The CPU & GPU hierarchy, measured five ways
129 processors and graphics cards across 33 architecture families and a decade of silicon, ranked into live S–D tiers by raw performance, value, efficiency, or workload. Pareto frontiers show which parts are the smart money — and which launch prices you should never have paid.
Ranking 129 parts by overall performance — Normalized 0–100 relative performance index. Tiers re-cut live against the selection's best.
S–D tiers by overall performance
GeForce RTX 4090
Max settings at 4K, high-refresh 1440p
Nothing in the dataset is both cheaper and faster.
Head-to-head
52 index points for $97 — the most performance per dollar in the current selection (53.6 pts/$100).
58 points from just 15 W (387 pts/100W). Apple silicon owns the efficiency frontier.
AMD's flagship jumped 100% (Radeon RX 580 → Radeon RX 5700 XT). Generational timing beats brand loyalty.
Only 25 of 129 parts sit on the Pareto value frontier — for every other part, something cheaper is just as fast. The scatter below shows who.
Pareto frontiers — price and power vs performance
A part is on a frontier when nothing else beats it on both axes at once. Everything below the line has a strictly better alternative. Click any point to inspect it.
Value frontier — launch price vs performance
Efficiency frontier — TDP vs performance
Frontiers are computed on the full GPU class (not the filtered view) so the line stays honest. Toggle CPU/GPU above to switch class.
Best pick in every price band
The generation ladder
Every architecture family in the dataset, in launch order, with its flagship's index. The biggest flagship-to-flagship jumps are marked — timing a generation matters more than brand loyalty.
CPU architectures
GPU architectures
Leaderboard — overall performance
| # | Part | Arch · Year | MSRP | TDP | Perf | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ryzen 9 9950X3DS | Zen 5 (3D V-Cache) · 2025 | $699 | 170 W | 100 | |
| 2 | GeForce RTX 5090S | Blackwell · 2025 | $1,999 | 575 W | 100 | |
| 3 | Ryzen 9 9950XS | Zen 5 · 2024 | $649 | 170 W | 99 | |
| 4 | Core i9-14900KSS | Raptor Lake Refresh · 2024 | $689 | 150 W | 98 | |
| 5 | Core i9-14900KS | Raptor Lake Refresh · 2023 | $589 | 125 W | 97 | |
| 6 | Core Ultra 9 285KS | Arrow Lake · 2024 | $589 | 125 W | 95 | |
| 7 | Ryzen 9 7950XS | Zen 4 · 2022 | $699 | 170 W | 95 | |
| 8 | Apple M4 MaxS | M4 (3nm) · 2024 | — | 62 W | 95 | |
| 9 | Ryzen 9 7950X3DS | Zen 4 (3D V-Cache) · 2023 | $699 | 120 W | 94 | |
| 10 | Core i9-13900KS | Raptor Lake · 2022 | $589 | 125 W | 93 | |
| 11 | Ryzen 9 9900XS | Zen 5 · 2024 | $499 | 120 W | 93 | |
| 12 | Apple M3 MaxS | M3 (3nm) · 2023 | — | 78 W | 92 | |
| 13 | GeForce RTX 4090S | Ada Lovelace · 2022 | $1,599 | 450 W | 91 | |
| 14 | Apple M4 ProS | M4 (3nm) · 2024 | — | 46 W | 90 | |
| 15 | Core Ultra 7 265KS | Arrow Lake · 2024 | $394 | 125 W | 89 | |
| 16 | Ryzen 9 7900X3DS | Zen 4 (3D V-Cache) · 2023 | $599 | 120 W | 89 | |
| 17 | Ryzen 9 7900XS | Zen 4 · 2022 | $549 | 170 W | 88 | |
| 18 | Ryzen 7 9800X3DS | Zen 5 (3D V-Cache) · 2024 | $479 | 120 W | 88 | |
| 19 | Core i7-14700KA | Raptor Lake Refresh · 2023 | $409 | 125 W | 87 | |
| 20 | Ryzen 9 5950XA | Zen 3 · 2020 | $799 | 105 W | 85 |
Methodology, in the open
The index. Every part carries a curated 0–100 relative performance index — not a raw Cinebench or 3DMark number — tuned to reflect the well-documented ordering across launch reviews. CPUs also carry single-thread and multi-thread indices; GPUs carry gaming and compute indices. All specs are documented launch figures (cores, clocks, TDP, node, MSRP, VRAM, bandwidth).
Dynamic tiers. Whatever metric you choose is normalized against the best part in your current selection, then cut at S ≥ 88, A ≥ 72, B ≥ 55, C ≥ 35, D ≥ 0. Ranking by value or efficiency honestly excludes parts without an MSRP (Apple silicon ships inside Macs).
Pareto frontiers. The value frontier holds every part for which nothing cheaper is faster; the efficiency frontier does the same for TDP. Launch-price verdicts interpolate the fair score at any price along the frontier — a part scoring 25%+ below fair is flagged poor launch value. All of this math is locked by a 61-assertion automated test suite that compiles the real engine.
Honest limits. Indices summarize a part's typical positioning, not any single game or workload. Street prices drift from MSRP — verdicts describe launch economics. Cross-vendor comparisons (Apple vs desktop) reflect different power envelopes; that's exactly what the efficiency frontier is for.
Trusted by builders, upgraders and sim-racing addicts
“The value frontier ended a three-week argument in our Discord. RX 9070 XT on the line, 3090 Ti $2,000 launch price 30% under it — the chart said what I'd been typing for days.”
“Price-band winners is exactly how budgets actually work. I stopped asking 'what's the best GPU' and started asking 'what wins the $450–$699 band' — the tool answers that in one glance.”
“Re-tiering by perf-per-watt flips the whole board — Apple owns S tier and the halo cards drop to B. That single toggle teaches more about silicon than most 40-minute videos.”
“Efficiency frontier + the 65W filter found my whole ITX parts list. The generation ladder also talked me out of a last-gen 'deal' that was two uplifts behind.”
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