AMD’s latest processor line, the Ryzen 9000 (codenamed Granite Ridge) series, has just hit an all-time low. We’ve seen discounts on both Amazon and Newegg for the Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and the Ryzen 5 9600X, meaning now is the best time to shop for a new AM5 processor if you’re looking to upgrade your PC unless you’re waiting for the Ryzen 7 9800X3, which will come out next week).
Team Red instituted an early holiday promo that started on October 20. The promo gave a $50 discount on the Ryzen 9 9950X and $30 off for the rest of the 9000 series chips. The Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 7 9700X chips received an additional price cut from retailers, especially with the former getting $116.45 off its initial price—massive savings for more RAM and storage or maybe even buying a higher-tier GPU.
The Ryzen 9000 Series launched in August 2024 with great anticipation. However, gamers were disappointed with the initial benchmarks from reviewers, especially as their results did not reflect AMD’s claims. Fortunately, AMD released a patch for Windows 11 that allowed the chips to perform better.
Aside from these specifications, the new AM5 chips all support PCIe 5.0, allowing you to enjoy the fastest data transfer rates on SSDs and GPUs. They also natively support DD5-5600 memory with a maximum capacity of 192GB. And, if you want to push these chips as fast as possible, you can manually overclock them with their unlocked multipliers.
| Processor | Cores | Threads | Base Clock (GHz) | Boost Clock (GHz) | L3 Cache (MB) | TDP (W) |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9950X | 16 | 32 | 4.3 | 5.7 | 64 | 170 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | 12 | 24 | 4.4 | 5.6 | 64 | 120 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 9700X | 8 | 16 | 3.8 | 5.5 | 32 | 65 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 9600X | 6 | 12 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 32 | 65 |
With all these discounts, now is an excellent time to get a new Ryzen 9000 processor if Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors haven't convinced you. Unlike the LGA1851 socket, rumored to only support Arrow Lake, AMD has committed to the AM5 socket until 2027. Therefore, investing in an AM5 motherboard allows you to upgrade to Red Team's future processors.
Regarding pricing, budget A620 motherboards start at $69. Meanwhile, X870 motherboards can range between $199 and $449. However, if you're in the market for the premium X870E chipset, the corresponding motherboards will set you back between $319 and $699.
