AMD, Amazon definitely want you to upgrade to 16 cores as Ryzen 5950X drops even harder

Update: The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X has dropped down by another $14 or an additional ~4%. The buying link is towards the end of the article below.

At CES 2024 earlier this month, both AMD and Intel unveiled new CPUs. While Team Red announced its Ryzen 8000 G-series APUs for which are the first desktop processors on AM5, that are also ready for the next-gen AI-focused Windows, Intel launched the rest of its 14th Gen desktop CPU lineup and also unveiled what it feels is the fastest mobile gaming processor, one that is faster than AMD's X3D chip too.

While these are new toys for enthusiasts to get excited over, it's the older gen stuff that is what you should be looking at if you are after value for money. AMD is now selling its flagship socket AM4 processor, the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X for under $380 (buying link below).

While AMD's 5800X3D is a really popular part among AM4 upgrade seekers, often buyers will overlook the 12-core 5900X and the 16-core 5950X. These SKUs make much more sense as you are getting 50% and 100% more cores compared to the 5800X3D's eight cores. The 5800X3D only makes sense if all you'll ever do is game.

One thing you do need to keep in mind is that the 5950X, being a 16-core monster, requires a lot of power, and hence, the motherboard power delivery system, the VRM (voltage regulator module), must be fairly robust. So it's best advised you don't upgrade to this if you are running a cheaper AM4 board (anything that's currently not under $130 should be fine).

You also need to get a cooler, ideally a 360mm AIO, or if you have a case designed for amazing air flow, then perhaps a dual tower air-cooler would do too. Get the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X at the link below:

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core, 32-thread unlocked desktop processor: ~~$379~~ $364.99 (Amazon US)

If this doesn't interest you, you can also browse through Amazon US, or Amazon UK to see if you find some great deals that we missed. You can also go visit the Deals section of our articles to see if there's something you fancy.

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