You know things are tough in the CPU world when the best Intel and AMD chips deals for Amazon's Prime Day are for previous-gen chips, but that's the situation this year. We spotted dueling deals for previous-gen eight-core Intel and AMD chips, all of which have vied for spots on our Best CPUs list in the past. That sets up a Prime Day battle between the $259 Core i7-10700K (opens in new tab) ($239 for the graphics-less 10700KF (opens in new tab)) and the $279 Ryzen 7 3700X (opens in new tab).
We typically don't recommend buying previous-gen chips, but all three of these chips are available at (or near) all-time low pricing while we're in the unforgiving grip of a silicon shortage. That makes them solid alternatives if you're looking to upgrade a current system, or even build out a new platform with previous-gen gear.
For comparison, both the current-gen eight-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and the eight-core Intel Core i7-11700K weigh in at $399 when you can find them in stock near MSRP, meaning that the three chips in today's Amazon Prime Day deal are ~$150 cheaper for the same number of cores. That means you'll pay roughly $34 per core for the previous-gen chips while the more modern chips weigh in at $50 per core.
Naturally, the previous-gen eight-core chips aren't as fast as the newer models, but you can reference our CPU Benchmark hierarchy for a crystal-clear view of the performance deltas between the newer and older chips. Here's a snippet of how that breaks down for each chip, with the scores in each category being relative to the fastest chip on the market in each category (higher is better):
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Price | Gaming 1080p / 1440p | Multi-Threaded Performance | Single-Threaded Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Core i7-10700K/F | $259 / $239 | 86% / 90% | 28% | 82% |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | $279 | 77% / 81% | 27% | 76% |
| Core i7-11700K/F | $399 / $389 | 92% / 95% | 34% | 94% |
| Ryzen 7 5800X | $399 | 97% / 97% | 33% | 93% |
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(opens in new tab)Overall, the Core i7-10700K looks to be the better pick based purely on performance alone. However, remember, this chip doesn't come with a bundled cooler, whereas the Ryzen 7 3700X does. Additionally, the Ryzen 7 3700X supports PCIe 4.0 while the 10700K uses the slower PCIe 3.0 spec.
For more Prime Day savings, check out our Prime Day live blog and lists of the best Prime Day gaming PC and laptop deals, best Prime Day SSD deals, best Prime Day Monitor Deals, Best Prime Day Dell Gaming deals and the best Prime Day hardware deals overall. Our sister site, TechRadar, has a broader list of Amazon Prime Day deals that includes product categories we don't typically cover, such as smart home devices, TVs and phones.
