Which CPU for gaming, streaming and dev work

How this is derived. Gaming fit reads L3 cache and boost clock — 96MB or more of L3 means stacked 3D V-Cache, which exists precisely for games. Streaming, compile and local-AI fit read thread count, because parallel work is what threads are for.

• Esports / 1080p: Low-resolution, high-frame-rate play is CPU-bound, so cache and boost clock dominate — the reason stacked-cache X3D parts exist.
• 1440p / 4K gaming: Both gaming columns use the same cache-first rule (X3D or ≥96MB L3). The GPU still carries more of the load at 1440p/4K — this is not a separate boost-clock ranking.
• Streaming + content: Gaming while encoding, or cutting a timeline with apps open behind it, scales with how many threads you can spread across.
• Dev / compile: Builds, test suites and containers parallelise across threads; this is where the top of the range pays back.
• Local AI companion: A local model running alongside everything else needs threads to spare, and DDR5 bandwidth for whatever the GPU does not hold.

“Stretched” does not mean unusable — it marks where a chip’s spec sheet runs out of headroom first. No frame rates are claimed anywhere here, because none were measured.