Best cheap processor sales and prices for January 2023
>
With our guide to today’s best processor deals, you’ll want to save some serious cash on the most integral part of any PC build. Whether you’re on a budget, a gamer, or just building a machine to work from home, we’ve rounded up the latest offerings from Intel and AMD and searched tirelessly for the best prices on the best processors.
What is your price range?
1. High quality
Above $330 / £300 / AU$400
2. Mid range
About $200 / £200 / AU$300
3. Budget
Less than $200 / £200 / $AU300
We’ve broken down this week’s best CPU deals into sections for high-end, mid-range, and budget shoppers, which you can navigate to using the navigation links provided.
In short, if money is no object and you want the best, you will definitely see the benefits of a high-end chip, as these beastly processors will give you excellent performance for years to come. That said, this week’s mid-range processor deals will more than suffice for someone who wants top performance and wants to build a machine that will last a good few years. Finally, our cheap CPU deals cater to those who just want a functional, reliable machine, although you might be surprised how much performance you can get out of these options – cheap processors have come a long way in recent years.
You’ll find discounts from Amazon, Best Buy, and other well-known retailers in our collection of processor deals. All of our CPU prices on this page are updated daily, so feel free to bookmark and revisit.
Best high-end processor deals
High-end processors are aimed squarely at the enthusiast and professional market and, as you might expect, can come with some pretty hefty price tags. However, if cost is no object, these 8-core and sometimes even 16-core beasts will give you the absolute best performance possible – so much so that they might be overkill for some users.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 chips are currently the company’s flagship chips, with the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X as the current team red performance king. Selling for over $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 had for around $500 / £500 if you can get a good CPU deal find.
For 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. The performance of the i9-12900K is more or less neck and neck with the Ryzen 9 7950X for most applications and games, although the good news for Intel fans is that the i9 is currently selling for a lot less than the Ryzen 9.
Best mid-range CPU deals
Mid-range CPUs are generally aimed at most mainstream gamer builds, as they offer better value for money than the high-end enthusiast chips. They’re also the kind of thing you want to invest in if you want something that will perform decently for intensive applications and last a good few years. Intel’s longstanding Core i5 range has traditionally dominated the mid-range processor market, but in recent years we’ve seen near-monopoly shattered by AMD’s Ryzen 5 chips, which are just as popular today.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is team red’s latest mid-range entry and is a fantastically powerful chip for the money, although it’s slightly more expensive than the previous 5600X iteration at $349/£349. If you’re looking to save some cash, you can buy the older 5000 series chip for just $200/£200 and it’s still widely available from most major retailers. This older chip is about 20% slower than the more recent entry, but it’s still a fantastic, cost-effective mid-range component for both gaming and productivity.
On the Intel side, the Core i5-12600K is the current mainstream performance flagship and is built for easy overclocking. The full retail price is the same as the Ryzen 5 7600X, but retailers generally seem more willing to offer price cuts on this model than on its AMD counterpart. The slightly older i5-11600K and i5-10600K are still knocking around at the moment, but we only recommend these if you can get them between $200 and $150. They’re not slow chips, but they’re certainly not as fast as the latest model (around 20% benchmarking improvement per generation).
Best entry-level CPU deals
Budget CPUs usually come in the form of the latest Intel Core i3 and AMD Ryzen 3 series processors – essentially consumer-grade chips intended for cost-effective productivity building. These chips generally cost around $100/£100 and are great if you’re just building a desktop to work at home or for everyday use.
Surprisingly, these chips have come a long way in recent years and can still handle some gaming too, although you can expect bottlenecks when paired with a serious graphics card.
AMD’s latest Ryzen 3-3200G is a good cost-effective processor with its built-in Vega graphics processing that delivers surprisingly good graphics performance. That said, it’s often out of stock at retailers and those remaining sales tend to have prices higher than the original retail price of $99/£80. Note, there’s a newer and faster
AMD Ryzen 3 4100 model also on the market, but it doesn’t have a built-in graphics card, so it could be a much more expensive option overall, as you might have to buy a separate graphics card.
On the Intel side, we have the Intel Core i3-12100 as the current most up-to-date budget CPU. Like the Ryzen 3-3200G, it 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 also a great choice, but it doesn’t have the handy built-in graphics. Consider this one if you’re building a low-cost gaming machine with a dedicated graphics card.