With our guide to today’s best CPU deals, you’ll want to save some cash on the most integral part of any PC. Whether you’re on a budget, a gamer, or just building a machine to work from home, we’ve rounded up all the latest deals from Intel and AMD and tirelessly researched the best prices for the best processors.
What is your price range?
1. High class
Over $330 / £300 / $400
2. Mid-range
Around $200 / £200 / AU$300
3. Budget
Under $200/£200/$300
We’ve broken down this week’s best processor deals into sections for high-end, mid-range and budget buyers, which you can navigate to using the navigation links provided.
In short, if money is not an issue and you want the best, you will definitely see the benefits of having a high-end chip as these beastly processors will give you great performance for years to come. That said, this week’s mid-range CPU deals will be more than enough for someone who wants top gaming performance and build a machine that will last a good few years. Finally, our budget CPU deals cater to those who just want a functional, reliable machine, although you might be surprised at how much performance you can get with these options – cheap CPUs have come a long way in recent years.
In our roundup of CPU deals, you’ll find discounts from Amazon, Best Buy, and other big-name retailers. All of our CPU prices on this page are updated daily, so feel free to bookmark and revisit.
The best high-end processor deals
High-end processors are aimed directly at the enthusiast and professional market and, as you might expect, can come with quite high prices. However, if cost is not an issue, these 8-core and sometimes even 16-core beasts will absolutely give you the best possible performance – so much so that for some users they may be overkill.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 chips are the company’s flagship chips at the moment, with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X being the current performance king from the red team. Retailing north of $700 / £700 means this chip is a serious investment, although the good news is that the slightly less ridiculous Ryzen 9 7900X can sometimes be picked up for around $500 / £500 if you can find a good one CPU offer.
In the case of Intel processors, the Core i9-12900K and Core i7-12700K are the current high-end chips, with the latter more than enough for most applications, including gaming. Performance on the i9-12900K is about head-to-head with the Ryzen 9 7950X in most applications and games, although the good news for Intel fans is that the i9 tends to retail for slightly less than the Ryzen 9 currently.
The best mid-range processor deals
Mid-range CPUs are generally for most major gaming builds as they are a better option than high-end enthusiast chips. These will also be things you’ll want to invest in if you want something that will perform decently for intensive applications and will last for a good few years. Intel’s long-running Core i5 lineup has traditionally dominated the mid-range CPU market, but over the past few years, we’ve seen that near-monopoly eroded by AMD’s now equally popular Ryzen 5 chips.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is the latest mid-range entry from the red team and is a fantastically powerful chip for the money, although it’s a little more expensive than the previous $349 / £349 5600X iteration. If you want to save some cash, the older 5000 series chip can be purchased for as little as $200 / £200 and is still widely available from most major retailers. This older chip is about 20% slower than its newer version, but is still a fantastic, cost-effective mid-range component for both gaming and productivity.
On Intel’s side, the Core i5-12600K is currently the mainstream performance flagship and is built for easy overclocking. Its full retail price is the same as the Ryzen 5 7600X, but retailers generally seem more willing to offer price cuts on this model compared to its AMD counterpart. The slightly older i5-11600K and i5-10600K models are still circulating at the moment, but we only recommend them if you can get them in the $200-$150 range. They’re not slow chips, but they’re definitely not as fast as the latest model (around 20% improvement in benchmarks per generation).
The best entry-level processor deals
Cost-effective processors come mostly in the form of the latest Intel Core i3 and AMD Ryzen 3 series of processors – which are essentially consumer-grade chips designed for cost-effective productivity builds. Overall, these chips retail for around $100/£100 and are great if you’re just building a desktop for home work or everyday use.
Surprisingly, these chips have come a long way in recent years and can even handle sideways gaming, although bottlenecks are to be expected if you pair them with a serious graphics card.
AMD’s latest Ryzen 3-3200G is a good, cost-effective processor with a built-in Vega GPU for surprisingly good graphics performance. That said, it’s often out of stock at retailers, and these remaining sales tend to be inflated above the original retail price of $99/£80. Attention, it’s newer and faster
The AMD Ryzen 3 4100 model is also on the market, but this one doesn’t have built-in graphics, so it could potentially be a much more expensive option given that you might need to pick up a discrete graphics card.
On the Intel side, we have the Intel Core i3-12100 as the current most up-to-date budget processor. Like the Ryzen 3-3200G, this one has built-in graphics, so it’s a great option if you’re not going to be gaming and want to skip the graphics card. Note that there’s also an Intel Core i3-12100F version of this chip, which is another great choice, but it doesn’t come with handy built-in graphics. Consider this if you’re going to build an inexpensive gaming machine with a discrete graphics card.