Black Friday is by all means underway at major online tech retailers, and I'm spotting tons of PC hardware deals, especially at Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon. AMD is stealing the spotlight this year thanks to its Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D processors made for gaming; however, the former is only available at full price (or higher), and the latter is sold out everywhere.
If you're shopping for a CPU upgrade and don't want to pay full price, I have some great alternative recommendations. The Ryzen 5 7600X is down to just $194.99 at Newegg after an extra promo code, and there's a free 1TB M.2 PCIE 4.0 NVMe SSD (normally $80) thrown in for good measure. That's only about $23 more than the cheapest price I've ever seen, not counting the free SSD.
Need more power? The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is down to $326.99 at Newegg after all promo codes are applied; that's about $45 more than the lowest price in its history.
🔥The hottest Black Friday deals🔥
- 🎮ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1) | $349.99 at Best Buy (Save $150!)
- 💻Surface Pro 11 (X Plus) | $899.99 at Best Buy (Save $300!)
- 📺HP Curved Ultrawide (34-inches) | $299.99 at Best Buy (Save $180!)
- 💽WD_Black Xbox Series X|S Card (1TB) | $99.99 at Best Buy (Save $50!)
- 🖱️Razer Basilisk V3 Wired | $39.99 at Best Buy (Save $30!)
- 💽WD_BLACK M.2 2230 SSD (2TB) | $179.99 at Best Buy (Save $60!)
🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃
- Best Buy: Big savings on video games, accessories, and more
- Walmart: Early savings on practically everything
- Target: Live deals on a huge range of products
- Dell: Top deals on laptops, gaming PCs, accessories, and more
- HP: Save big on laptops, desktops, accessories, and more
- Lenovo: Doorbuster deals on all Lenovo PCs, monitors, accessories, and more
- Newegg: Save on PC gaming accessories, components, and more
- Razer: Take advantage of free shipping for a limited time
- Samsung: Holiday deals on laptops, TVs, phones, and more are live
- Amazon: Constantly rotating sales on everything you can imagine
Why you should consider AMD's other CPUs on Black Friday
AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Ryzen 7 9800X3D are hogging a lot of attention as we slide into Black Friday. Both chips are regarded as the absolute best options for PC gamers, and this popularity has caused stock shortages. The 9800X3D is sold out practically everywhere, and I don't expect to see any sales pop up even if stock does refresh in the next few days.
In the case of the 7800X3D, the best deal you can find right now is a regular MSRP, never mind a sale price. I don't expect that to change in the near future, but I've been surprised by Black Friday sales in the past. The best 7800X3D price available right now is $459 at Amazon. The chip dropped to $320 at its cheapest point in history, so that's a big difference if you're paying at full price.
What makes the X3D chips so attractive is the inclusion of AMD's 3D V-Cache, which relocates and expands the L3 cache to be more efficient when gaming. This improvement doesn't really show in productivity work, but it can significantly boost frame rates in demanding games.
Is AMD's 3D V-Cache absolutely necessary to have a good time? Definitely not. I've used an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU without the extra cache magic for years, and it has never failed to keep up with the latest games on my ultrawide 1440p monitor.
Considering even the affordable Ryzen 5 7600X that I'm highlighting here beats the Ryzen 7 5800X in most benchmark tests, you can spend small and still get an awesome CPU for PC gaming. Here's a look at the performance metrics as noted in our Ryzen 5 7600X review:
I recommend anyone who wants a strong CPU for gaming to check out the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, especially now that it's down to $195.99 at Newegg with a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD thrown in for free.
Doesn't seem like the Ryzen 5 7600X has enough power? My alternate recommendation is the Ryzen 9 7900X, a monster chip that's now 40% cheaper than MSRP with Black Friday savings. I have seen this chip drop as low as $281 in the past, so the current discounted $326.92 price at Amazon isn't too far off.
The Ryzen 9 9700X pulls a lot more power at 170W compared to 105W, but it doubles the core and thread count, bolsters the L3 cache to 64MB, and ups the boost clock speed. Not only is it a monster chip for PC gaming, it can also handle a heavy productivity workload. Here's a look at some benchmarks pulled from our AMD Ryzen 9 7900X review:
Why not wait for a sale on AMD's Ryzen X3D chips?
There's no reason you can't wait to find a better deal on a Ryzen X3D CPU; you could also buy the 7800X3D now at its full price and be done with it. I picked up a Ryzen 7 9800X3D on launch day, and if I hadn't I'd probably be considering buying one of the older X3D chips instead.
AMD's CPUs with 3D V-Cache definitely provide a huge boost to gaming performance, but it's not absolutely necessary. As I mentioned, I gamed on a non-X3D chip for years without issue.
Considering the Ryzen 5 7600X is more powerful than my old 5800X and is now less than $200 with a free SSD thrown in, you might be tempted to spend less on a CPU and put the money into your PC elsewhere. Craving strong productivity performance on top of stellar gaming power? The Ryzen 9 7900X at about $327 is also a great option if you don't mind spending more.
Be sure to check out my favorite Ryzen 7000 AM5 motherboards if you don't already have an AM5 board. In the same vein, you might spot the right DDR5 memory in my list of favorite RAM for Ryzen 7000 CPUs.
