You can’t blame PC enthusiasts for craving the latest and greatest gear, but for the savvy builder, new releases are merely a pathway toward prior-generation bargains.
And there have been plenty of them on AMD’s tried-and-trusted AM4 platform. Right now, our pick of the bunch is the 12-core Ryzen 9 5900X, whose price has plummeted to £187.99 here on UK shores.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
“Obliterate multithreaded tasks like 3D rendering, video rendering, and software compiling by taking advantage of 12 cores, 24 threads and PCIe 4.0 support.”
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That’s phenomenal value and comfortably better than half price, plus there are similar discounts in other regions. Pricing at Amazon US has crept down to $249, and you can find said chip on the continent for around €230.
One of our favourite releases from the 5000 Series generation, the 105W Ryzen 9 5900X can hit 4.8GHz and will power through any workload with 24 threads at its disposal.
Though the Zen 3 part dates back to late 2020, it remains a worthy option at current prices. At the very least, it’s a solid choice for anyone wanting to achieve one final upgrade on a long-serving AM4 build.
Do be aware there’s no cooler in the box. While the processor doesn’t run quite as toasty as modern-day equivalents, we’d recommend a competent air or liquid cooler to maintain the best balance of low temperature and minimal noise.
There’s also a question mark over how long stock remains available. Though AMD hasn’t yet confirmed any immediate plans to discontinue Ryzen 5000 CPUs, the availability of 7000 and 9000 Series successors suggests a natural shift will take place sooner rather than later. If you had your eye on a Ryzen 9 5900X upgrade, get in while the going is good.