AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X has dropped to an all-time low price of $249.97, putting it on par with the R5 5600X’s sticker price. However, it’s worth noting that the Core i5-12600K which is a better gaming chip can be had for just $236. In addition to packing six P-cores, it also includes four E-cores for a total core count of 10. The 5800X is limited to eight high-performance cores and should perform roughly the same in content creation workloads.
Similarly, the Core i7-12700K beats the Ryzen 9 5900X in gaming but performs admirably in heavily threaded applications such as V-Ray, Indigo, and Maxon. Both the CPUs can be had for about $360, nearly $200 lower than their launch pricing.
With Raptor Lake and Raphael primed to launch in the coming months, the pricing of existing processors will continue to slide. Unlike the GPU, the CPU doesn’t require yearly or even 2-year upgrade cycles. If you get a capable high-end SKU, it can skip at least one generation and even two if you don’t mind the occasional stutters during high-frame-rate (144 Hz) gameplay.
