AMD has just quietly lowered the prices of several of its best processors, including the gaming champion Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
With these price cuts in mind, the CPUs are now an even more attractive option if you’re looking to build a solid rig without spending too much.
Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
This is not a drill — AMD has officially lowered the prices in its own online store, and these deals are better than ever. Some of AMD’s greatest processors got a nice juicy discount, and now, it’s going to be even harder to decide what to pack into your next build.
AMD’s 3D V-Cache chip, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, is amongst the best processors for gaming, and it certainly provides amazing value — even more so now at the new price. AMD cut the price of the 5800X3D down to just $330, and for the gaming power that it packs, that’s really cheap.
Some of AMD’s other Zen 3 chips have also gotten discounted. On the official store, the Ryzen 9 5950X is down to $550, followed by the Ryzen 9 5900X at $350. This is bad news for the 5950X, because at $200 more, it’s hardly worth it compared to the 5900X. The mid-range chips are now cheaper still, with the Ryzen 7 5800X priced at $250 and the Ryzen 5 5600X priced at just $160.
Now, while these price cuts are certainly great, they do make it more difficult to choose between AMD’s older AM4 platform and the new AM5. Buying a Ryzen processor at these new prices, combined with a matching motherboard, means that you won’t be able to easily upgrade to AM5 in a few years. This is because Zen 3 and Zen 4 CPUs use different sockets.
Switching from AM4 to AM5 involves swapping your motherboard, but also RAM — Zen 3 CPUs support DDR4 RAM, and Zen 4 CPUs only support the more expensive DDR5.
AMD
With these new prices, most gamers are likely to stick to the more affordable, but still great, Zen 3. The motherboards are cheaper, DDR4 RAM is infinitely more affordable, and the processors are still capable of keeping up with the latest releases. AMD may be shooting itself in the foot by making the older generation better value than the current-gen chips; on the other hand, those older chips still need to sell, too.
If you’re hoping to shop at the discounted prices, your best bet right now is the official AMD store. Popular retailers haven’t yet caught up with the price cuts; the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is and , which is still good, but not quite as great.