With our guide to today’s best processor deals, you’ll want to save some cash on the most integral part of any computer. Whether you’re on a budget, a gamer, or just building a machine for work at home, we’ve rounded up all the latest Intel and AMD offerings and have searched tirelessly for the best prices for the best processors.
What’s your price range?
1. High class
Over $ 330 / £ 300 / AU 400
2. Medium range
Approximately $ 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 that you can navigate to using the navigation links provided.
In short, if money doesn’t matter and you want the best, you will surely see the benefits of a high-end chip as these beastly processors will give you great performance for years to come. That said, the mid-range CPU deals this week 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 processor deals cater to those who simply want a functional, reliable machine, although you might just be surprised how much performance you can get from these options – cheap processors have come a long way in recent years.
You’ll find discounts from Amazon, Best Buy, and other prominent retailers in our CPU listings. We’re now approaching the annual Black Friday promotion period, so it’s a great time to check back regularly for discounted processors. All our processor prices on this page are updated daily, so feel free to bookmark and revisit.
The best deals on high-end processors
High-end processors are aimed directly at the enthusiasts and professionals market, and as you might expect, they can carry quite a lot of price tags. However, if cost isn’t a factor, these 8-core, and sometimes even 16-core beasts will deliver the absolute best performance possible – so much so that they may be overkill for some users.
The AMD Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 chips are currently the company’s flagship chips, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is the current performance king with Team Red. 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 bought for around $ 500 / £ 500 if you find a good deal on processor.
For Intel processors, the Core i9-12900K and Core i7-12700K are the current high-end chips, with the latter more than adequate for most applications, including gaming. The performance on the i9-12900K goes head to head with the Ryzen 9 7950X in most apps and games, although the good news for Intel fans is that the i9 tends to sell slightly less than the current Ryzen 9.
Best deals on mid-range processors
Mid-range CPUs generally target most mainstream gaming PCs, being better for the same price than high-end enthusiast chips. They’ll also be something you’ll want to invest in if you need something that will perform decently in high-intensity applications and last a good few years. Intel’s long-standing Core i5 lineup has traditionally dominated the mid-range CPU market, but over the past few years, we’ve seen this near-monopoly shattered by the AMD Ryzen 5 chips that are just as popular these days.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is the newest mid-range product from Team Red and is a fantastically powerful chip for the price, although it’s slightly more expensive than the previous iteration of the 5600X at $ 349 / £ 349. 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 larger retailers. This older chip is roughly 20% slower than the newer one, but is still a fantastic, mid-range, cost-effective component for both gaming and productivity.
On Intel’s side, the Core i5-12600K is now the mainstream flagship and is built with easy overclocking in mind. Its full retail price is the same as the Ryzen 5 7600X, but retailers generally seem more inclined to offer price reductions for this model compared to its AMD counterpart. The slightly older i5-11600K and i5-10600K models are still hanging around, but we only recommend them if you can buy them in the $ 200 to $ 150 range. They are not slow chips, but they are definitely not as fast as the newest model (about 20% improvement in benchmark scores per generation).
The best entry level processor deals
Budget processors most often come in the form of the latest Intel Core i3 and AMD Ryzen 3 processors – which are essentially consumer grade chips designed for cost effective productivity builds. Overall, retailing for around $ 100 / £ 100, these chips are great if you’re just building a desktop PC for work at home or for everyday use.
Surprisingly, these chips have come a long way in recent years and can also handle a small amount of games on the side, although you can expect bottlenecks if you pair them with a serious graphics card.
The latest Ryzen 3-3200G from AMD is a good, cost-effective processor with a built-in Vega GPU providing surprisingly good graphics performance. That said, it is often lacking in retail stores, and the rest of the sales tend to be overpriced above the original retail price of $ 99 / £ 80. Note, it’s newer and faster
The AMD Ryzen 3 4100 model is on the market as well, but this one doesn’t have built-in graphics, so this could potentially be a much more expensive option considering you might need to pick a separate graphics card.
As for Intel, we have the Intel Core i3-12100 as currently the most current budget processor. Like the Ryzen 3-3200G, this one has graphics built in, so it’s a great option if you’re not going to play and want to skip the graphics card. Note that there is also a version of this chip with an Intel Core i3-12100F processor which is another great choice but lacks handy on-board graphics. Consider this if you are going to build a budget gaming machine with a discrete graphics card.