AMD had to respond, and thanks to Amazon, it has. With Intel’s 270K Plus and 250K Plus launching this week and delivering incredible value at their respective $299 and $199 prices, AMD’s recent gaming CPU dominance is under serious threat. However, if the AMD CPU price drops seen today on Amazon are anything to go by, we could be seeing the first signs of AMD fighting back.
For those hoping AMD’s 7500X3D might suddenly have dropped to $199 to compete with the 250K Plus, or the 9600X was suddenly a $150 CPU, sadly, that isn’t the case. However, if you’re willing to stretch your budget a little more, some of the outright best gaming CPU options are available for their lowest ever prices right now.
Top of the list is the 9800X3D, which up until the launch of the 9850X3D just a few weeks ago was the fastest gaming CPU ever, and is still the second fastest overall. It’s an absolutely fantastic all-rounder of a chip that, thanks to its eight cores (able to process 16 threads at once) and AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture, means it’s not only fantastic for gaming but a solidly capable option for a wide variety of other tasks too.
Originally launching at $479, and – since the launch of the $499 9850X3D – more recently being available for $459, we have seen this chip also occasionally discounted even lower. However, right now on Amazon (via this link), it’s just $419.95, which is its lowest ever price from that retailer. That still makes it pricey for an eight-core CPU (the 270K Plus is, after all, a 24-core chip for $299), but the 9800X3D is so fast in games and so solid in other areas that it’s a great buy at that price.
Quite a few other chips are discounted right now, too, with the 12-core 9900X and eight-core 9700X both specifically listed as being in Amazon’s “Big Spring Deal” and receiving hefty price drops. The 9900X has had 34% wiped off its price (you can find it here), down to $314.99 from $499.99, while the 9700X is down 26%, from $359 to $269.99.
Meanwhile, for those seeking a seriously powerful all-rounder of a chip, the 9900X3D is also discounted, dropping 25% from $599 to $449.99 (you can find it via this link). The configuration of the X3D cache die on this chip means it isn’t quite as fast in games as the 9800X3D, but it’s still very capable, and its 12 cores mean it’s a powerful multi-core option for serious workloads.
As great as it is to see these price cuts, they won’t much affect those on a budget, particularly if recent memory price hikes have meant buyers have had to reallocate several hundred dollars from getting a faster CPU towards being able to get even 16GB of DDR5 RAM. The 9600X is available for well below its original MSRP, and is a decent option at its current $179 price, but the likes of the 7600X3D and 7500X3D remain disappointingly pricey.
Meanwhile, Intel has the market sown up at the budget to mid-range end of the market right now, with our 270K Plus review and 250K Plus review showing just how much value these two options provide for most buyers.
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