Anyway none of that really matters if all you're aiming for is a constant 60fps for a 60Hz monitor.
Like a previous post suggested the B450 Tomahawk MAX gets a lot of praise and isn't particularly expensive. It should be able to handle more or less any CPU you throw at it, even high core count ones as long as you don't do any overclocking and make sure the board has some airflow to cool the VRMs.
B450 Tomahawk MAX + a R5 2600 and some 2x8GB 3200 CL16 memory is probably pretty close to the best price/performance you can get and still have a good upgrade path.
I agree.
Steve lays it out nicely -
I also agree with him that there is more than enough precedent to make the prediction that going Intel will get you juiced for a 9 series CPU, years from now, when you look to upgrade. It is a dead platform and lacks PCIe 4.0.
And while there is a lot of Jedi hand waving about the Swiss cheese security of Intel CPUs, they still exist. More keep being found. Maybe it is nothing to worry about for us low value targets, maybe not? Hypothetically, given a few years, we will see them exploited. Which means you live with all the patches, which effect performance in some areas outside of gaming, at times significantly. Or you turn them off and perhaps expose yourself.
Not looking to scare monger, just giving you some need to know info since you said you have been out of the loop. And, if all you play is old MP shooters, it won't matter much what you buy. But if you decide to jump in the new ones, the 9400F is already driving the struggle bus in at least one of them i.e. stuttering issues. It will only get worse with every new release that looks to use more than 6c/t. /my pov