It’s been a long wait, but the next Civilization has finally been revealed. At the main Summer Game Fest keynote, publisher 2K officially announced Civilization 7, the first new entry in the strategy series since 2016. We didn’t get any real details or actual gameplay, but instead a very brief teaser trailer that looked a lot like, well, Civilization. But there’s one thing we do know: the game won’t be launching until 2025. And it’s coming to a number of platforms, with the launch planned for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.

More details will be coming in August, according to 2K, with a “full gameplay showcase.”

Google has streamlined a key feature of its Gemini AI assistant on Android devices, speeding up image sharing and editing, as spotted by Android Authority. The latest Gemini update lets you send images directly from other apps to Gemini instead of the more cumbersome setup that was in place before. 

Now, if you have a picture in, for instance, Google Photos, that you want Gemini to look at in conjunction with a text prompt, you can submit it directly via Android’s built-in share sheet as you would to send a text with the image attached. That’s much easier than starting in the Gemini app, tapping on the upload image button, locating the image you want, and attaching it. And if your image is in the cloud, you would also need to download it to your device. It might not be more than a minute or even less, but if you want Gemini to explain a photo or use one to inform a new AI-generated image, that extra time and friction might put you off the idea. 

Most of the best AMD processors also top our best processors list thanks to the incredible performance of the Ryzen 7000 generation. Our top pick for the best AMD CPU right now is the Ryzen 9 7950X because of its incredible 16 cores, impressive performance in gaming and productivity, and its relative efficiency compared to the Intel competition.

From the best Ryzen CPU for gaming to the best AMD processor on a budget, we have plenty of options for fans of Team Red. If you want to jump camps, make sure to check out our roundup of the best Intel CPUs, as well.

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AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

The best, most powerful AMD Ryzen CPU

Why should you buy this: It’s got the highest specs among AMD Ryzen desktop processors.

Who’s it for: Content creators and professionals looking for core CPU performance.

Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X:

Sitting on top is the Ryzen 9 7950X, which is a powerhouse and an overpowered chip for most users. It comes with 16 cores and 32 threads that can boost up to 5.7GHz — a massive increase on its last-generation predecessor. It has a whopping 80MB of combined L2 and L3 cache, which doesn’t quite compete with the X3D variants, but it’s a lot of cache either way, helping to accelerate this chip’s performance in gaming and productivity workloads.

As is the case with most high-end components, the 7950X’s power is clear from the specs, but it takes a little more digging to see its performance benefit in real-world use. Its additional four cores and eight threads doesn’t give it a giant leap in most applications compared to the 12-core 7900X, but the 7950X really shines when it comes to multithreaded performance. In tasks that require a lot of cores, such as hardware encryption and 3D rendering, the 7950X aces the charts and shoots far ahead of the 7900X.

As for gaming, while the 7950X can show slight improvements in certain titles, most games won’t be able to take advantage of the processor’s full horsepower. Even in CPU-intensive titles, the 7950X is overkill. It’s a highly capable gaming CPU, topping benchmarks alongside all of the Ryzen 7000 processors, but its strengths lie more in working and gaming, or just working, rather than pure gaming. For that, look to the X3D options.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

The best, most powerful AMD Ryzen CPU

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AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

The best AMD processor for gaming

Why should you buy this: It’s the best CPU for gaming, no questions asked.

Who’s it for: Gamers who want flagship gaming performance at a fair price.

Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D:

The Ryzen 7800X3D is an eight core, Zen 4 CPU with a 5GHz clock speed, making it, on paper at least, a little slower than its Ryzen 7000 counterparts. However, this is an X3D CPU, with an additional 64MB of L3 cache stacked on top of the processor, and that extra bit adds up to make it the best processor for gaming. It easily competes with the likes of the Intel 14900K, which has three times its cores, and an extra gigahertz of clock speed to work with.

The 7800X3D manages this not just with eight cores but a fraction of the power draw, too. It does have to sacrifice for that gaming power, though. The 7800X3D’s lower clock speed makes it weaker than its non-X3D counterparts in productivity, and eight cores sees it fall well behind higher-end options with more cores for heavily multithreaded workloads.

For a best of both worlds, you could opt for the 7950X3D, which gives you eight high-clocked Zen 4 cores alongside eight Zen 4 cores with 3D V-Cache, giving you a middle ground between the 7800X3D’s gaming performance and the 7950X’s improved productivity performance. But that chip can be hundreds of dollars more expensive for not much more gaming power.

If you want pure gaming performance, the 7800X3D offers much better value for money. If you want something for work too, the 7950X3D may be worth paying for, but consider your budget accordingly.

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D

The best AMD processor for gaming

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AMD Ryzen 7600

The best midrange AMD processor

Why should you buy this: It’s a great value-for-money processor for PC gaming.

Who’s it for: Gamers looking to build new or upgrade their PC.

Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 5 7600:

Priced at around $190, the Ryzen 5 7600 is a great alternative to the 7800X3D if you’re on a budget. While it’s one of the cheapest processors out of AMD’s current Ryzen 7000 lineup, the 7600 is squarely targeting the mainstream. For the money, you get six cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 4.7GHz, and a boost clock of 5.3GHz — a big uplift over the last generation. This processor doesn’t have the V-Cache of its X3D counterparts, but it still comes with 38MB of combined L2 and L3 cache, which helps make this chip very competitive at this price.

The CPU uses AMD’s Zen 4 architecture, improving instructions per clock (IPC) and memory management, and when paired with a powerful graphics card, it can work wonders for gaming. It’s also decent enough for productivity if you want to do some photo or video editing when you aren’t gaming. It’s a few dollars less than the Ryzen 5 7600X, too, and offers almost identical performance, while coming with a bundled cooler.

It’s the bang-for-buck king of its generation.

AMD Ryzen 7600

The best midrange AMD processor

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AMD Ryzen 5 8600G

The best Ryzen CPU with integrated graphics

Why should you buy this: It has some of the best integrated graphics performance of any desktop CPU.

Who’s it for: Casual gamers who don’t wish to invest in a dedicated graphics card.

Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 5 8600G:

If you don’t have the budget for a graphics card, or want to build the most compact gaming system possible, a powerful accelerated processing unit (APU) like the Ryzen 5 8600G is a great pick. It has more onboard GPU cores than standard Ryzen 7000 CPUs whilst maintaining most of the CPU performance — it’s not as strong as a 7600, but it’s not far off — making it an all-in-one gaming system.

It’s priced very affordably at around $200, and it comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler, too, helping cut down on cost even further. You can always add a dedicated graphics card later for greater GPU performance, too, though note that this CPU isn’t as strong a value proposition when you aren’t using its onboard GPU.

If you want more graphical and processing power, the 8700G has more cores of both and performs better, but it’s 50% more expensive, making it harder to recommend. The 8500G is slightly weaker than this one, but its price is around the same as the 8600G at the time of writing.

AMD Ryzen 5 8600G

The best Ryzen CPU with integrated graphics

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AMD Ryzen 5 5700X3D

The best last-gen CPU

Why should you buy this: It’s the best bang-for-buck CPU of its generation.

Who’s it for: Gamers and anyone wanting strong general performance from an AM4 CPU.

Why we picked the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D:

The AMD Ryzen 5000 generation has a lot of great processors, from the high-end 16-core 5950X, to the ultra-affordable 5600, but it’s the 5700X3D that remains the enduring CPU of its generation. It offers comparable gaming performance to the 5800X3D — the previous king — at a much more affordable price.

It lacks the cores and higher clock speeds of the 5900X and 5950X, so grab one of those if you want the ultimate multithreading performance on socket AM4, but for gaming and general use, the 5700X3D is an absolute steal at under $200. Combined with cheaper motherboards and DDR4 memory, and this processor is a killer budget gaming chip that punches well above its weight. Pair it with a strong GPU, and you won’t notice a big difference between this and the latest CPUs at higher resolutions.

AMD Ryzen 5 5700X3D

The best last-gen CPU

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Frequently Asked Questions

Competition in artificial intelligence development is getting fiercer. OpenAI and Google are two of the leading names in the AI segment. OpenAI got off to a head start, with Google trying to catch up with Gemini and other developments. In line with this, new reports claim that Google is working on boosting the reasoning capabilities of its AI model to match ChatGPT’s o1.

Google seeks human-level AI reasoning model to compete against ChatGPT’s o1

OpenAI announced o1 this month as a new model integrated into the ChatGPT service. The model is not a successor to previous models like GPT-4 or GPT-4o, but a different approach. The o1 model is designed to offer human-like levels of reasoning, taking more time to “think” in order to deliver a more detailed output. o1 seems especially useful for complex requirements or problems related to areas like math and coding. OpenAI was working on o1 under the code name “Strawberry.”

Currently, Google does not have anything that can compete against OpenAI’s o1 AI model. However, according to Bloomberg, the Mountain View giant is already working on an advanced reasoning AI model to integrate into its services. Like OpenAI, the new model would not be the company’s next big leap. It would be more like an improvement to its existing AI models. Google does not want its Gemini AI reasoning model to lag far behind the competition.

Details about the new model are still scarce

The report reveals that Google is using a technique called chain-of-thought prompting. The company pioneered this technique, which consists of AI taking into account not only the user’s main prompt but also a set of related prompts to offer a complex response in the form of a summary. At present, there is no info on the availability or even the name of Google’s new model. Hopefully more details will emerge in the coming weeks.