouldn't that make much more sense as a baseline CPU recommendation? After all, as well as being faster, it offers much more CPU upgrade potential, not to mention the latest SSDs and video cards.

For now then, maybe consider the 7700X3D as a good baseline offering - but know that there's no great answer to this question with so many variables in play. Come back with more specifics though, including in the comments below, and I'd be happy to take a stab at a CPU recommendation.