Hardware Deal of The Week: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
Trying to build a PC today can be very tough due to the global RAM shortage, as prices remain astronomically high. Luckily, there are still good deals on the most significant hardware in the computer, the processor. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is currently a strong value, primarily because it offers identical performance to the new 9000-series chips at a much lower price. With this last-gen chip, retail prices have dropped significantly from its original $549 MSRP to as low as $240-$320.
The Value Specs and Features
Regarding the Price-to-Performance Ratio, in many benchmarks, the newer Ryzen 9 9900X is only about 1.4% to 6% faster in gaming and general tasks, yet it often costs $100 or more extra. Interestingly, the 7900X has a much higher base clock of 4.7 GHz compared to the 9900X's 4.4 GHz, which helps maintain competitive gaming performance and support resource-intensive applications.
Because the processor uses an AM5 socket, you still get access to modern motherboard features like DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0, making it a "future-proof" budget choice without paying the price for the latest hardware.
Final Thoughts
If your primary focus is price-to-performance, the clear choice is the Ryzen 9 7900X. While the newer 9900X is more power-efficient and runs cooler (120W vs 170W), the 40% price savings on the 7900X can be better spent on a top-tier GPU or RAM. Right now, this processor retails for $321.79 on Amazon.
