In a gaming PC, the graphics card is the most important component, followed by the CPU. As a thumb rule, the latter should be cheaper than the graphics card, but at the same time not overly slow. The choice of the CPU will depend on the resolution you’ll be playing at as well as the targeted frame rate.

- If you have a top-end GPU like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super or the Ti, then you need a CPU that can keep up with it.
- At the same time, if you’re going to game at 4K, you don’t need to splurge for an expensive CPU as you’ll be bound by the GPU in most cases.
- However, if you are looking to game at 1080p or 1440p at 100+FPS, like 120 or 144, then the CPU becomes more relevant as lower-end parts might not be able to sustain more than 100 FPS.
Best Gaming CPU Under Rs. 40,000: Intel Core i7-9700K

Price: Rs. 32,999 (Link)
Recommended resolutions: 1080p, 1440p & 2160p @ 240 FPS
I’d suggest staying away from the Core i9-9900K as it’s essentially a 9700K with hyperthreading enabled and most games perform roughly the same on both the chips. The i7-9700K may not be the best processor for content creation, video editing or encoding but when it comes to gaming, it’s the absolute fastest chip on the market. If you are looking to game at 1080p 240 FPS, then I’d suggest then the 9700K is your best bet.
Best CPU for Gaming Under Rs. 30,000: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X

Price: Rs. 30,599 (Link)
Recommended resolutions: 1080p, 1440p & 2160p @ Up to 144 FPS
When it comes to purely gaming-centric workloads, the AMD Ryzen 7 3800X is a tad bit slower than the Intel Core i7-9700K and the i9-9900K. To get a clearer idea of the performance delta between the two chips. However, you are into multi-threaded workloads like streaming, encoding, video editing or rendering, the Ryzen 7 will give you a healthy advantage. We’re suggesting the 3800X over the 3700X as it costs just a few more hundred bucks and performs on par with the Ryzen 9 3900X in most games. Overall, you’re getting a much more balanced system that can be leveraged for gaming, streaming, video editing as well as streaming.
Best CPU for Gaming Under Rs. 20,000: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

Price: Rs. 20,449 (Link)
Recommended resolutions: 1080p, 1440p & 2160p @ Up to 144 FPS
For a mid-range build meant for 1440p or 4K gaming, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X is the most well-rounded CPU. Boasting multi-threaded capabilities on par with the Core i7-9700K and gaming performance just shy of the original Coffee Lake Core i7-8700K,
Best CPU for Gaming Under Rs. 15,000: AMD Ryzen 5 3500

Price: Rs. 11,199 (Link)
Recommended resolutions: 1080p, 1440p & 2160p @ Up to 120 FPS
With the launch of the Ryzen 5 3500, the sun has set on Intel’s Core i5-9400F. The 3500 performs on par with or better than it in gaming workloads while consistently beating it in every other application. It’s basically a slightly slower 3600 lacking SMT and offering 90% of the performance in most gaming related workloads.

Best CPU for Gaming Under Rs. 10,000: Intel Core i3-9100F

Price: Rs. 6,150 (Link)
Recommended resolutions: 1080p, 1440p & 2160p @ Up to 120 FPS
The Intel Core i3-9100F is the CPU to get if you are looking to build a gaming PC under 40K INR. Packing four cores running at an impressive 4.20GHz, the 9100F routs every other processor in the sub-10K price bracket. This is mainly due to the higher IPC and



