Black Friday is always the best time to save on PC upgrade parts, and this year there are many CPUs on sale. Although I’ve been on AMD’s Team Red for years, I know that many gamers prefer Intel, whether it’s because of an easier upgrade path from an existing PC or because they’re often available at a steep discount.
Speaking of discounts, Black Friday prices on Core i5, i7, and i9 chips are absolutely worth checking out. I focused on 12th Gen chips as they’re available at the best prices, and gaming performance hasn’t changed that much despite newer chips launched in the last couple of years. However, 14th Gen CPUs are also available at a discount.
The Core i5-12600K is currently down to $150 at Newegg, with the Core i7-12700K only costing a bit more at $188. For maximum performance, the Core i9-12900K is down to $255.
🔥The hottest Black Friday deals🔥
🍁More great Black Friday deals🦃
- Best Buy: Big savings on video games, accessories, and more
- Walmart: Early savings on practically everything
- Target: Live deals on a huge range of products
- Dell: Top deals on laptops, gaming PCs, accessories, and more
- HP: Save big on laptops, desktops, accessories, and more
- Lenovo: Doorbuster deals on all Lenovo PCs, monitors, accessories, and more
- Newegg: Save on PC gaming accessories, components, and more
- Razer: Take advantage of free shipping for a limited time
- Samsung: Holiday deals on laptops, TVs, phones, and more are live
- Amazon: Constantly rotating sales on everything you can imagine
Record discount prices on Intel chips might lure you away from AMD
In my 8 years of covering deals for Windows Central, Black Friday is almost always the time to save the most on PC upgrade parts, including processors (CPU). Even though we’re still a couple of days away from Friday, the major deals have by all means arrived.
This year, AMD is hogging a lot of the spotlight due to the interest surrounding the Ryzen 7800X3D and 9800X3D. However, these CPUs aren’t discounted (or, in the case of the latter chip, in stock at all), which has a lot of gamers searching for an alternate upgrade route. I wrote a separate article covering some top AMD Ryzen alternative discounts to the 7800X3D, which I urge any fans of Team Red to investigate.
Turning back to the competition, Intel’s 12th Gen Core desktop CPUs remain relevant today despite the launch of newer chips, as gaming performance hasn’t changed a whole lot over the last couple of years. I’ve been helping some friends assemble discounted PC components over the past couple of weeks, and I’m going to have to change some recommendations based on these prices I just spotted.
The Core i5-12600K is down to the lowest price it’s ever been in history at $149.99; just be sure to use code BFEDY2A35 at checkout at Newegg. It’s the right choice if you’re looking to spend some money elsewhere in your PC, as it’ll deliver strong gaming performance without draining your wallet. Want a newer chip? The Core i5-14600K is also down to a record low at $215.
The mid-range Core i7-12700K continues breaking records with a new low price of $187 at Amazon. It adds more cores and threads for better multitasking, and it’ll pair well with more powerful GPUs. The newer Core i7-14700K hasn’t hit a record low anywhere yet, but it is only $10 more than the previous low in July 2024. You can find it for just $340 at Best Buy.
Last but most powerful is the Intel Core i9-12900K. Following the trend, it’s down to the lowest price I’ve ever seen at $254.99 when you use code BFEDY2A34 at Newegg at checkout. It might be overkill for a lot of users, but those who want the best multitasking performance and overall gaming performance out of the bunch will likely spend more. The newer Intel Core i9-14900K is also enjoying a massive discount, down to $424.99 at Newegg.
All of Intel’s 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen desktop CPUs use the same LGA1700 socket and support DDR4/DDR5 RAM, so even if you opt for an older chip now with the plan to upgrade in the future, you won’t have to replace the motherboard or memory.
Of course, Intel’s latest Core Ultra desktop chips, including the Core Ultra 9 285K we reviewed, changed to a new socket, but at the moment I’m not really recommending them for gaming. Intel was clearly focused on productivity performance with the Core Ultra chips, and gaming performance hasn’t really changed at all compared to 14th Gen hardware.
Are there any good Black Friday deals on AMD CPUs?
AMD and Intel are vying for most affordable CPU options this Black Friday, and it’s proving to be a great time to buy new parts for your PC.
More early Black Friday deals
Unfortunately, two of the most coveted AMD gaming CPUs are not on sale. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is available at the usual price of about $459, while the more recent Ryzen 7 9800X3D is sold out everywhere just a few weeks after its launch.
I’m recommending that most people who want to stick with AMD check out awesome deals on the Ryzen 5 7600X and Ryzen 9 7900X. The former is down to $194.99 at Newegg, and you get a free 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD from Team Group to sweeten the deal. Just be sure you use code BFEDY2A33 at checkout for the full discount.
The Ryzen 9 7900X has dropped to $326.99 at Newegg when you use code BFDDY2A84 at checkout. The Ryzen 5 7600X will suit most PC gaming needs, but this Ryzen 9 can offer much better productivity performance thanks to the extra cores.
