You can build a 4K-capable Cyber Monday gaming PC for $1,000 Less than the cost of an RTX 4090 Card
This RTX 4070-powered system gets smooth frame rates, even at 4K.
There are many fantastic Cyber Monday deals on various PC components like CPUs and SSDs, this is a terrible holiday shopping season for high-end graphics cards. The RTX 4090, which sits at the top of our GPU hierarchy, is sold out at many stores and, as of press time, the cheapest one I could find in stock is a gobsmacking $2,249.
If you don't maintain a GPU price index like we do, you might not know that RTX 4090 cards were selling for as "little" as $1,599 the other day. The prices of other high-end cards such as the RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Ti are also quite prohibitive, at $1,129 and $729 respectively.
But here's the good news: the RTX 4070 is on sale for just $539. This card is good enough to play games at 4K resolution with ultra settings; on our test suite of games, it averaged a smooth 57.2 fps. And, by using parts that are on sale for Cyber Monday, you can build a PC around the 4070 and a Core i5-13600KF, a fantastic mid-range gaming CPU, for just $1,300. That's about $1,000 less than the cheapest RTX 4090 you can currently buy online.
It took me only a few minutes to spec out the following Cyber Monday 4K PC build. Note that this is for a desktop PC only and does not include the price of the OS (you can get Windows cheap or free) or any peripherals.
| Component | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-13600KF | $249 |
| GPU | MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4070 | $539 |
| SSD | Samsung 990 Pro | $119 |
| Motherboard | MSI PRO Z790-S WiFi | $158 |
| RAM | Team T-Force Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6000 | $79 |
| Case | Phanteks Eclipse G360A Mesh Mid-Tower | $66 |
| Power Supply | Corsair CX-M CX650M | $64 |
| Cooler | DeepCool LS720 | $87 |
| Total | Row 8 - Cell 1 | $1,361 |
Cyber Monday GPU Deal: RTX 4070
So let's talk about these components for a second. First and foremost, the RTX 4070 is a fantastic mid-range gaming card. Is it as fast as an RTX 4090 or even an RTX 4070 Ti? No. But it's very smooth at 1080p and 1440p and more-than-playable at 4K with ray tracing off. Look at these numbers from our GPU hierarchy.
| Graphics Card | Lowest Price | 1080p Ultra | 1080p Medium | 1440p Ultra | 4K Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 4090 | $2,249 | 100.0% (151.6fps) | 100.0% (189.6fps) | 100.0% (143.1fps) | 100.0% (114.1fps) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | $909 | 97.3% (147.5fps) | 98.7% (187.2fps) | 93.4% (133.7fps) | 81.6% (93.0fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | $1,129 | 94.0% (142.6fps) | 97.3% (184.4fps) | 90.1% (129.0fps) | 77.8% (88.7fps) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XT | $739 | 93.1% (141.2fps) | 96.6% (183.0fps) | 86.9% (124.3fps) | 69.8% (79.6fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | $729 | 89.3% (135.4fps) | 95.4% (180.9fps) | 80.5% (115.1fps) | 62.9% (71.8fps) |
| Radeon RX 7800 XT | $499 | 83.9% (127.2fps) | 95.8% (181.5fps) | 72.7% (104.0fps) | 53.2% (60.7fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4070 | $539 | 81.5% (123.6fps) | 93.0% (176.3fps) | 69.1% (98.9fps) | 50.2% (57.2fps) |
| Radeon RX 7700 XT | $429 | 75.0% (113.7fps) | 89.3% (169.4fps) | 63.5% (90.9fps) | 44.1% (50.2fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | $404 | 67.2% (102.0fps) | 85.7% (162.5fps) | 52.9% (75.7fps) | 36.5% (41.6fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti | $364 | 67.1% (101.7fps) | 84.3% (159.8fps) | 52.8% (75.5fps) | 34.7% (39.6fps) |
Now, you might be looking at the table above and saying "why not get a Radeon RX 7800 XT instead?" It's a little cheaper and its frame rates are a little higher. However, when we turn to gaming with ray tracing enabled, the story changes dramatically.
| Graphics Card | 1080p Medium | 1080p Ultra | 1440p Ultra | 4K Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 4090 | 100.0% (159.9fps) | 100.0% (132.7fps) | 100.0% (97.8fps) | 100.0% (53.5fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | 83.1% (132.9fps) | 78.9% (104.8fps) | 72.9% (71.3fps) | 68.6% (36.7fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4070 Ti | 71.6% (114.4fps) | 64.8% (86.0fps) | 58.0% (56.8fps) | 52.9% (28.3fps) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | 67.2% (107.5fps) | 60.0% (79.7fps) | 54.0% (52.8fps) | 48.7% (26.1fps) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XT | 60.9% (97.4fps) | 53.2% (70.5fps) | 47.0% (46.0fps) | 41.5% (22.2fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4070 | 60.7% (97.2fps) | 52.3% (69.4fps) | 46.3% (45.2fps) | 41.2% (22.0fps) |
| Radeon RX 7800 XT | 47.4% (75.8fps) | 41.3% (54.9fps) | 35.9% (35.1fps) | 31.9% (17.0fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti | 46.9% (75.1fps) | 39.8% (52.8fps) | 34.3% (33.5fps) | 25.9% (13.9fps) |
| GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB | 46.8% (74.9fps) | 39.9% (53.0fps) | 34.7% (34.0fps) | 30.8% (16.5fps) |
| Radeon RX 7700 XT | 41.9% (67.0fps) | 36.6% (48.6fps) | 31.8% (31.1fps) | 27.6% (14.8fps) |
The delta between the 4070 and 7800XT is huge. With ray tracing on, neither card is playable at 4K resolution, but the 4070 is much smoother at 1440p and 1080p Ultra. So unless you don't plan to play any games with ray tracing, the 4070 is easily the better choice.
MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4070: now $539 at Newegg (was $609)
This dual-fan RTX 4070 has 12GB of GDDR6X RAM and a boost clock of 2,505.
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Cyber Monday CPU Deal: Core i5-13600KF
Besides the GPU, the other key component in any gaming PC is its CPU. In this case, we're going with the Intel Core i5-13600KF, which is at an all-time low price of $250.The 13600KF is an overclockable processor with 14 cores (6P + 8E) and 20 threads, along with a rated boost clock of 5.1 GHz. By the way, the 13600K is the same CPU as the KF, but it has integrated graphics you don't need and costs $20 more.
In our tests, the 13600K / KF delivered very strong frame rates and high clock speeds. It's not as fast for gaming as a chip with 3D Vcache like AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but it's more than adequate for use with this card.
Intel Core i5-13600KF: now $249 at Amazon (was $304)
Our favorite mid-range gaming processor, the Intel Core i5-13600KF includes 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and supports 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 and an extra four PCIe 4.0 lanes.
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Cyber Monday SSD Deal: Samsung 990 Pro (2TB)
The Samsung 990 Pro is the overall fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD you can get, delivering sequential speeds of up to 7,450 MBps (reads) and 6,900 MBps (writes). It's also incredibly power efficient. The only way to get a better drive than this is to go with one that's PCIe 5.0, and those are way more expensive for minimal real-world gain.
Samsung 990 Pro (2TB) SSD: now $119 at Best Buy (was $159)
The fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD you can get, the Samsung 990 Pro offers sequential read and write speeds of 7,450 and 6,900 MB/s, respectively, along with 1.4 and 1.55 million IOPS. See our Samsung 990 Pro Review for more details.
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Cyber Monday Motherboard Deal: MSI PRO Z790-S WiFi
To go with our Intel Core i5-13600KF CPU, we need an Intel Z690 or Z790 motherboard. We could cheap out and get a different chipset, but the Z-series chipsets allow for overclocking, which we want.
We're going with MSI's Pro Z790-S WiFi here, because it's the cheapest we've seen that has the key features we need: support for speedy DDR5 memory and built-in Wi-Fi 6E.
MSI Pro Z790-S WiFi: now $158 at Newegg (was $189)
This Z790 motherboard features built-in Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, an enhanced power design for overclocking, 2.5G LAN and support for DDR5 RAM.
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Cyber Monday RAM Deal: TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5
We're not being too picky with our RAM choice here. You can definitely spend more to get RAM that's fancier, has RGB or perhaps a little more speed. However, TeamGroup makes solid RAM and $79 for 32GB of DDR5 6000 speed is a great price.
TeamGroup T-Force Vulcan 32GB (2 x 16GB) RAM DDR5 6000: now $79 at Newegg (was $89)
This 32GB kit features two 16GB DIMMs designed to run at DDR5 6000 speed.
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Cyber Monday Case Deal: Phanteks Eclipse G360A
We reviewed the Phanteks Eclipse G360A back in 2022 and lauded this affordable caee for its great air flow and included set ofthree RGB cas fans. It also has plenty of room for our ATX-sized motherboard and 360mm AIO cooler.
Phanteks Eclipse G360A Mesh Mid-Tower: now $66 at Newegg with rebate (was $99)
Grab a small discount on this airflow-inspired mesh PC case from Phanteks. The Eclipse G360A offers an ultra-fine mesh front panel to help airflow but also to keep as much dust out of the inside as possible. With a glass side panel and three included RGB Fans and an RGB light strip, plus 360 radiator cooling support in front or the top of the case, this is an ideal budget case for a gaming PC with flair.
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Cyber Monday Power Supply Deal: Corsair CX-M CX650M
Our system has modest power needs and so we can get away with a 650W power supply. Corsair's CX-M series is very reputable and has modular cabling. At $64 today, this is a great price.
If you want more future-proofing and better efficiency, I recommend spending $99 for the Corsair RM750 which is fully modular and can output 750 watts.
Corsair CX-M CX650M Power Supply: now $64 at Newegg (was $79)
This ATX power supply is semi-modular and 80 Plus Bronze certified.
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Cyber Monday Cooler Deal: DeepCool LS720 SE
For better or worse, our Core i5-13600KF CPU doesn't come with a cooler. That's probably for the best, because this is an unlocked, overclockable chip so we'd want something better than the kind of air cooler that comes in the box with many other processors.
We're going with DeepCool's LS720 SE, a 360mm AIO cooler with RGB fans that's just $87 for Cyber Monday. You can save another $13 if you buy it in white, but our case is black so we're trying to match.
DeepCool LS720 SE: now $87 at Amazon (was $109)
This 360mm AIO features three ARGB fans and a dual-chamber pump that's capable of dissipating up to 300W of TDP.
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Putting all these parts together will not give you the same performance as a PC with an RTX 4090 inside, but it will allow you to play games at 2K really well and solidly at 4K with ray tracing off. Considering the price of higher-end cards right now, this is a whole lot of gaming for a surprisingly small amount of money.
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Avram Piltch is Managing Editor: Special Projects. When he's not playing with the latest gadgets at work or putting on VR helmets at trade shows, you'll find him rooting his phone, taking apart his PC, or coding plugins. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram developed many real-world benchmarks, including our laptop battery test.
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Order 66 I've said it before, and I'll say it again, instead of the 4070, you could go for the 7800xt which has 4GB more VRAM that will last a lot longer than the 12GB of the 4070. You need at least 16GB of VRAM for 4k high in most modern games. And I know the chart mentions RT and the fact that the 7800xt isn't the best at RT, but RT is still mostly a gimmick except for maybe a few games. The 40 series (except for the 4090) has been a terrible value.Reply -
Amdlova Go on ebay look for the 13500t just 178us grab a cheap B board and some ddr4... unlock the power to 100w and put the ddr4 at 3600 or 3800...Reply