For years now, I've been banging on about how flagship desktop processors are kind of pointless. "Mid-range" options really aren't mid-range anymore, to the point where you can pretty comfortably pair a Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i5 with a powerful 4K graphics card and not really run into tangible bottlenecks. So what are you paying for with a Ryzen 9 or Intel Core i9? Usually, higher temperatures, bigger power draws, and slightly better speeds all in the name of saying you have the best CPU for gaming inside your computer.
Intel seems to be catching onto this. It might be really impressive for these brands to say "we make the fastest processor ever built" every time they launch a new family of chips but, let's face it, the headline-grabbing ones are probably going to be too expensive for most gamers and PC builders to even consider. Moreover, when mid-range options can offer unreal performance, I'm not sure that many people outside of an enthusiast lens should really care. It's the 5- and 7-tiered processors that have my attention when a new range is announced, and that's because they're all you're really going to need.
