Old CPUs worth buying in 2025: Economical yet powerful

Many PC builders tend to opt for the latest CPUs, as current generation CPUs generally offer good performance at a reasonable price. They also don't bottleneck the GPU when gaming, which is something many older CPUs tend to do.

 

But if you're on a tight budget, older hardware is still a solid choice. With the right GPU, you can build a powerful machine on a budget and play AAA games well. Here are some older CPUs that are still worth buying in 2025.
(Note: Some models are only available secondhand, so prices may fluctuate depending on the seller. If you're determined to buy used, you should compare carefully before closing the deal.)

Intel Core i3-10100F

The 10th-gen Comet Lake family arrives as AMD's Ryzen chips begin to dominate the market. Despite being based on the aging 14nm Skylake process, this generation marks a major turning point: for the first time, Intel has brought hyper-threading to the entire lineup (except Celeron), instead of just keeping it to the i7 and i9.

With 4 cores and 8 threads, the i3-10100F deserves a spot on this list. It's one of the weakest Comet Lake chips and lacks an iGPU, but that makes the initial price quite affordable. Now over 5 years old, this chip can be found for dirt cheap on the secondhand market—in fact, for the price of a few fast food meals. Many places still sell new ones, and the price is very accessible.

 

Ryzen 5000 series

While not 'generations ahead' architecturally (Zen 3 vs. the current Zen 5), the Ryzen 5000 socket is old — and more importantly, performance is still very good despite being from 2020.

Typical names like Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X, Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X are still powerful enough for all needs. Linh used 5600X to build a computer for her younger brother, paired with RX 6800, and until now it still plays all games smoothly. They also fully support modern features like Anti-Lag 2, ReBAR.

Even the cheap Ryzen 5 5500 runs today's games well, for under $100.

Intel Core i5-9600K

Released in October 2018, the i5-9600K is definitely an old CPU by today's standards. Without hyper-threading but still with six cores and a strong single-core clock, this chip is well suited for eSports gaming rigs, where more cores don't necessarily translate to higher FPS.

Although not the most powerful chip in the 9th-gen line, this is still a K-factor CPU with stable performance and a very reasonable price if you buy used. New products are still available, but the high price is not worth the investment. Buying used, or 'hunting' for chips from liquidated systems, will be much more economical.

Ryzen 3000 series (except Ryzen 3)

The Ryzen 3000 series, launched in 2019, marked a significant shift for AMD. The Ryzen 5 3600 was the best-selling CPU of its time, and it still holds up very well in 2025 — especially thanks to hyper-threading, which the i5-9600K lacks.

The entire Ryzen 3000 series is still worth buying if you want to build a very cheap gaming rig with the ability to upgrade to a higher-end AM4 CPU later. Only the Ryzen 3 3300 and 3300X are not really worth choosing, because there are so many more powerful AM4 models in the same price range. Unless you can find one for around $20, it's a bargain.

Intel Core i7-6700K

While the i5-6600K has fallen into the 'too old for gaming' category, the i7-6700K surprisingly holds up. Despite being 10 years old, the chip still runs many modern games well thanks to its 8 threads and significantly higher turbo clocks than the 6600K.

No one is recommending a 6700K for a new build — Ryzen 5000 is still a better choice. But if you have a good LGA1151 motherboard and can find a cheap i7-6700K, it's still a good CPU for its age.

Ultimately, the most important thing is that the machine runs the games and applications you need it to run well. While new CPUs are getting cheaper, these veterans are still worth considering, especially if you can find a good price.