Last year’s annual CPU tug-of-war was cleanly won by AMD, its obscenely fast Ryzen 7 9800X3D almost singlehandedly leaving Intel and their Core Ultra chips in a heap of mud and P.E.-spec rope. Coming soon to press that advantage are the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, a pair of even higher-spec processors that headlined AMD’s plethora of CES 2025 hardware announcements.
No pricing (or exact release date) on these yet, but they both up the core and thread counts over the 9800X3D while peaking at higher boost clock speeds. And, of course, they share the same 3D V-Cache design that makes the 9800X3D such a superlative CPU in the first place. If you don’t know what this is and how it helps game performance, imagine how much faster you could eat Wotsits if you had a massive bucket of them on your desk at all times, instead of having to get up and walk to the kitchen to grab individual packs. In this case the Wotsits are data, the bucket is 3D V-Cache, and the hastened ruination of your digestive system is games running faster.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a screaming-fast processor for gaming, and one that I've recommended on many occasions at RPS and beyond. Last week I noted that the CPU had dropped to $385, but now the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is even cheaper: it's just $354 at Walmart, with the unit being sold and shipped by Newegg.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D is the fastest CPU I've tested (on average across a nine-game benchmark suite), exceeding even the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the Intel Core i9 13900K. That makes it an awesome choice for a full-fat gaming PC, and today you can pick up this top performer for just $385 at Amazon USA - with a free copy of Starfield included.
]]>What comes with free Gunnar blue light glasses and a copy of Starfield? Yup, it's the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D when you buy it from Scan, and no I didn't expect that either. Still, these freebies are on top of the lowest price we've ever seen for the fastest gaming CPU on the market, making this a deal that's well worth your time if you're considering a new gaming rig.
]]>The Ryzen 5 7600X processor might be one of AMD's cheapest options in their Zen 4 lineup, but this chip is still hugely powerful compared to prior Ryzen generations. It takes advantage of its 5nm process and the AM5 socket to hit higher clock speeds, has architectural improvements that raise its single-core prowess, and of course has access to DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 add-in cards too. That's made it a strong option for gaming, but a high asking price of $300 at launch - plus expensive motherboards and DDR5 - put it out of reach of most sane budget builds. That's slowly changing as these chips and other components become cheaper, and today the 7600X has hit a new low price in the US: just $200 at Amazon.com, a full $100 off its MSRP and a great deal for a processor with this kind of performance.
]]>When we last checked in on the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X in December last year, it had dropped to £249 in the UK. Now, the same six-core 12-thread Zen 4 processor is down to £208, making a Ryzen 7000 build surprisingly affordable - especially when you take in the drop in AM5 motherboard and DDR5 memory prices.
]]>AMD's fastest gaming processor for AM4 motherboards, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, has continued to drop in price following the release of newer-generation X3D processors. After initially retailing for £530 on its debut, prices of £300 have become commonplace - and today, we've reached a new milestone with the CPU going for just £275 at Amazon UK.
]]>Good news, everyone! The blindingly quick Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor has dropped to just £440 at UK, a fair bit better than than the £450+ price points and poor availability that greeted the launch of the CPU last month. You can pick up the 7800X3D for this price at Amazon, Ebuyer and Overclockers, so you have a fair few options too.
]]>Owners of AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, you may wish to reconsider any overclocking plans. This hardware family may include some good gaming CPUs but several users have recently reported cases of fatal overheating, sometimes even with their processors burning the motherboard socket in the process.
Investigations by Tom’s Hardware and YouTuber der8auer suggest the culprit is SoC (system on chip) voltages being pushed beyond safe levels during memory overclocking attempts. AMD haven’t confirmed this directly, but are supposedly working on a fix that would prevent this accidental overvolting from happening again.
]]>The Ryzen 7 5800X3D remains one of the fastest gaming CPUs on the market, and the release of Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs has pushed prices down even further on the best option for existing AM4 motherboards and DDR4 RAM.
The 5800X3D is currently cheapest at Amazon, where you can get the processor for £281. That's the cheapest we've ever seen this highly-respected model.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" CPUs are brilliant performers, but as they use a new AM5 socket, upgrading to the new CPU means picking up a new motherboard - and DDR5 RAM. Thankfully, we've started to see a host of discounts on CPU and motherboard combos, including this one from Newegg that bundles a Ryzen 5 7600 CPU and MSI Pro B650M-A WiFi motherboard for $324.99, an $84 savings compared to buying both separately.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D processors are now available (in theory), so we're seeing some big discounts on previously-released options that bring them into newfound relevance. Such is the case with the Ryzen 7 7700X, the middle child of the Zen 4 lineup and an absolutely beastly performer when it comes to gaming thanks to its full-fat eight-core, one-CCD design. This chip launched at $399 but is now $100 cheaper thanks to a discount code at Newegg, where you can pick up the 7700X for $298.99 when you use code BTSCP2655 at the checkout.
]]>With the new Ryzen 7000X3D processors arriving today, it's perhaps not surprising to see last-gen models reaching new price lows. That's the case for the Ryzen 5700X, one of the fastest eight-core Ryzen CPUs ever made (behind the 7700X, 5800X and 5800X3D) and now firmly a member of the sub-£200 club. In fact, this processor is down to £177 at Amazon UK at present, meaning it's rapidly approaching half of its £329 UK RRP.
Yes, I know the CPU pictured is the 5800X. Please don't tell anyone! I didn't think you'd look at it that closely.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors offer incredible gaming and content creation performance, though high prices have stifled their adoption. Now, these CPUs - and their accompanying motherboards and RAM - are starting to become more affordable, with the high-end Ryzen 7 7700X dropping from a launch price of £440 to just £312 at Amazon UK as of today.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D has hit a new low price in the US, falling to $323 on Amazon. That's lower than the best price we saw during Black Friday last year, and a great value for the fastest gaming CPU available on the venerable AM4 platform.
]]>AMD recently announced that certain Ryzen 5000 processors come with free copies of Company of Heroes 3, so if you're looking forward to the rather promising WW2 RTS, due to debut on February 23rd, this is a sneaky way of getting the game (normally £50) and a ~£100 processor for less than £100.
]]>OK, this isn't fair. A week ago, I was genuinely excited that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D was down to £348 at Amazon. Now though, thanks to a rogue 10% off deal at Ebay, you can pick up the same processor from Ebuyer's Ebay store for £306.
£306! That's a tiny price for a CPU that launched last year at an official RRP of £429 and a real-life asking price of £530. To get this reduced price, use code JAN10 at the checkout.
]]>AMD's cheapest eight-core Ryzen 5000 processor has hit a new price low at Amazon UK, making it a great time to grab the Ryzen 7 5700X to upgrade your machine from an older Ryzen model - or build a shiny new one. The CPU is now £185, a 44% drop from its £329 RRP and even cheaper than it was yesterday.
]]>Looking for a new processor to upgrade your gaming setup? The Ryzen 7 5800X3D might be just what you need! This powerful processor is currently on sale for just £348 at Amazon UK, the lowest we've seen it since October last year.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5600X was a favourite of value-oriented gamers when it debuted in late 2020 - to say nothing of RPS head big honcho Katharine - so unsurprisingly AMD followed it up with an even cheaper model, the 5600, about a year later. This non-X variant performs more or less identically, with a slightly low rated boost clock that translates into one or two percent worse performance in CPU-limited scenarios. Given the fact that the 5600 is £13 cheaper on Amazon right now, we'd recommend it over the X any time.
]]>In late November we saw incredible prices on the Ryzen 7000 series, and now we're getting even better deals on many of these processors. The one I'm highlighting today is the Ryzen 5 7600X, which is down to £249 at Amazon - significantly below its £350 RRP and £21 cheaper than it was for Black Friday.
]]>Another week, another great AMD CPU deal on American Ebay. This time it's on the Ryzen 7 5700X, a powerful eight-core 16-thread processor with the same basic design of the 5800X - at a significantly lower price. This model debuted at $300, but is now available for just $190 when you buy it from Antonline on Ebay.
]]>It was only a few days hence that we spotted a low price on the Ryzen 9 7900X, but for Cyber Monday there's an even better deal on offer at Amazon UK.
The deal price is £456.70, versus a normal price of £600, and is for stock from Amazon US - but that includes shipping, import duty and all other potential fees. There's even the possibility that fees are less than expected, as several US items I've ordered from Amazons overseas have come with small discounts.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 9 7900X is an awesome gaming processor that also kicks a lot of butt in content creation tasks, but a high asking price means that it's out of reach of many. However, that is slowly changing, with Black Friday Eve bringing a new low price on the high-end CPU: £475, down from a launch RRP of £600. That's a tidy £125 discount and a great price for one of the fastest consumer CPUs money can buy.
]]>We're seeing big discounts on AMD's recently released Ryzen 7000 processors for Black Friday, with extremely heavy reductions on the Ryzen 9 7950X flagship and more modest price cuts on the 7900X, 7700X and 7600X. All four are now significantly cheaper than they were on launch, and with similar discounts to DDR5 RAM and AM5 motherboards, it's a great time to build a new Ryzen 7000 PC.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5000 series CPUs are getting increasingly affordable, with this week bringing rather good prices on the lowest-tier Ryzen 5 5500. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the cheapest Ryzen CPU in the lineup, but still quite a capable chip with power that's roughly equivalent to the old Ryzen 5 3600. This processor normally retails for £110, but today you can pick one up for £88 when you use code BAG20OFF.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X processor is the pick of the litter when it comes to value for money - perhaps excepting the slightly cheaper 5600 - and today it's down to £170, a full £110 off its UK RRP. While Ryzen 7000 offers better performance, it also comes with steeper requirements - like DDR5 RAM, a 600-series motherboard and a much bigger budget. Here's why we rate this particular CPU at this discounted price.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a surprisingly capable processor, with the single-core grunt of the rest of the Zen 3 family and only slightly lower clock speeds than the top-end six-core processor, the Ryzen 5600X. The Ryzen 5600X costs the best part of £200, but the vanilla 5600 is down to £145 at Ebuyer - a great value in my book.
]]>The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is one of AMD's fastest gaming CPUs - and the only one of the top contenders that runs on cheap and widely available AM4 motherboards with DDR4 RAM. Earlier this week we covered a deal for the 5800X3D in the US, and now we're back to finish the job with a deal for the UK market.
Right now Ebuyer are taking orders for the 5800X3D at £349, a solid £110 discount from its UK RRP. A lot of folks have already jumped on this deal, using up Ebuyer's existing stock, but you can order now for delivery on October 31st - and get a spooky Halloween upgrade for your PC.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors are brilliant, often beating Intel 12th-gen offerings and drawing close with 13th-gen, while offering support for PCIe 5.0 SSDs, DDR5 RAM and a brand new AM5 socket. For content creation, they're by far the best CPUs AMD has ever produced - but for gaming, there is another option: the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This CPU remains stunningly fast in some games that can take advantage of its uniquely huge L3 cache, and best of all works with a wide range of inexpensive AM4 motherboards with cheap DDR4 RAM.
Pound for pound, it's by far the best AMD CPU for gaming on the market - and now it's been reduced to just $329 at Antonline via Ebay. That's a healthy $120 reduction from its US MSRP of $449, and a great price overall given the level of gaming performance it provides.
]]>The 'world's fastest gaming CPU', according to AMD, is on sale in the US today. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is down from $450 to $375 via Antonline's Ebay store, an awesome price for an extremely quick eight-core and 16-thread processor blessed with AMD's new stacked L3 cache design, which allows it to beat almost every current-gen CPU in gaming performance.
]]>AMD have, at long last, fully unveiled the Ryzen 7000 series of gaming CPUs – specs, pricing, the lot. There’s even a release date, September 27th, which will see AMD launch an initial salvo of four mid-to-high-end chips. These will aim to leapfrog Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, several of which are among the best CPUs for gaming we’ve yet tried, with the aid of a new Zen 4 core design, DDR5/PCIe 5.0 support and some ambitious clock speed boosts.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is Team Red's fastest gaming processor in many titles, yet it costs far less than the slightly older 5950X and only a bit more than the 5900X. Reason being? You get fewer cores than those processors, and slower clock speeds, but dramatically increased cache - a trade-off that often provides a massive performance improvement for gaming.
The 5800X3D was extremely hard to find at launch, with AMD's limited inventory being claimed as soon as the first reviews rolled in, but now we're starting to see better availability - and today, the first proper discounts. You can pick up the 5800X3D for £384 from CCL, thanks to a £15 off discount code: AFF15.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors are getting ever cheaper, with the mid-range Ryzen 5 5600 today crossing the £130 barrier for the first time. You can now pick up this super-fast gaming CPU for less than £130, while the more powerful 5600X costs £170 after a similar discount - some way below the last sale price we saw it at. To get the reduced price, you'll need to use code HOT10 at the checkout to knock 10% off the price.
Higher-end Ryzen processors have also seen discounts in recent weeks. We spotted deals on the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 9 5900X using the same Ebay HOT10 code.
]]>Want an efficient yet powerful processor for gaming? Right now you can pick up a Ryzen 5600X for $176 w/ code JULYSAVINGS over at Antonline's Ebay. That's an awesome price for AMD's six-core 12-thread Ryzen 5000 CPU, especially given how affordable compatible AM4 motherboards and DDR4 RAM is right now!
]]>Ebay is offering 15% off on a range of a products, allowing you to get the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core processor for a historic low price: £342. To get the discount, use code BIG15 at the checkout.
]]>To be honest, I found Computex 2022 kind of underwhelming; this is usually the biggest event in the PC gaming hardware calendar, and had returned to Taipei after an all-remote 2021 show, but ended with only a smattering of major announcements in the bag. We got nothing on Intel’s Arc graphics cards, and Nvidia’s keynote revealed some new DLSS games but otherwise went light on GeForce deets.
That said, this year’s show wasn’t a bust either: there was fresh AMD Ryzen 7000 info, Corsair’s first crack at a gaming laptop and, at long last, some PCIe 5.0 SSDs you can actually buy. One day. In the future. That’s in addition to the wackier, moon-shooting tech on display, without which it just wouldn’t be Computex. So, in descending order - from the interesting and sensible to the blinking ludicrous – here are the PC gaming highlights from Computex 2022.
]]>AMD have spilled a bunch of new details about their upcoming Ryzen 7000 CPUs, which were first teased at CES 2022 back in January. This time, AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su used a Computex 2022 keynote to reveal more about the gaming-focused chips, which are getting a major overhaul following the Ryzen 5000 and Ryzen 6000 laptop processor series.
]]>A new raft of Ryzen 5000 processors has hit virtual and physical shelves, making it a good time to pick up a new AM4 CPU at a discounted price. The appearance of the lower-end Ryzen 5500, 5600 and mid-range 5700X have pushed prices for their more expensive counterparts way down, while the 5800X3D remains hard to find due to its relatively low supply and impressive gaming performance.
If you were thinking of upgrading, you might be interested to know which retailers in the US and UK are selling each of these processors, and for how much. I was interested myself, so I put together a couple of small spreadsheets to find out - and the results suprised me.
]]>The Ryzen 9 5950X is a magnificent CPU that manages to deliver top-tier gaming performance while having enough cores (16) and threads (32) to be an incredibly strong workstation too - and now it's on sale.
CCL in the UK are offering it for £516 for the CPU alone, but you can also combine a discount code and CCL's bundling mechanism to get an even better deal on the 5950X and a Corsair 850W power supply - the ultimate starting point for a content creation workstation that also doubles as a high-end gaming PC.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is the company's best gaming CPU*, and today it's going cheap at CCL in the UK. They're asking £345 for the 12-core, 24-thread processor when you use code SAVE20 at the checkout, and tossing in three months of Game Pass Ultimate and free next-day shipping to boot. That's £20 cheaper than the current Amazon price, and a massive drop from the £430+ going rate at the beginning of the year.
*OK, the Ryzen 9 5950X is technically faster, but it costs way more and the difference in gaming performance is miniscule. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D also looks promising, but hasn't yet been released and will likely cost more than this 5900X while packing fewer cores.
]]>Aha, another gaming laptop that conveniently lets me do a three-in-one review. The new Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a more mature-looking replacement for the 2021 version, while also introducing two brand new components from AMD: the Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and the Radeon RX 6800S graphics chip. Much like the key internals of the MSI Raider GE76, then, these components are up for first-time testing as much as the rest of the laptop is.
]]>Update: The price has dropped further on the 5900X, with the chip now costing £453 at Amazon. Original article continues below...
The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is the company's latest high-end consumer processor, offering 12 cores and 24 threads using the incredibly fast Zen 3 design. AMD's latest generation CPUs have made incredible strides against Intel*, and are now often the best choice for both gaming and content creation - an unthinkable situation just five years ago when Ryzen first launched.
The 5900X has been the hardest Ryzen 5000 model to find at a good price, thanks to low supply and incredible demand, but today you can pick one up for a significant discount - £43 below RRP, or £466.92. That's a great price for a CPU of this quality, especially in the middle of a silicon shortage.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G was released earlier this year for £330, but supply issues made it hard to find this processor with integrated graphics at all. Now, Ebuyer are selling the chip for £295, a £40 reduction from its recommended retail price of £330. That's a good deal for a CPU that outperforms AMD's already excellent Ryzen 3700X while also providing fast enough graphics performance for 1080p gaming. Oh, and it comes with a free, quite decent AMD Wraith CPU cooler - awesome.
]]>Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay once said “If you’re a gamer, Windows 11 was made for you.” Unfortunately, a couple of days after launching, it’s turning out to be something of an unwanted gift. Besides being blamed for Far Cry 6 crashes and deterring an entire cloud gaming service, Windows 11 is now causing performance drops on AMD chips as well. That’s according to AMD themselves, who announced in a support post that updating to Windows 11 could cause a 3-5% performance drop in some applications as well as a 10-15% drop in “games commonly used for esports.”
]]>The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is the company's second-fastest consumer processor, behind only the ludicrously expensive 5950X, and today it's been discounted substantially - from £500 to £445. That's an excellent value for a CPU that's great for games, but also has a ton of fast cores and threads to handle creative applications like video rendering, code compiling and 3D modelling.
The CPU has actually been discounted at both Amazon and Currys, to a list price of £450, but Currys offers free next-day shipping and an extra £5 off when you use the code FNDDGAMING at the checkout.
]]>The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is one of the best CPUs for gaming, and now it's available at a historic low price. The 8-core 16-thread CPU has been discounted to $369 at Antonline's Ebay shop, significantly lower than the current Amazon price of $399 and well below the chip's MSRP of $449. Here's why this processor is worth considering, beyond the price drop.
]]>Good news, everyone! The Ryzen 5 5600X continues its march to lower prices, with the CPU now available from antonline via Ebay for $269.99. That's $10 cheaper than it was just last month and, critically, about the same price as the Intel Core i5 11400F. The Intel CPU debuted at a much lower price, but low supplies and positive reviews have inflated the price substantially, to the point where the more powerful 5600X is now the better value pick!
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5000 desktop processors remain some of the best around when it comes to gaming and non-gaming performance, and prices are finally starting to come down after months of availability issues and price gouging. Today marked two new low prices for the Ryzen 5 5600X, the cheapest Ryzen 5000 processor, in both the US and UK.
In the UK, the 5600X dropped to £240 when you buy it from Currys with the code FNDDGAMING, while in America you can pick up the 5600X for $280 from Antonline on Ebay.
]]>AMD's high performance Ryzen 9 3900X processor has hit a new low price on Newegg today, where you can pick it up for just $420 - down from a list price of $500.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 9 5900X processor is the best high-end CPU on the market, trouncing Intel's flagship Core i9 10900K and 11900K parts in most games while drawing less power and offering significantly better content creation performance thanks to its 12-core 24-thread Zen 3 design. That's perhaps why this CPU has been almost impossible to find for a reasonable price for months following its release.
Today though, Overclockers in the UK has dropped the price of the CPU to just £449, a solid £60 below its RRP (!!) and considerably cheaper than you'll find it at other retailers like Scan (£489), Amazon (£508) or Ebuyer (£529).
]]>Back in April, AMD announced their Ryzen 5000 G-Series of APU were coming to pre-built PCs. Now, two of those accelerated processing units with integrated graphics - the Ryzen 5 5600G and Ryzen 7 5700G - are going to be available to DIY builders as well. Happy days.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors launched to universally positive reviews, so it's perhaps no surprise that these CPUs were like hen's teeth for months afterwards. Now availability seems to be gradually improving, and we've even started to see discounts on the less in-demand 5600X and 5800X. Today, we've hit another milestone: the Ryzen 9 5900X, the flagship model that faces off against Intel's Core i9 11900K, is finally in stock below its launch price.
]]>The Ryzen 5 5600X is a terrific CPU for gaming, providing the incredible single-core speeds of AMD's Ryzen 5000 series and six cores of multi-threading power at a very affordable price point. Its UK RRP is around £280, but today it's available at Currys PC World for just £255 when you use code FNDDGAMING.
]]>AMD have announced six new additions to their family of Ryzen 5000 CPUs today, including their first pair of budget-focused Ryzen 3 chips. Based on the same Zen 3 architecture and 7nm manufacturing process as their existing Ryzen 5000 CPUs, the Ryzen 5000 G-Series will also come with integrated Radeon graphics chips capable of delivering "smooth 1080p gaming" without the need for a dedicated graphics card. However, if you were hoping to bag yourself one to tide you over until GPU prices start getting back to normal, you may be disappointed, as they're only going to be available in pre-built OEM systems at launch.
]]>AMD have announced that their nifty Smart Access Memory tech that lets all-AMD PCs get free extra performance is now available on almost all Ryzen 3000 CPUs in addition to their latest Ryzen 5000 chips. AMD say that older Ryzen 3000 CPU owners can now get up to 16% more performance from their PC when paired with one of their new Radeon RX 6000 Big Navi graphics cards - including the newly announced RX 6700 XT - which is definitely a turn up for the books for older CPU owners.
]]>AMD have announced a new free game bundle for their Ryzen gaming CPUs. Until December 31st 2020, anyone who buys an eligible processor from their Ryzen 3000 or new Ryzen 5000 series from a participating retailer will get a free copy of Far Cry 6 and a handful of in-game items when the game comes out next year.
]]>After seeing the stonking gaming speeds of AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X at the end of last week, the Ryzen 7 5800X was always going to have a difficult mountain to climb if it was going to prove its worth as a top-notch gaming processor - especially after the rather middling gaming performance of the even more expensive Ryzen 9 5900X didn't really leave it much wriggle room to make its mark between that and its mid-range sibling. Now that I've finally been able to test one for myself, the Ryzen 7 5800X succeeds to some extent, but not without hitting a few stumbling blocks along the way.
]]>I've always been sceptical about the need for high-powered processors like AMD's Ryzen 9s and Intel's Core i9s in ordinary gaming PCs. It's all very well if you use your PC for work editing videos, animating 3D models or running virtual machines and the like, as the extra processing power afforded by their considerable number of cores and threads is no doubt exceedingly useful in these sorts of cases. But if all you want is a fast CPU for gaming, they've rarely been better value than their cheaper Ryzen 7 / Core i7 counterparts.
]]>When AMD first unveiled their Ryzen 5000 CPUs at the beginning of October, their new Zen 3 architecture hinted at several tantalising performance boosts, both in terms of power efficiency and overall gaming speeds. Alas, they're also coming at much higher than expected prices, with their mid-range Ryzen 5 5600X starting at a decidedly not-mid-range £280 / $299. It had me worried. Luckily, my fear was misplaced.
]]>AMD have officially unveiled their next generation of Ryzen 5000 CPUs and their new Zen 3 core architecture. Launching worldwide on November 5th 2020, AMD's new Ryzen 5000 CPUs will be headlined by the 12-core Ryzen 5 5900X, which promises up to 26% faster gaming performance compared to AMD's previous flagship CPU, the Ryzen 9 3900XT, and record-breaking single core performance that beats Intel's Core i9-10900K. Here's everything you need to know from tonight's Zen 3 event, including how much the Ryzen 9 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X are going to cost, and their individual specs.
]]>AMD are unveiling their next generation of Ryzen CPUs today, and you can watch it happen right here. Taking place at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm BST today, October 8th, AMD will be giving us a deep dive look at both their new line-up of Ryzen desktop processors, as well as the new Zen 3 architecture that powers them.
]]>AMD have announced the first batch of processors in their upcoming Ryzen 4000 family of desktop CPUs today, but you're going to have to wait a while before they're available to buy as standalone chips. Instead, the six APUs making up AMD's Ryzen 4000 G-series (the ones with built-in Radeon graphics, in case you've forgotten) will only be available in pre-built PCs initially, with a full launch for enthusiast buyers to take place at a later date.
Alas, AMD weren't able to provide an exact date for when these APUs would be available to buy separately so existing users can slot them into AMD's existing 400 and 500-series motherboards, but with APUs ranging all the way from entry-level Ryzen 3 chips right up to powerful Ryzen 7s, the Ryzen 4000 G-Series is definitely worth keeping an eye on if you're a budget PC builder.
]]>Thinking about upgrading your PC this year to play Assassin's Creed Valhalla? Then AMD have a new free game bundle just for you. From now until October 3rd 2020, anyone who buys a select 3rd Gen Ryzen processor or Ryzen-equipped PC or laptop will get Ubisoft's upcoming Viking 'em up for absolutely nothing when it launches at the end of this year. Here's how it works.
]]>If their new B550 motherboards going on sale today wasn't enough, AMD have just announced three brand-new Ryzen CPUs. Going on sale on July 7th, the Ryzen 5 3600XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 9 3900XT are part of a new XT series of desktop processor that offer higher clock speeds to help get the best possible performance. Here's everything you need to know.
]]>Horizon Zero Dawn still only has a vague 'summer' release date at the moment, but AMD's latest free games bundle suggests a proper release of Guerrilla Games' cyber-dino-hunting adventure could be just around the corner. The bundle isn't up on AMD's own website yet, but various system builders and component retailers in the UK such as Scan, Overclockers and Chillblast have all got pages outlining the details of the bundle, which runs from now until June 30th.
]]>If you've been eyeing up AMD's excellent Ryzen 3 3300X CPUs recently, then you'll be pleased to hear that AMD's new mid-range B550 motherboards have finally arrived to buy alongside them. The long-awaited successor to AMD's popular B450 chipset, the main advantage of buying a new B550 board is that it's got built-in support for AMD's next CPU architecture, currently code-named Zen 3, giving you plenty of future-proofing for your next upgrade.
]]>AMD really outdid themselves when they launched their Ryzen 3000 CPUs last year, and the Ryzen 5 3600 was a particular highlight. It was excellent value in the face of Intel's more expensive (and cooler-less) Core i5-9600K, and it's been my processor of choice in both my best gaming CPU rankings and my RPS Rig build ever since it came out. Somehow, though, they've managed to come up with something even better than the Ryzen 5 3600 for almost half the price. Enter the Ryzen 3 3300X, the new Ryzen 5 and Core i5 killer that costs just £115 / $120.
]]>AMD's Ryzen 3000 CPUs made a huge impression when they launched last year, with many of them speeding straight in my best gaming CPU rankings, while the Ryzen 5 3600 continues to be my CPU of choice in the RPS Rig. The only things missing from their initial line-up last year were their entry-level Ryzen 3 CPUs. At long last, AMD are finally filling out their budget CPU ranks with two new processors today - the $99 Ryzen 3 3100 on test here and the slightly more expensive Ryzen 3 3300X at $120.
With four cores and eight threads apiece, these CPUs aren't intended for high-powered gaming rigs, but if you're looking to keep costs down for your next PC build, then they offer a surprisingly good foundation for 1080p gaming. Which one should you buy, though? Here's how the Ryzen 3 3100 stacks up to the rest of the competition.
]]>After claiming several top spots in my best gaming CPU list last year, AMD have just announced they've got two more Ryzen 3000 CPUs on the way for desktop PCs: the Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X. Based on AMD's Zen 2 core architecture, these are set to be AMD's fastest Ryzen 3 processors to date. They're also the first Ryzen 3 CPUs to make use of AMD's simultaneous multi-threading technology for better productivity, too, offering a tangible step-up from AMD's current (and only) Ryzen 3 processor, the Ryzen 3 3200G. That's not all AMD have announced today, either, as they've also unveiled a brand-new motherboard chipset to go with them - the long-awaited AMD B550 series, which is the successor to the popular B450 chipset. Here's everything you need to know.
]]>At the end of last year, I put together our official RPS Rig, which included everything you needed to build a gaming PC for less than £1000, including your monitor, mouse and keyboard and all the extra peripherals that go with a modern PC. However, many of you asked what that rig would look like if it was just the PC that cost £1000 (you know, minus the monitor and all that jazz) and, well, it would probably look something like UK system builder Wired2Fire's Predator build.
It's a bit more expensive, with the base build on test here coming in at £1280 at time of writing, but that extra cash gets you a Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, 16GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super graphics card, plus liquid cooling. With a spec like that, Wired2Fire's Predator PC is primed and ready for top notch 1440p gaming and has buckets of processing power for whatever you want to throw at it. Here's wot I think.
]]>AMD kicked off their CES 2020 press conference with some big promises last night. Not only are they calling their upcoming Radeon RX 5600 XT GPU the "ultimate 1080p graphics card", but they're also hoping their new set of 3rd Gen Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs will be "the best laptop processors ever built".
Those are fighting words considering AMD have always been a bit of an underdog in the laptop CPU space, but with a renewed focus on power efficiency, graphics performance and single-threaded performance for regular desktop tasks, these 7nm chips could end up making quite a dent on their Intel competition. Here's what you need to know.
]]>The final member of AMD's Ryzen 3000 CPU family, the ultra powerful Ryzen 9 3950X, finally has a release date - as do AMD's freshly-announced 3rd Gen Threadrippers. So far, AMD have only teased two Threadripper/Dataduke™/Bitbasher™/Loadmother™ CPUs, but these will be launching on November 25th together with their Ryzen 3950X sibling. If you like a CPU with more cores than your can shake a stick, step this way. We've got all the core (sorry not sorry) information right here.
]]>AMD have knocked it out of the park with their RX 5700 graphics card and Ryzen 5 3600X CPU this year, and if I were looking to build a PC for just over £1000 in the next month or so, I'd probably be very tempted to put both of them inside it. After all, the RX 5700 is currently our best graphics card recommendation for 1440p gaming, while the Ryzen 5 3600X used to be one of our best gaming CPU picks until its even cheaper non-X sibling pitched up. If you'd rather not have the hassle of building a PC yourself, however, then look no further than PC Specialist's Inferno R4, a pre-built Ryzen 5 3600X / RX 5700 powered gaming desktop with liquid cooling and bundles of storage for £1149.
]]>It's been quite a while since AMD first launched their new Ryzen 3000 CPUs, but I've finally managed to get my hands on the last remaining member of their new gaming CPU family, the Ryzen 7 3800X. It's the even nippier big brother of the already excellent AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, but with the even more powerful Ryzen 9 3900X now sitting above it in the Ryzen family pecking order, this eight-core processor definitely has an air of 'awkward middle child' about it. Does it still have what it takes to muscle in on our best gaming CPU list? Here's wot I think.
]]>When I tested AMD's Ryzen 5 3600X CPU just over a week ago, I said it was a great alternative to our best gaming CPU mid-range champ, the Intel Core i5-9600K. Well, scratch that recommendation, because its regular, non-X sibling, the Ryzen 5 3600, is even better value for money than its £240 / $250 big brother - and almost certainly the CPU to buy if you're looking to keep costs down to as near to £200 / $200 as you possibly can. Here's wot I think.
]]>After years of playing catch-up to their Intel rivals, AMD have definitely come out swinging with the launch of their new Ryzen 3000 CPUs. Their high-end Ryzen 7 3700X, for example, made a pretty good impression when I reviewed it a couple of weeks ago, and as an overall value for money play is probably well worth considering over Intel's Core i7-9700K, even if its gaming performance isn't quite up to the same level. Now, AMD hope to repeat the trick with the Ryzen 5 3600X, their top mid-range gaming CPU that has its sights set squarely on Intel's Core i5-9600K. Does AMD's new 7nm processor have what it takes to be the new mid-range champ in our best gaming CPU line-up? Here's wot I think.
]]>Earlier this week, I put together a list of what I think are the best gaming CPUs you can buy today. At the top end of the scale was Intel's Core i7-9700K, a £350 / $365 processor that, at least in my admittedly rather limited, non-water-cooled PC, was easily the fastest CPU for gaming that didn't cost an absolute fortune *cough*Intel Core i9-9900K, I'm looking at you*cough*.
The new Ryzen 7 3700X is AMD's answer to this mighty Intel chip - and on paper, it sounds very impressive indeed. Built using a 7nm manufacturing process and AMD's new Zen 2 CPU architecture, this eight-core, sixteen-thread Ryzen 3000 processor also supports the super-fast PCIe 4.0 standard, which, when combined with a compatible motherboard (such as AMD's new X570 chipset family), massively increases the amount of bandwidth available to your PC components. But is it enough to wrench away the Core i7-9700K's best gaming CPU crown? Here's wot I think.
]]>Should you ever spend $500 on a gaming CPU? Personally, I think you'd be mad to spend that kind of money on a processor, especially when Intel's Core i7-9700K offers such incredible gaming performance for about two thirds of the cost. If you are one of these so-called power users with $500-odd to spare on getting the absolute bestest best gaming CPU money can buy, however, then your choices have literally just doubled with the introduction of AMD's new Ryzen 9 3900X.
Priced at $499, AMD are positioning this chip as their Intel Core i9-9900K killer, which at time of writing is just a bit cheaper at £485 / $490. The Ryzen 9 3900X, however, is quite a bit beefier in the old specs department - and comes with a decent cooler bundled in the box, which its Intel rival does not. Packing 12 cores and 24 threads as opposed to Intel's rather piddly-sounding 8-core-16-thread offering, the Ryzen 9 3900X is an absolute speed machine when it comes to general desktop performance. Its gaming prowess, however? That's a whole other story.
]]>If a big reveal of two new Big Navi GPUs wasn't enough this evening, AMD also announced the world's first 16-core gaming CPU in the form of the Ryzen 9 3950X. The monstrous gaming CPU is now the top dog of AMD's Ryzen 3000 series, sitting above the previously-announced Ryzen 9 3900X, which made its debut back at Computex a couple of weeks ago. The bad news? This 16-core, 32-thread beast is almost twice as expensive, costing a whopping $749 as opposed to $499.
]]>Hot off the heels of their Big Navi GPU tease yesterday, AMD also revealed their entire 3rd Gen Ryzen CPU line-up, detailing every processor in their new Ryzen 3000 family, including a brand-new Ryzen 9 category. Here's everything you need to know, including their specs, price, release date and how they're currently shaping up against Intel's 9th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs.
]]>There's no denying the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 is a great graphics card for £200 / $220. Offering 60fps speeds at High or maximum settings at 1080p, and Medium to High at 1440p, it's effectively replaced the 6GB GTX 1060 as my new best graphics card of choice for budget-conscious buyers. In terms of overall value, however, it faces stiff competition from the equally nippy AMD Radeon RX 590, which is a fraction more expensive than the GTX 1660 but currently comes with three free games to help sweeten the deal. As a result, those looking to simply upgrade their graphics card will almost certainly be able to make their money go further with the RX 590 than the GTX 1660.
If you're looking to buy a whole new PC, however, then GTX 1660 machines such as the Apollo R1 from UK system builder PC Specialist may just have the upper hand again. Priced at just £699 with a Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and 8GB of RAM inside it, that's a whole £150 less than PC Specialist's otherwise identically-specced RX 590 offering. Yes, you can still offset some of that cost by taking into account the free copies of DMC 5, Resident Evil 2 and The Division 2 you'll get with the RX 590 PC, but £853 is still quite a big chunk of change to spend all at once. So if you're on the look-out for a reasonably-priced machine and simply can't face the idea of building a PC yourself, then the Apollo R1 is a great place to start. Let's take a look.
]]>AMD's 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs for desktops have arrived. Sort of. This morning, hot off the heels of AMD's Radeon 7 announcement, AMD boss lady Dr Lisa Su gave us our first look at their new 3rd Gen of Ryzen desktop CPU coming in mid 2019. If you were thinking of splashing out on one of Intel's Core i9-9900K CPUs, you might want to hold your horses.
]]>Eager to kick off 2019 with a bang, AMD have announced a slew of new 2nd Gen Ryzen+ CPUs for laptops ahead of this year's annual tech bonanza, CES. The seven-strong Ryzen 3000 series will cover everything from ultra thin notebooks to high-powered gaming laptops, and every CPU will come with one of AMD's Ryzen Vega graphics chips to boot. Here's the lowdown on everything you need to know.
]]>Since September is apparently a great time to launch new processors, AMD are at it again today with the announcement of two brand-new 2nd Gen Ryzen+ CPUs. Following hot on the heels of last week's Vega-infused Athlon 200GE announcement, the Ryzen 5 2500X and Ryzen 3 2300X are both set to be quad-core chips with tasty maximum clock speeds of 4.0GHz.
Before you get too excited, though, there is unfortunately a small catch, in that you're only going to be able to find them in pre-built PCs made be select OEM partners. Are they going to be worth tracking down over the rest of AMD's Ryzen chips like the Ryzen 5 2600/2600X or Ryzen 3 2200G? Let's take a look.
]]>In the great 'CPU core-off' at Computex 2018, AMD definitely came home the winner. Their monstrous 32-core 2nd Gen Ryzen Threadripper not only had more core doodads than Intel's mysterious 28-core effort, but it was also destined for actual, real-life PCs owned by regular humans, not corporate enterprise servers that are presumably controlled by heartless robots. It also has, I have to say, the best and most ridiculous promo art I've ever seen in my life (even better, I might add, than the bonkers box art for PNY's Verto GeForce FX 5200 graphics card from the late 00s).
Well, that 32-core Threadripper (and I still can't get over the fact they called them THREADRIPPERS) is now finally available for pre-order - and it's so damn fast that AMD are proclaiming it's broken the world record for the Cinebench R15 benchmark, posting the highest score ever for a single-socket desktop CPU.
]]>When AMD launched their 2nd Gen Ryzen+ CPUs earlier in the year, they made a pledge that their AM4 motherboard sockets would continue to receive support until the year 2020. To that end, AMD have just announced a brand-new mid-range chipset for AM4 motherboards, the B450. Read below for the full low-down.
]]>The battle for 'how many cores can you possibly fit onto a CPU' has been getting rather toasty at this year's Computex show, as last night Intel and AMD both unveiled (or teased, in Intel's case) some monstrously powerful CPUs in the form of 28-core and, wait for it, 32-core chipsets.
]]>The Asus ROG Crosshair VII Hero (Wi-Fi) - try saying that three times fast - is quite possibly the ultimate ATX motherboard for cooling and USB junkies - if you're batting for team Ryzen+, that is. If you thought having eight USB ports on the Asus ROG Strix X470F-Gaming and MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC was generous, the Crosshair VII Hero adds four more to the pile, coming in for a positively monstrous total of 12. If all that wasn't enough, you also get a whopping nine fan headers for the coolest of cooled systems.
Nine fan headers I can just about get behind, but I can't even begin to imagine the kind of situation where you'd need to have 12 USB ports. Still, while you can't accuse Asus of being stingy when it comes to peripheral support, it does mean you're giving up space for multiple display outputs (unless you count the single USB Type-C port), making it ill-suited to AMD's other two new Ryzen chips, the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G with integrated Vega graphics. As a companion for AMD's Ryzen 7 2700 / 2700X or Ryzen 5 2600 / 2600X CPUs, on the other hand, the Crosshair makes a mighty fine match. Let's see if it's worth buying over the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC.
]]>AMD's Ryzen+ CPUs have arrived and if you've read our Ryzen 5 2600/2600X or Ryzen 7 2700/2700X reviews, then you'll know there's a lot to like. Indeed, one of the great things about AMD's new family of processors is that you might not even have to buy a new motherboard to start using them, as every Ryzen+ chip will happily slot into every existing AM4 socket motherboard that's currently available.
That's good news for anyone wanting to save a bit of money during the upgrade process, but those erring toward the higher end of AMD's Ryzen+ spectrum, particularly anyone considering the Ryzen 7 2700 or 2700X, may also want to think about getting one of AMD's new X470 chipset motherboards instead - like MSI's rather nippy X470 Gaming M7 AC, for example.
]]>If you're considering buying one of AMD's new Ryzen+ CPUs like the Ryzen 5 2600 or Ryzen 7 2700X, then you may also want to think about getting a new X470-based AM4 motherboard to go with it. It's not strictly necessary - all of AMD's 2nd gen Ryzen processors will work with existing AM4 motherboards, whether you've got one with a high-end X370 chipset or the more entry-level A320 or B350 chipsets - but upgrading to X470 brings with it a number of advantages, such as Ryzen+ support straight out of the box as well as AMD's shiny super-fast StoreMI acceleration tech as standard.
To kick things off in the X470 department, I've got the Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming motherboard on test today, with more boards following shortly. Let's see whether this one from Asus is any good.
]]>AMD's 2nd Gen Ryzen+ CPUs have put on a pretty impressive show so far, from the entry-level Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G with integrated Radeon Vega graphics right up to the mid-range Ryzen 5 2600 and 2600X - which for my money are better buys than Intel's current crop of 8th Gen Core i5 chips. Now it's time to look at AMD's pair of flagship processors for 2018, the Ryzen 7 2700 and its souped-up counterpart, the 2700X.
With eight cores and 16 threads each, these top-end CPUs are AMD's answer to Intel's fancy 8th Gen Core i7 Coffee Lake chips, most notably the Core i7-8700 and its unlocked, overclockable sibling, the Core i7-8700K. Can AMD pull off that coveted hat-trick of best gaming CPU brilliance? The answer would appear to be... sort of, just about, but also not quite.
]]>AMD have been a bit on the back foot in recent years, but it would appear the release of their new Ryzen+ CPUs is already paying off. According to Steam's latest hardware survey for April 2018, AMD took a 4.8% bite out of Intel's lead last month, taking the number of Steam users using an AMD processor to a new high of 15.96%. That's an increase of 45% since December 2017.
Things aren't so rosy for AMD in the graphics card department, however, as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 is still the reigning champion by quite some margin.
]]>The Ryzen 5 2600 and 2600X are AMD's new mid-range desktop CPUs, and they're primed and ready to take on Intel's 8th Gen Core i5 Coffee Lake processors. With six cores and 12 threads apiece, plus respective base clock speeds of 3.4GHz and 3.6GHz, they may not look like huge improvements over their 1600 and 1600X Ryzen predecessors on paper, but this time it's what's inside that counts, as both chips now have a faster, more efficient architecture behind them and better tech to help them reach their improved max boost clock speeds of 3.9GHz and 4.2GHz more regularly.
Today, I'll be looking at both the Ryzen 5 2600 and its X-rated sibling together in one big mid-range face off, pitching them against each other and seeing how they compare to help you decide which one is the best gaming CPU.
]]>After months of murky rumours, vague interview statements and subsequent but equally unclear clarifications, AMD have confirmed once and for all that their AM4 motherboard platform will continue to receive support until the year 2020. This will come as excellent news for existing Ryzen users and incoming Ryzen+ buyers, as it means that any potential new motherboard purchase isn't about to go the way of every other tech purchase these days and be made redundant in six months. Good times.
]]>Graphics card prices have been up in the clouds so long that the idea of them ever falling back down to something that doesn't make us weep with despair seems almost as fanciful as the idea of earning more than six pence from the dreaded ongoing crypto-mining craze. They will, of course, come down at some point, but that's of little comfort to us in the here and now, especially if you're in need of a new PC.
But let me ask you a question. Do you really need a fancy new graphics card? Because if money's tight and you're willing to put up with a few compromises, the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G could be just what you're looking for.
]]>Graphics card prices continue to outrage and frustrate almost every PC person on the planet. No one likes spending more than they have to in order to play the newest, shiniest games, but the current cost of GPUs is almost enough to make you want to throw your PC out the window and turn tail to join the console brigade. It's that bad.
Before you do that, though, you'll be pleased to hear there's some very good news to be found in AMD's recently released Ryzen Vega CPUs. Thanks to their built-in Radeon Vega graphics - Vega being the same name given to AMD's top-end GPUs like the Radeon RX Vega 64 and Radeon RX Vega 56 - both the quad-core 3.5GHz AMD Ryzen 3 2200G on test today and the quad-core 3.6GHz Ryzen 5 2400G offer a surprisingly decent stab at 1080p gaming without the need for dropping hundreds of pounds on a dedicated card.
]]>Most gaming laptops are Intel this and Nvidia that these days, making the fully AMD-powered Asus ROG Strix GL702ZC something of a rarity. Indeed, while AMD's Ryzen CPUs may be a familiar sight on desktop PCs, this is the first time their top-end Ryzen 7 1700 chip has been taken out for a spin in laptop form, making it an admirable adversary for its Intel Core i7-7700HQ-equipped competition.
Backed up with one of AMD's 4GB Radeon RX 580 graphics chips and a massive 17.3in 1920x1080 IPS display, the Asus ROG GL702ZC could be just the ticket for those after smooth 1080p gaming you can (sort of) take on the go. Let's see whether it's any good.
]]>AMD's new Ryzen processors with Vega graphics have been causing quite a stir lately. Offering Nvidia GeForce GTX 1030 levels of graphical fidelity without the need for a dedicated card, the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G are quickly becoming the CPU of choice for many budget system builders - at least when US retailer Newegg isn't charging $20 more than AMD's official prices for them anyway.
Now, however, it appears that not all AM4 socket motherboards actually support them out of the box - which is pretty problematic if you've just bought a whole new system and don't have an older AMD processor handy to get your motherboard updated. Fortunately, AMD is on the case, as you can now request a free 'boot kit' from them that will let you do just that.
]]>Earlier this week, AMD's new Ryzen APUs with built-in Vega graphics - the Ryzen 3 2200G and the Ryzen 5 2400G - finally went on sale for $99 and $169 apiece. That's how much AMD said they would cost and most retailers, lo and behold, have been selling them for those exact amounts.
Newegg, however, haven't been playing ball this week, as their initial prices for the pair of Ryzen Vega APUs were around $20 more than their recommended retail prices. Fortunately, the metaphorical mob has retaliated quickly against these price shenanigans (hopefully by pelting them with old eggs), and affected customers are now being offered partial refunds to bring their purchases back in line with everyone else.
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