Intel Core i5-13600KF
“13th Gen Intel Core processors offer revolutionary design for both gaming and applications. From extreme multitasking, immersive streaming, and faster creating, it has you covered.”
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Amazon’s Spring sale is, sadly, coming to an end. Before it does, you can snag one of the best midrange CPUs for next to nothing. Looking at the previous generation, Intel Core i5-13600KF is currently dirt cheap, leaving you with enough spare change to spruce up the rest of your gaming PC. Don’t hang around too long, however, as there’s less than a day left of the event.
At its cheapest ever in Blighty, you can get the CPU for just £232 on Amazon UK. That’s 15% off its usual price, and around £30 cheaper than the lowest it’s ever been before. Amazon US also offers 13% off the same chip at $264.99. While this doesn’t match the deal we saw on Black Friday, it’s not too far off.
We awarded five stars in our Intel Core i5-13600K review, and the KF version is almost identical. The only difference is that the ‘F’ denotes that our cheaper chip lacks integrated graphics, so you’ll need to pair it with a dedicated GPU. Otherwise, you can expect the same specs under the hood and performance when booting.
With six performance and eight efficient cores, there are 14 cores and 20 threads total. The ‘K’ part of the name means you can overclock it to its 5.1GHz boost frequency or beyond. There’s also a 24MB L3 cache that should come in handy for gaming, all while sipping 125W on average and no more than 181W max. This midrange chip packs a lot of value.
It entirely depends on your graphics card, but I recommend you aim for 1080p gaming. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with high triple-figure frame rates, including 227fps in Final Fantasy XIV, 112fps in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and 118fps in Forza Horizon 5. You should have enough headroom to push 1440p, though you might need to tinker with your game’s settings occasionally.
You can either pocket the savings or put it towards an LGA 1700 motherboard on Amazon to house the CPU. There are a few good deals in all regions, with MSI discounting its Pro B760 in the UK and Gigabyte taking care of the US. Otherwise, there are other discounts that might catch your eye.
There are several other reduced CPUs, including AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D, Intel’s budget range, and AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. My favourite gaming headset is currently at its cheapest and well worth it. There are even some decent graphics cards, OLED monitors, and VR headsets down in price.
You shouldn’t just take my word for it, though. These deals are on Amazon, and the retailer has a 30-day return policy that asks no questions. If you’re not happy, just send it back and get a full refund. You don’t even need to be a Prime subscriber, although that does help with next-day delivery.
Even after Amazon’s Spring sale passes, we’ll continue hunting for the best discounts every day. If you want to keep in the loop, simply check back on our deals page, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to get some delivered right to your inbox.