Intel's midrange Core Ultra 5 245K is down to its lowest price ever at just $179 on Amazon — save up to 42% on a solid gaming CPU with 14 cores and PCIe 5.0 support
Better value than pretty much anything else.
The entire PC hardware industry is in shambles right now due to the AI boom. The cost of components has skyrocketed over the past year, making it difficult to assemble a rig today. Some parts, however, have stayed relatively unaffected, including processors. We've found a great deal on Intel's prior-gen Core Ultra 5 245K CPU — it's on sale for just $179.99 on Amazon right now, down 42% from its original MSRP of $310.
All-time low price
The Intel Core Ultra 7 245K is at all-time low pricing. This 14-core processor has 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores with 14 threads. The boost clocks of 5.2 GHz for the P-cores and 4.6 GHz for the E-cores enable this processor to perform well in gaming and multithreaded applications.
The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K was succeeded by the excellent Core Ultra 5 250K Plus earlier this year as part of the Arrow Lake refresh. While that chip is genuinely fantastic, the 245K is no slouch either, especially at this new discounted rate. Its value proposition skyrockets if you get it for just $179, since it's a 14-core processor with 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores built on the same architecture and node as the Arrow Lake refresh lineup.
In games, it performs better than AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which was just relaunched as a special edition for $349. Even at its original $310-320 launch price, the 245K had the third-best FPS-to-dollar ratio in our testing; at $179, it's basically a no-brainer. In productivity tasks, it can even beat AMD's flagship AM5-based X3D chips, since it posted better geomean numbers than the 5800X3D, 7800X3D, and the 9800X3D in multi-threaded performance.
This CPU is compatible with DDR5 RAM — more specifically, you can install up to 256GB of DDR5-6400 via 2 memory channels. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245K is compatible with both PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 devices. The integrated graphics have doubled in capability compared to the 14th Gen Raptor Lake chips, though they're still no match for a dedicated GPU, of course.
Despite not being the flashiest offering on the Blue Team's ledger right now, the revised pricing makes it one of the best, nonetheless. At just $179 on Amazon, no other CPU will give you more performance across the board than the Core Ultra 5 245K. Just make sure to find reasonably priced DDR5 memory, as motherboards are already enjoying lower prices.
If you're looking for more savings, check out our Best PC Hardware deals for a range of products, or dive deeper into our specialized SSD and Storage Deals, Hard Drive Deals, Gaming Monitor Deals, Graphics Card Deals, gaming chair, or CPU Deals pages.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.