The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Desktop Processor Just Dropped by $100 Overnight
It's now over $200 cheaper than the new Ryzen 9 9950X CPU
Today, Amazon has dropped the price on the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core 32-Thread Unlocked Desktop Processor to $400.84 after a massive 43% off discount. It's retail boxed and sold and shipped by Amazon (not a shady marketplace vendor). This is an excellent price (the lowest we've seen, in fact) for what is still one of the most powerful AMD processors you can get. The newly released successor - the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X - is currently about $630 on Amazon. Although a better processor, it's probably not worth the $200+ price premium for most people.
Update: The price went back up already.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X Desktop Processor for $400.84
The AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is one of the best multi-tasking chips in AMD's arsenal. In fact, it was the best up until last month when the new 9950X was released. It launched at the tail end of 2022 to compete with Intel's i9-13900K and easily matches its performance while consuming less power. It's not quite as powerful as the newer Intel's i9-14900K, but it's close and right now it's $100 cheaper. Although the 7950X is first and foremost a multi-tasking workstation chip, it's also a solid gaming processor. There's a newer 7950X3D variant that is a more gaming oriented chip (but not as good at anything else), but right now it's more expensive. Check out our AMD Ryzen 9 7950X review for an in-depth look with benchmarks.
If you're starting a build from scratch, one of the biggest advantages that AMD has over Intel is the overall lower cost of adoption and future upgradeability; AMD AM5 compatible motherboards start at a much more affordable price point than Intel LGA1700 motherboards. Yes, AM5 boards need DDR5 RAM (some Intel LGA1700 boards can use legacy DDR4 RAM), but nowadays DDR5 prices are a lot more reasonable than they used to be. For example, 64GB of DDR5-6000MHz CL30 RAM (the fastest premium RAM anyone really needs for an AM5 setup) can be had for as low as $180. The AM5 socket is also more futureproof. The new Zen 5 processors are being released on AM5, and it's likely that Zen 6 will be as well. Intel, on the other hand, loves to change sockets with every new processor release, which means a new processor upgrade will require a new motherboard as well.
Looking for more options? Check out our top gaming CPU picks of 2024 (the 9950X just replaced the 7950X).
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