A modder by the name of MAAN has reportedly gotten Nvidia DLSS 5 working in a browser window with an interactive demo, according to a report by VideoCardz. The developer said the technique also works on macOS. The demo is hosted on Cloudflare Workers with some default scenes, starting with "Cowboy Gramps," with a variety of adjustable settings and a comparison view.

DLSS 5 is Nvidia's neural rendering feature used to improve graphical quality using AI. Nvidia launched it earlier this month for NBA 2K27, the first game with official support for the technology. DLSS 5 is officially RTX 50-series only, aside from GeForce NOW. The DLSS 5 DLL file has since been pushed onto RTX 40- and RTX 30-series, and even AMD hardware. There is also a mod to unlock it for RTX 20-series hardware.

According to MAAN, the demo uses model weights extracted from a leaked DLSS 5 library file. They did not know whether this file differs from the official one. Normally, Nvidia offers DLSS through its NGX interface or the Streamline SDK on DirectX and Vulkan. The documentation does not list WebGL or WebGPU, the outlet noted. MAAN plans to publish the source code on GitHub this weekend.

In our quick test of the demo on an RTX 40-series desktop, the 3D viewer was smooth to rotate, but each DLSS 5 render took a second or two and was notably slow in live mode.

MAAN said that the demo is DLSS 5's neural network reimplemented using WebGPU compute shaders. The weights are around 147MB, with a JavaScript runtime of around 1MB compressed. WebGPU has no trouble running on macOS, so the only surprise here is the DLSS part. Normally this needs an RTX GPU and Nvidia's driver, but a WebGPU implementation would not inherently require Nvidia hardware.

The outlet suggested the approach could suit architecture, 3D model previews, and other work where real-time speed matters less. MAAN's X post said users "can try it with your own models" and the demo's page accepts common 3D formats by file or drag-and-drop. Due to the technology's current restrictions, a browser demo is a way for more people to see the effect on a model without owning the game or appropriate hardware. Nvidia has said official RTX 40-series support is coming.

AI companies don't have a great track record in areas like copyright or user privacy — unless they're the ones on the short end of the stick, that is — but it's generally known that the chat logs from platforms like ChatGPT are used for improving models. The mechanism as to how this happens was still a mystery until today. 404 Media just published a report about OpenAI's process of human review for chat transcripts, explaining how the review process works, and how it involves other humans sometimes reading private information.

The rating project's name at OpenAI is Project Lily. The publication got information on the project's instruction guides, Slack channels, real ChatGPT conversations, and, of course, the rating system to classify conversations. The operators are called "prompt reviewers," and their job is fairly simple: look at anonymized real-world chats, and judge the quality of ChatGPT's responses to assess whether they actually answer the question, and that the text doesn't overuse "AI-speak," patronizing tones, emojis, or sycophancy, among other parameters. Anthropomorphizing and stating "personal" experiences are both off the table, meaning that while it's OK for ChatGPT to say "I found some information," it's not OK for it to say "as a chef, I like to..." or "I know what that's like."

The work is "very rote," according to a reviewer, but at reportedly over $50 an hour, it's a high rate for what looks like reasonably simple work. The reviewer also said that their guidelines keep changing and are often self-contradictory, a feeling most software developers should easily identify with.

The person doesn't think that most users are aware their chats are being read by others, though, something that's particularly troubling when many use ChatGPT as an impromptu friend or therapist and put deep secrets in words for the bot to read.

While the chats allegedly go through an anonymization pass and reviewers don't see usernames, OpenAI admitted to 404 Media that the filtering may let some personal data through, especially in shorter chats. The site notes that in many conversations, the user asks ChatGPT to keep the contents secret, as well. The version of the chat handed to reviewers also reportedly includes a "user memories summary," containing a summary of the users' questions and interests, context, and potentially even location.

Crucially, Project Lily does not grade the chats' actual factual accuracy other than flagging obvious mistakes, implying that there's likely at least one more team (or several) doing separate evaluations. Likewise, this reviewing is separate from manual safety checks that ascertain if someone might be looking to hurt someone else (or, presumably, themselves).

The existence of the project also indicates that contrary to these image AI companies try to cultivate, the models don't improve just with technological advancement and better training sets — it appears you still need more than a few competent humans in the mix.

By now you may be wondering about the "allow us to use your chats to improve our product" (paraphrased) setting present in most consumer-facing chat bots. That setting is turned on by default in every bot we can think of, even with many paid plans. In ChatGPT's case, it does default to off in Enterprise, Business, and Educational customers.

That toggle switch does not work retroactively, though, so any chats already in ChatGPT's database will remain there unless the user requests deletion. Also, said deletion is also not retroactive, meaning that deleted chats may have already been hoovered and anonymized, and possibly reside in a dataset somewhere.

Although OpenAI initially had no answer to 404 Media's inquiry on whether users were explicitly informed that their chats could be read by humans, the company eventually offered a link to one of its FAQ pages that discusses human review for the purpose of model improvement. We verified ourselves that said notice is at least two years old, and likely older. After the publication of the exposé, the firm changed its help page explaining how people can opt out of data collection, but there's no mention of human operators in that text.

This type of data collection and review is a running theme across most providers. Google Gemini clearly states that "humans may review some saved chats" in its Privacy Hub. Anthropic's stance is similar, with a page dedicated to this topic. Perplexity's stance, meanwhile, is unclear, as its Privacy Notice doesn't confirm or deny human access to chat logs.

AI development might not be the wild west it was when ChatGPT burst onto the scene a few years ago, but it's still very much a frontier, with no clear boundaries and few yardsticks. But for AI developers on the frontier, they're pulling hard towards dual goals of ever greater intelligence and ever cheaper per-token pricing, and it's leading to a real back-and-forth of who's truly ahead, with some winners only holding the top spot for a few hours.

Although Anthropic's Claude Fable and Opus models have been consistently competitive at the very top of the intelligence charts, they're also some of the most costly to use. For more general use, some are paying closer attention to the "Pareto Frontier," where peak intelligence and minimal cost reach the pinnacle, and there the competition is fierce and ever-changing.

Hot off the screeching reversal of companies' tokenmaxing plans earlier this year, this increased focus on getting the cost of AI down has left us running headfirst into Jevons paradox again, too. As token costs for high-intelligence models have come down, token usage has exploded over 25 times in the past year, and doubled in the past month alone.

People may not want to spend more on AI, but they appear to be using a lot more of it when they can afford to.

Long live the King(s)

Despite its radical and rapid ascension, the big winners in the AI industry haven't changed much since its inception. It may have had a few penny drop, "Deepseek moments," where there's been a frenzied scramble by everyone to get ahead of some new threat, but by and large OpenAI and Anthropic have been scuffling at the top of the intelligence pile, Google and Meta have been bouncing around the more efficient and cost-effective middle, and xAI's Grok has been there in the background, grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons.

That's largely still the state of play in September 2026. Although benchmarks are gamed during model design and real-world use is more representative of actual real-world use, Anthropic's best are still considered by most to be the smartest. Fable 5.1, Fable 5, and Claude Opus all rank in the top four of ArtificialAnalysis' Intelligence Index test, as does OpenRouters and BenchLM even have them take all the podium spots.

While ahead, though, Anthropic's models don't hold an enormous lead. Fable 5.1 might score a 66 on ArtificialAnalysis' benchmark, but OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol (max) manages a 61. Grok 4.6 (high) and Kimi K3 (max) are capable of scores above 60, and the new Meta Muse Spark 1.3 (max) can hit 62 - though we don't have cost comparison pricing for it yet.

The same is true across other benchmarks from other companies.

But where the top models nudge each other back and forth with light tweaks and slight bumps in capability, there's much greater distinction in the mid-range. And not on intelligence, but on price.

Even With Cost Cuts, Frontier Models are Very Expensive

Major AI developers know they have a pricing problem. Following the jump to per-token pricing earlier this year, budgets were blown, and even the AI CEOs started talking publicly about making AI more affordable. How that will help them ever reach profitability remains to be seen, but the writing is absolutely on the wall.

And even then, the top AI models are absurdly expensive compared to the models on the Pareto frontier.

Claude Fable 5.1 comes with a 75% cut in the cost of its cache write pricing, and Artificial Analysis still clocked it at $3.69 per task on its Intelligence Index test. That comes from much more expensive answers and reasoning, because while Fable 5.0 has more expensive cache write costs, it's $3.14 per benchmark task. But that's 50% more expensive than Claude Opus 5 on the same task, which is double again the cost of GPT 5.6 Sol.

Then costs really start to crater, especially when you consider the intelligence of the more affordable models.

Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) is a powerful model, able to score a 59 on the Intelligence Index test. But it costs a mere $0.58 per task on the Index test - less than 1/6th the price of Claude Fable 5.1, with just a 10% drop in intelligence scoring. OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol (high) costs $0.43, with an intelligence score of 57.

Chinese competition is right there in the mix, too. The daunting Kimi K3 (max) can manage a 60 on the intelligence benchmark, with a per-task cost of $0.84, while its Kimi K3 (low) variant offers a 48 score on intelligence at just $0.24 per task. Deepseek V4 Pro is arguably one of the most impressive, with a 53 and $0.27, respectively.

At the time of writing, Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 (xhigh) holds the Pareto frontier title, with a score of 61 and a per-task cost of just $0.55. It stole that top spot from Google's Gemini 3.8 Flash, which wore the crown for just 3.5 hours.

Get in, we're going token shopping

The perspective and approach of the business community to AI use has been equally terrifying and fascinating. While we've all felt the fear of AI invalidating skills we've spent years acquiring, business leaders have swung massively between demanding AI use at a grand scale and then quickly following it up with, "oh god, no, not that much."

Uber famously blew through its annual AI budget in just a few months, and tokenmaxxing leaderboards saw one unnamed company eat through half a billion dollars worth of tokens in just a few weeks. But while everyone is certainly taking costs a lot more seriously than they once were, that's not slowing AI usage. Indeed, as more effective intelligence has become more affordable, token usage is exploding.

One of OpenRouter's engineers published a chart showing that overall paid token use had increased 25 times in the past year, and doubled over the past month alone.

This increase appears to be coming from some of those middle-of-the-pack, affordable intelligence models. According to OpenRouter's LLM rankings, the most used model for the past month was OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Luna, with close to 12 trillion tokens. With its intelligence score of 52 and a per-task cost of just $0.05, it's right on the Pareto line at the cheapest end of the spectrum.

Right behind it, though, is Chinese developer Z-Ai with its GLM 5.3 Flash. It's at 11.4 trillion tokens in the past month, a more than 1,000% increase month to month. Its intelligence-to-price ratio is 57 to $0.09. Deepseek v4 Flash is right there with it, and other Chinese, intelligent-enough but very-affordable models round out the pack.

In comparison, the major, expensive models are barely being used at all. Fable 5's monthly use is in the low billions of output tokens, and even OpenAI, with its massive user base, is only cracking 1.8T monthly tokens with its 5.6 Sol.

Jevons strikes again

Besides the bonkers business model for many of those involved, there are intriguing patterns emerging in AI usage. People can find ways to use lots of tokens, but they are only willing to pay so much for them. They want intelligence at as low a price as possible, and there is a crossover point where one becomes more important than the other.

While cynics argue that benchmarks are gamed, and boosters are still heralding the coming of their AI savior, the actual economics of the industry paint a much clearer picture. Intelligence has a price, but it's much lower than some of the frontier model developers are able to build it for. As models become ever more efficient and the hardware for inference grows ever more powerful, we may reach a point where what large language models can do effectively is affordable enough that anyone can use it as much as they want.

What that means for the major companies who spent hundreds of billions of dollars to get us to that point, very much remains to be seen.

Maxsun isn't that well-known in the U.S, but the China-based company has been around since 2002, and a player in the motherboard game (as well as things like graphics cards and storage) overseas for decades. In that time, it has released some unique motherboard designs, such as the Intel-based iCraft B760M Cross, which features its anime-based brand mascot, Aijia, on the box, with pink and light blue highlights on the white PCB. It was a cool board, but like many of the company's previous samples, it was not without shortcomings.

Today we're testing Maxsun's Terminator B850M Pro II, a budget Micro ATX AM5 board that sports a black aesthetic and is generally well-equipped for a small-form-factor motherboard. You get support for the latest flagship-class processors like the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 (as well as future AM5 processors), Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5 GbE networking, three M.2 sockets (two PCIe 5.0 x4) and two SATA ports for storage, and room for expansion with two full-length PCIe slots. I would like to see faster USB ports (the fastest is only 10 Gbps) and perhaps a better audio codec, but this board is otherwise comparable to similarly priced B850M options.

The performance portion of our testing went smoothly, but results were average to below average, depending on the test. The Terminator B850M Pro II was competent at gaming and some of the single/lightly threaded tests, mixing in with most other boards, but was slower in heavily multi-threaded tests with our Ryzen 9 9900X.

Below, we’ll examine the B850M Pro II’s performance and other features, although as you have probably guessed from the score above, it won't make it to our list of the best motherboards. But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from the Maxsun website:

Specifications of the B850M Pro II

Inside the Box

Inside the box along with the motherboard, the only accessories included are the Wi-Fi antennas, two SATA cables, and a warranty card. That’s it. No stickers, extra thermal pads, nada. It’s paltry by any standard, but it’s still enough to get your SATA-based drives connected and your new PC online.

Design and Features of the B850M Pro II

The B850M Pro II uses an 8-layer matte-black PCB, with large heatsinks covering the VRMs, M.2 sockets, and chipset. The black motif is broken up by two crimson lines running diagonally across the heatsinks. You will not find integrated RGB lighting, but can add it using the existing ARGB headers. It’s not an exciting Micro ATX board vying for attention, but does blend in with any black or dark build theme.

Starting our tour in the top-left corner, we see the two 8-pin EPS connectors (one required between the two separate VRM heatsinks. On the left, we get a better look at the Terminator branding on top of the large heatsink. Nothing extraordinary here.

Moving past the socket area to the right, the next feature we encounter is the four DRAM slots, with the locking mechanism located on top. Maxsun lists support up to DDR5-8000, which is a bit lower than most B850 (and X870) boards, but still well past AMD’s sweet spot (6000-6400 MT/s). We couldn’t get our DDR5-8000 kit to boot, even with the APU, but it’s to be expected as those speeds are right at the limit and our sticks weren’t on the memory QVL. No worries, as our DDR5-6000 and DDR5-7200 kits worked just fine without the help of an APU and its generally superior memory controller.

In the upper-right corner, next we see the first of two 3-pin ARGB headers (the other is along the bottom edge). The Maxsun Sync 2 software controls any attached RGB lighting and gives users your typical fare of pre-programmed lighting and customization (speed, color, etc.). But that’s the only piece of software the company offers for this board.

Moving down the right edge, we run into the first two (of five) 4-pin fan headers. Since we don’t have access to the manual (one wasn't included in the box and we can't find one online), and the specifications on the web page don’t mention it, we’re not sure how much each header supports. We’ve reached out to Maxsun for clarity, but until they respond, assume they support 1A/12W each, which should be enough for multiple fans and an AIO without worry. The BIOS is the only way to control the fan headers. Sadly, Maxsun still doesn’t have a dedicated desktop application for monitoring, overclocking, or fan control. And while there are ways around it, if you want to be in the conversation with ‘the big four’ motherboard brands in the US, having Windows-based software helps.

Continuing along the edge, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector for the board power, and the front-panel USB ports. The first is a USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) header, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C connector, and a 19-pin USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header. What’s worth noting here is the lack of a 20 Gbps header. And the rear IO’s fastest port is also 10 Gbps. While 20 Gbps ports aren’t common on B850 boards, it would be nice to see at least one.

Power delivery on the B850M Pro II is on the light side, sporting a total of 15 phases, with 12 dedicated to Vcore. Power heads from the 8-pin EPS connector(s) and onto the Realtek RT3678BE PWM controller. From there, it moves to the paltry Vishay Sic654 50A DrMOS MOSFETs. The 600 Amps available is relatively low, but Maxsun lists support for up to 300W TDP, which means, in theory, you can toss in a Ryzen 9 9950X or the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2, and still be OK.

If that’s your plan for this board, make sure you have adequate case cooling, especially if you’re pushing the CPU hard for extended periods, as these VRMs will get toasty with a high-wattage processor. If you’d like to know more about VRMs and what you actually need from a motherboard, check out the Motherboard VRM thermal testing article we recently published.

On the bottom half of the board, starting on the left, is the exposed audio section, consisting of the Realtek ALC897 codec and four dedicated audio capacitors above it. The ALC897 is the most basic audio codec on consumer-class motherboards. In fairness, it is commonly used, especially in the Micro ATX form factor. That said, its direct competitors (by price point) use the improved ALC1220 or the latest-gen ALC4080 codecs. And while you’ll be hard-pressed to notice a difference without plugging in some of the best PC speakers, it’s still a difference among the comparables.

In the middle are two full-length PCIe slots, and under the plate-style heatsink are all three M.2 sockets. Starting with the two PCIe slots, the top slot with the reinforcement is your PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and is primary for graphics. It also uses a quick-release GPU latch for easy removal. Press the button to unlock and remove. Easy. The bottom slot connects via the chipset, supports PCIe 4.0 x4, and is good for expansion cards. You could use it to add faster USB Type-C ports, if needed.

In between the PCIe slots are the three M.2 sockets. The B850M Pro II gives you two PCIe 5.0 x4 (128 Gbps) M.2 sockets (up to 80mm) that source their bandwidth through the CPU, and a single PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) socket that also supports up to 80mm devices. Note that when using both PCIe 5.0 M.2 sockets, the primary graphics slot drops to PCIe 5.0 x8. Having all three M.2 sockets under the graphics card with a plate heatsink isn’t ideal, especially if you have one of those PCIe 5.0 drives.

We've also included a few images of the active ICs for the board. This Maxsun uses a mix of Realtek (PWM controller, audio) and Vishay (MOSFETs) branded ICs.

At the bottom are several headers, including front-panel audio and USB ports. A complete list of connectivity is listed below (from L to R):

• Front panel audio
• 3-pin ARGB
• 4-pin fan header
• COM port
• Debug header
• USB 2.0 header
• (2) SATA ports
• 4-pin fan header
• Front panel

The rear IO on the B850M Pro II generally has what most users need, just perhaps not the fastest or the largest number of ports. Starting on the left, we see the DisplayPort and HDMI (v1.4) video outputs. Next to that are the first two (of four, in blue) USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbps ports, your 10 Gbps Type-C port, and a convenient clear CMOS button. The tall stack of black USB ports is USB 2.0. Above the second set of Gen 2 ports is the Realtek 2.5 GbE port. Next to that is the Mediatek Wi-Fi 7, but note it only uses the 160 Hz frequency and can be slower than the fastest Wi-Fi 7 devices. Last but not least, on the right is a full 5-plug plus SPDIF audio stack.

There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, but I would like to see at least one 20 Gbps port, even on a B850-class Micro ATX motherboard.

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: Best Motherboard Deals

MORE: Best Motherboard Combo Deals

MORE: All Motherboard Content

Firmware

Maxsun has updated its BIOS from the ground up, introducing a mobile-inspired interface with larger icons, more buttons, and “card-style modules” for easier navigation. Like most modern BIOSes, it has an informative, functional, easy mode with different sections (modules) on the left, information and buttons (for enabling EXPO, ReSize Bar, EUP, and RGBs), along with other system details like fan speeds and settings, as well as boot priorities. You can also adjust the background with three included images (Sweet Aiga, Sci-Fi Mecha, and Textured Glass), which is unique.

The advanced portion of the BIOS offers plenty of options to tweak your system, but doesn’t appear to have quite as many options as other motherboards. Still, there are lots of options, including PBO, to tweak your CPU. You can also tweak your memory.

In all, the BIOS worked well and will be fine for most users, but the mobile-inspired interface isn’t quite as refined and doesn’t give you the premium vibes we see from Gigabyte, MSI, or Asus BIOSes.

Software

Maxsun Sync 2 is an application that controls RGB lighting, picking up not only the board but also our RAM and GPOU (as expected). There are 10 different lighting effects, most of which you can change (speed, color flow, etc.) to your liking. It worked well in our limited testing, controlling each item it picked up without issue.

For those looking for an application that controls fans, overclocking, and the like, you’ll need to stick with the BIOS, as Maxsun does not offer one at this time. If the company wants to compete with the ‘big four’ (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock), it needs to offer software, since the competition pretty much all has well-established monitoring and control applications.

Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS:

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)RAM - Teamgroup T-Force Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)RAM - Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (23H2 - 22631.4169)NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: Best Motherboard Deals

MORE: Best Motherboard Combo Deals

MORE: All Motherboard Content

Benchmark Results

Our standard benchmarks and power tests are performed using the CPU’s stock frequencies (including any default boost/turbo) with all power-saving features enabled. We set optimized defaults in the BIOS and the memory by enabling the XMP profile. The Windows power scheme is set to Balanced (default) for this baseline testing, so the PC idles appropriately.

Synthetic Benchmarks

Synthetics offer a valuable method for evaluating a board's performance, as identical settings are expected to yield similar results. Turbo boost wattage and advanced memory timings are areas where motherboard manufacturers can still optimize for stability or performance, though, and these settings can impact specific testing scenarios.

Starting with the synthetic benchmarks, the Terminator B850M Pro II performed average to below average in most tests. In fact, Cinebench R24 and POV multi-core scores were the lowest we’ve seen (mind you, it’s only a couple of percent slower from worst to first), which was surprising considering power use was similar to other B850 boards. Outside of that, results were average for the rest.

Timed Applications

3D Games and 3DMark

Starting with the launch of Zen 5, we’ve updated our game tests. We’re keeping the F1 racing game but have upgraded to F1 24. We also dropped Far Cry 6 in favor of an even more popular and good-looking game in Cyberpunk 2077. We run both games at 1920x1080 resolution using the Ultra preset (details listed above). Cyberpunk 2077 uses DLSS, while we left F1 24 to native resolution scaling.

The goal with these settings is to determine if there are differences in performance at the most commonly used (and CPU/system-bound) resolution with settings most people use or strive for (Ultra). We expect the difference between boards in these tests to be minor, with most falling within the margin of error. We’ve also added a minimum FPS setting, which can affect your gameplay and immersion.

In our 3DMark and game tests, the B850M Pro II was dead-on average in the synthetics and slightly above average in both games. While the Maxsun didn’t have a great showing in the rendering, encoding, and other tests, it proved to be a competent gamer.

Overclocking

Over the past few CPU generations, overclocking headroom has been shrinking on both sides of the fence, while the out-of-the-box potential has increased. For overclockers, this means there’s less fun to have. For the average consumer, you’re getting the most out of the processor without manual tweaking. Today’s motherboards are more robust than ever, and they easily support power-hungry flagship-class processors, so we know the hardware can handle them. There are multiple ways to extract even more performance from these processors: enabling a canned PBO setting, manually tweaking the PBO settings, or just going for an all-core overclock. Results will vary and depend on the cooling as well. In other words, your mileage may vary. Considering all the above, we will not be overclocking the CPU. However, we will try out our different memory kits to ensure they meet the specifications.

For memory testing, we start with our fastest non-clock driver kit: Klevv 32GB (2x16) DDR5-8000. Per usual on this platform, it booted to Windows but wouldn’t pass a stress test with our 9900X. The Team Group DDR5-7200 kit worked without issue. Those speeds are well past the ‘sweet spot’ for the AMD platform, and with today’s RAM prices, we doubt many people are looking at these higher speeds anyway.

Dropping in the Ryzen 5 8600G APU, which typically unlocks the ability to run our DDR5-8000 kit, didn’t this time around. We couldn’t get the system to boot with this RAM kit, no matter what we tried. But, between the 8000 MT/s listed spec and our kit not being on Maxsun's QVL, it was an expected result, and nothing to hold against it as it’s well past the sweet spot.

Power Consumption / VRM Temperatures

We used AIDA64’s System Stability Test with Stress CPU, FPU, cache, and Memory enabled for power testing, using the processor's peak power consumption value. The wattage reading is obtained from the wall using a Kill-A-Watt meter, which captures the entire PC (excluding the monitor). The only variable that changes is the motherboard; all other parts remain the same. Please note that we have moved to using only the stock power-use/VRM temperature charts, as this section aims to ensure that the power delivery can handle flagship-class processors.

Stress testing this board with our DDR5-7200 kit showed it to be less power-hungry than most competitors. At idle, it sat around 89W and slightly higher than average, peaking at 245W, one of the lower results under load. This averages out to 167W, slightly better than the average B850/X870/X870E-based boards.

VRM temperatures were good during our testing, peaking at 50 degrees Celsius on our sensor and 55 degrees on the hottest internal sensor. For 50A MOSFETs pushing 160W loads for this test, that’s a solid result. You can use a higher-wattage processor and possibly overclock, but make sure you have good airflow to keep the budget VRMs running cool.

Bottom Line

The Maxsun Terminator B850M Pro II proved to be a competent budget-class AM5 motherboard, but it doesn’t do enough to stand out. Gaming performance was as expected, but other performance was a bit lackluster with default settings. It offers a solid set of features, including Wi-Fi 7 (though limited to 160Hz), three M.2 sockets (two PCIe 5.0), and support for the latest Ryzen 9 processors. The BIOS is functional and easy to navigate. Still, the lack of Windows-based software for monitoring, fan control, and overclocking is a notable omission, since competing motherboards already have well-established software ecosystems.

For me, the biggest question about this board's market viability is price. Maxsun stated the MSRP is $199.99, but is found on Alibaba for $243.76 and Amazon for $229.00. At those prices, it’s not worth it when the competition is all currently (at the time of this writing) priced below $199. Hardware-wise, MSI’s MAG B850M Mortar Wifi ($199.99) is probably the best-equipped option and arguably one of the better-looking B850 boards. ASRock’s B850M Steel Legend ($149.99) in white is also attractive (the only one of this group with RGB lighting) and the least expensive option. Asus’ Prime B850M-A WiFi-CSM ($191.99) is also a consideration, with similar specs and still less expensive than the Maxsun. With all of these other boards available, the Maxsun is a tough sell anywhere above $200.

Terminator B850M Pro II is an option in the MicroATX B850 space, but not the best. At the currently inflated price, it won't make our best motherboards list. If you can find it for $199, it’s definitely in the conversation, especially for anyone who needs two PCIe 5.0-based M.2 sockets in a budget, small-form-factor board. Until the price comes down for us in the U.S., competing boards are the better option.

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: Best Motherboard Deals

MORE: Best Motherboard Combo Deals

MORE: All Motherboard Content

The developers of RPCS3 have announced that their PlayStation 3 emulator’s minimum system requirements have been adjusted to include a crop of even older Radeon graphics cards. This well-regarded application already supported ATI Terascale 2 GPUs from the Radeon HD 5000 and 6000 series, but now gamers still cradling Radeon HD 2000, 3000, and 4000 series can join in the fun. Some of these GPUs date back nearly 20 years. Please note that while RPCS3 is available for a range of platforms, this extended ATI architecture support is only for Linux users.

Fine wine on Terascale 2

Back in 2021, the RPCS3 devs lowered the emulator’s system requirements to embrace Radeon HD 5000 and HD 6000 (Terascale 2) series graphics cards. In the subsequent five years, the emulator has been tuned to improve performance on hardware from these generations. An example provided asserts that when using Persona 5 as a benchmark, performance in Kamoshida’s Castle went from 35 to 49 FPS between 2021 and today (on a PC system with an ATI Radeon HD 5850, AMD FX-8350 CPU, and 8GB of RAM).

Inspired Terascale 1 experiments

Success spurred the devs to investigate TeraScale 1 performance and compatibility. Some OpenGL wrangling ensued due to TeraScale 1 GPUs only reporting OpenGL 3.3 and GLSL 3.30 support, but getting these old and unloved ATI cards to work with the RPCS3 OpenGL renderer was surprisingly simple. It was done by overriding the reported OpenGL levels to 4.3 and 4.40.

Initial tests made use of a system packing an ATI Radeon HD 4890 with 1GB of VRAM – the most powerful Terascale 1 GPU ever sold. According to the RPCS3 blog, this card has a more powerful GPU than the PS3, but the emulator’s complex shader code is not optimal for older architectures like this. Nevertheless, “Simpler games work perfectly fine, with playable performance,” notes the blog, “while games that have more complex graphics are GPU bottlenecked with subpar performance.” Screenshots show Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Outrun Online Arcade with frame rates close to 60 FPS.

Moving down the stack and further back in time, GPUs like the ATI Radeon HD 3870 are “still able to render very simple games with playable performance in RPCS,” assert the devs. To achieve playability, you will want to dial in PSP-like resolutions, though. Specifically, 273p was mentioned.

What about the weakest TeraScale 1 GPUs? The ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with a measly 256MB of VRAM even performs poorly at 273p. Screenshots from RPCS3 tests show it only managing 8 FPS in Outrun Online Arcade and 13 FPS in Portal.

With RPCS3’s progress over the last half decade, these performance numbers could also improve. In fact, the blog states that “future optimization should improve performance by quite a bit on these old GPUs.”

It looks like a good time to dust off your retro PC and try a few old PS3 classics on your ATI TeraScale 1 GPU-accelerated rig. Remember this extended graphics card support requires a Linux distro with the Mesa driver r600. Then you need to launch RCPS3 with the following environment variables: MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=4.3 MESA_GLSL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=440 ./rpcs3.AppImage

Bambu Lab has finally updated its popular A1 bedslinger with an increased build volume, a few technical tweaks, and additional capabilities. The A2L has all the room of a more expensive H2 Series, but at a fraction of the cost, at $569 for a four-color combo. Its open frame design makes this primarily a machine for PLA, PETG and TPU, which happen to be the most popular filaments for its target audience: family enthusiasts.

Bambu Lab has categorized this machine as a family-friendly craft center. When combined with its gold standard AMS Lite and the H2 Series blade cutter attachment, the A2L can whip up practical prints, toys, and vinyl iron-ons for apparel. The launch coincided with Bambu’s new PLA Pure, a new non-toxic PLA formula with low VOCs, and a pastel matte finish that hides layer lines.

Its one flaw is the insane vibrations generated by the A2L at speed. Normally, larger machines will be slowed down to avoid this, but Bambu Lab decided to toss granulated vibration-absorbing pellets in the frame and throw caution out the door. This makes the machine nearly as fast as the original A1 while still printing error-free. It also makes it a bit of a table snob, as most cheap tables can not hold it. I put the A2L on an IKEA Lack coffee table, a pretty standard surface for budget-minded makers, and the AMS Lite vibrated right onto the floor after 45 minutes of printing. If the table had been any higher (like a card table or wobbly kitchen table), it would have taken the whole printer onto the floor with it. Bambu has included a “steady” printing profile that quells the shaking at the expense of speed. A “high-quality” profile also runs at a less frantic pace.

The A2L retails at $469 for the standalone printer, $569 for a combo, with an additional $69 for a cutting upgrade kit. The printer is also compatible out of the box with the AMS2 Pro ($269), which would give you the ability to dry filament without needing additional equipment. Bambu Lab has really perfected its formula for quality, speed, and ease of use, making this one of the best 3D printers we’ve seen this year.

Specifications: Bambu Lab A2L

Included in the box: Bambu Lab A2L

Our A2L unit came with an AMS Lite and an optional blade cutter/pen plotter attachment. A cardboard toolbox holds all the tools needed to assemble and maintain the printer, plus a blade for making your own scraper. There was also a small coil for running a test print (enough to make that scraper).

Assembling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L requires a small amount of assembly. First you need to attach the heatbed to the Y-carriage, then place the base into the gantry frame, which is a pretty beefy triangular unit. There’s a handful of screws to hold everything together, and a few wires to plug in. The instructions are very easy to follow.

Do apply lubricant to the Y-Axis while you have it exposed. It does not come pre-greased, and our test unit immediately requested grease after only a few prints.

The AMS unit snaps together quickly before being secured onto its stand.

Leveling the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L completely auto-levels itself during initial calibration, then can recheck the level before each print. It uses the nozzle as the probe, so it can also set the z height for you. I had no problems with the settings and no need to make adjustments.

Though calibration errors are rare, Bambu Lab has a section in its Wiki to guide you through troubleshooting advice.

Loading Filament in the Bambu Lab A2L

Like the Bambu Lab A1, the A2L can work from a single spool holder mounted to the gantry, or from four spools on the Lite AMS unit. In addition, the A2L is also out of the box compatible with the box style AMS and AMS 2 Pro.

For a single spool you must push filament through the Bowden tube to the toolhead, then tap “load filament” on the main menu. The machine will take over from there and display a checklist on the screen so you can follow along.

For the AMS Lite, simply push spools onto the motorized spindles and poke the filament into the intake. The machine will detect the filament and draw it in.

The AMS has an RFID reader, which allows it to read tags on Bambu Lab branded filament. These tags will tell the machine what type and color of filament is on each spindle. If you’re using untagged filament, or the single spool holder, you’ll need to enter this information manually.

Design of the Bambu Lab A2L

The Bambu Lab A2L is a plus sized Cartesian, or as we call them, bed slinger. The A-Series sleek white and brushed aluminum style has been copied by most of the competition, so Bambu Lab seems to be onto something.

The printer is extremely easy to use with a touch screen interface that contains guides to show you how to run the machine. It has the same build size as the H2 Series, but does not come with an option for an enclosure.

It has metal rails, linear bearings, and dual Z rods, all tucked inside a smooth frame and base that makes it look much more polished than other printers. To make up for its large size, it has a pair of hidden “granular dampers” designed to absorb vibration and stabilize the frame. You can’t see them, but you can hear them if you give the printer a bit of a shake.

The A2L has a new feature called “adaptive vibration compensation,” which uses a real-time algorithm to retune calibration as your print gets taller. This is to eliminate vibrations that can affect printers the taller – or heavier – they get.

When equipped with an AMS unit, the A2L takes up noticeably more space. Bambu Lab offered a clip that I could print myself that would attach the AMS to the X gantry, but I’m still not convinced that is the best place for it.

The extruder motor has been upgraded to a PMSM closed-loop servo to actively detect filament grinding in the gears, clogs and air printing. Combined with the new nozzle clumping detector on the purge sweep, the A2L should be able stop a lot of annoying small problems before they become huge spaghetti monsters.

One odd thing is the A2L uses the same quick swap steel nozzles as the A1 and A1 Mini. These are not the upgraded nozzles used on the H2 Series, but H-style nozzles are backward compatible with the A-Series. These nozzles have made a huge impact on the industry, with the competition scrambling to copy them as well. There’s no screws, wiring or messy thermal paste involved here.

The A2L is compatible with a cutting and plotting attachment, which is available as a separate purchase. The add-on is easy to install: simply remove the front cover and the spinner, then snap on the cutting attachment and plug a cable into the toolhead. It is advised to remove the bowden tubes for the filament, but there’s little need to do so. The hotend remains in place and is kept off by the machine.

The attachment can hold either a Bambu Lab made drag knife or any standard size pen or marker. I was able to use a normal ball point pen in mine by adding a few wraps of tape to thicken the pen body.

This is the same attachment you can get on the H2 Series and uses Bambu Suite, a companion app, to “slice” files. There is no laser add-on, since the A2L is open frame. The A2L also lacks a top down camera for positioning, so you will need to use the cutting function with the help of a phone camera equipped with Bambu Handy. This system is a bit janky, but it works, especially if you take care lining up the photos.

Bambu Lab Automatic Material System (AMS) Lite

We received the A2L Combo, which includes an AMS Lite module. The AMS Lite is made specifically for the A-Series and is not compatible with the Core XY machines. It’s not as clean looking as the boxy AMS, with four Bowden tubes stretching from each spool to the tool head. However, this simplified version is much easier to unjam should brittle filament break in the tube.

Each spool is mounted on a spring-loaded spindle, which provides the necessary retraction. Since each color has its own Bowden tube, the A2L only needs to pull the filament a few inches until it's clear of the tool head, not all the way back to the AMS Unit, which makes it a bit faster during color swaps than the original system. Each spool also gets a motor to push filament to the tool head. This new system solves the problem of cardboard spools with crushed edges, spools that are too wide or too tall, and spools that are too light.

There are notable drawbacks to using either of Bambu Lab’s AMS systems. The printer wastes an amazing amount of material when it cleans out the nozzle between colors. The waste can be reduced with tuning, but takes time and patience. The slicer will tell you exactly how much it will use before you start a print.

The second drawback is loss of speed. The printer needs to pause between layers to purge filament, then do a nozzle wipe on the purge tower. The Flexi Factory Panda takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to print in one color using default settings, and 6 hours and 46 minutes to print in three colors.

Preparing Files / Software

Bambu Lab has its own custom slicer, Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer. The slicer is also the primary means of transferring files via Cloud service or local LAN to the printer. You can also control and monitor your printer remotely with Bambu Handy, a mobile app.

Bambu Studio is also the “paint” program you need to assign color to your prints. The device tab allows you to talk directly to the printer to define the filaments in the AMS, heat up the printer and control the speed.

It has a wide range of presets for filament from both Bambu Lab and other manufacturers. I’ve found these presets to be incredibly helpful and accurate.

You also use Bambu Studio to access MakerWorld, a one stop shop for the Bambu Ecosystem. Here you’ll find free files for your printer, MakerLab with AI powered design tools and Maker’s Supply, a store front will model kits, hardware, tools, LED lights and CyberBricks so you can level up your 3D printing hobby.

Printing on the Bambu Lab A2L

The printer arrived with several prints preloaded. You’ll definitely want to shop for filament before bringing this machine home, especially if you plan on doing a lot of AMS printing. We have a guide with our favorite filaments for 3D printing here.

To show what the Bambu Lab A1 can do under normal conditions, I printed three Ice Cream Narwhales using default settings of 200-300mm/s and a .2mm layer height, taking 10 hours and 44 minutes to print. The models came pre-painted by the designer.

It turned out beautifully smooth with no visible layer lines or ringing. There was a little color bleed from the gold cone to the top of the narwhale’s head. This was printed in a sparkle blue from an unmarked PLA spool I picked up from SMRRF a couple years ago, and now deeply regret not labeling it better, plus a basic PLA Pink and Black from Bambu Lab and gold from Polymaker’s Panchroma Dual Silk Sunset.

For a PETG test, I attempted to print a wind spinner for the garden, which I created in Tinkercad. The print ultimately failed due to the skinny base, but it got about 95% there, which is still impressive. When it fell over, it looped the rest of the layers around the print like a coil. If you look closely at the coil, you can see little bubbles caused by moisture. The print still looks fantastic and I’ll give it another shot later after I make the base wider. This is printed in Bambu Lab PETG Translucent 6 hours and 31 minutes using a .2 layer height and default settings. This print is smooth, without stringing or noticeable layer lines. The two flat bases printed separately – without supports– then snapped together.

For TPU testing, I printed a prototype phone bag that I created in Tinkercad, using CookieCad Pale Blue Elixir. This is a regular 95A TPU, so I needed to use the single spool holder on top and drop it directly into the extruder. The A2L did a great job, with smooth layers and only a couple stray bits from retraction errors at the very top. The print took 7 hours and 9 minutes using the printer’s defaults.

Reminder – the AMS can print special “TPU for AMS” which is a stiffer formula available from Bambu Lab.

I tested out the A2L’s cutting module by making a few branded price tags for items I sell at a local boutique. For this I used a simple shape I whipped up in Canva and my jpg logo. I dropped both into Bambu Suite, the “slicer” software that runs Bambu’s 2D cutter attachment and also the laser module for a H2 Series machine. (No, there’s not a laser for the A2L.)

I swapped the normal build plate for a purpose built sticky plate and very easily snapped the cutter module onto the tool head, then plugged it in. Because the A2L doesn’t have an overhead “birdeye” camera like an H2 Series, I had to take an overhead photo of the build plate with the Bambu Handy app. It’s surprisingly difficult to get the entire A2L bed into an overhead shot when you’re only 5’2” without getting a ladder. This might be why the registration is a little bit off and the inked logos are a little bit lower than they should be.

This required two passes. First the ink layer, which used a normal ball point pen that I wrapped tape around to fit in the pen holder. Then I swapped the pen for the cutting blade and finished it.

The cutter can also handle vinyl, and with the A2L bed size, you could really get a nice sized shirt made. Bambu didn’t send any vinyl to try out, but they do sell it on their website. Because this is a manual cutter and not a laser melting material, you are free to use any material that is under .5mm thick.

Bottom Line

The Bambu Lab A2L is the supersized evolution of the A1 bedslinger that does double duty as a family craft hub. It’s budget-friendly with an easy-to-use interface that lets beginners have a little extra room to play without having to move up to a price H2 Series.

Like the first A1, this is much easier to use and maintain than Bambu’s larger machines, as the AMS Lite isn’t prone to jamming, and the new nozzle clumping detector sweeps printer purge safely away.

At $569 for the combo and $469 for a single color machine, the A2L is a great choice for makers who want Bambu quality and access to the ecosystem without the price of a Core XY machine.

If you’re interested in a larger color bedslinger, the Anycubic Kobra 3 Max has a 420x420x500mm build volume and is currently on sale for $601.60. The Bambu Lab H2S has the same build size in a Core XY enclosed unit for $1349.

AMD has brought back its gaming champion from four years ago. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has been revived in 2026 to breathe new life into the AM4 platform. The Zen 3-based CPU was the best CPU for gaming of its time, thanks to the first-generation 3D V-Cache technology. Since then, however, the competition in our CPU benchmark hierarchy has become more fierce.

Today's competition is Intel’s Core i7-14700K, based on the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture. At the time the Ryzen 7 5800X3D released, Intel’s 12th-gen Alder Lake CPUs were its main competition. Here, we revisit the comparison with Intel’s newer Core i7-14700K, which is available around the same price of $350.

The focus of this faceoff is to determine which CPU is the superior all-around chip. We will put the two CPUs through a series of tests spanning different categories to ultimately determine which CPU you should buy for your system.

This faceoff breaks down how two CPUs compare to each other in a head-to-head battle. If you'd like to read more about either processor, as well as see our full suite of tests, make sure to read our AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D re-review and Core i7-14700K faceoff.

Features and Specifications: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was first launched in April 2022 as a part of the Vermeer desktop CPU family. It is based on the Zen 3 architecture and built on TSMC’s 7nm production process. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a TDP of 105W and a PPT of 142W. It has a base clock of 3.4 GHz and can boost up to 4.5 GHz.

The 5800X3D only supports DDR4 memory at a rated speed of 3200 MT/s over a dual-channel interface. It is compatible with the AM4 socket, with support for 300-series, 400-series, and 500-series AMD chipsets (though check support with your specific motherboard). It also supports 20 lanes of PCIe Gen 4. However, the 5800X3D does not have integrated graphics.

On a more positive note, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D was the first CPU to employ the new 3D V-Cache technology. As a result of stacking the cache vertically on the die, the 5800X3D has a total L3 cache of 96 MB. Of this pool, 64 MB is part of the 3D V-Cache stack. Core overclocking is disabled on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D due to its 3D V-Cache layout; DRAM overclocking still remains available.

Its competitor, Intel’s Core i7-14700K, uses a vastly different layout. It features the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, which is a refined version of the 13th-generation Raptor Lake base architecture. The Core i7-14700K was launched in October 2023 and was built on a 10nm production process (Intel 7).

Intel’s 14th-generation CPUs use a hybrid core layout with performance-focused “P-cores” and more efficient “E-cores.” The 14700K also follows this structure, featuring 8 P-cores and 12 E-cores, for a total of 20 cores. In the 14700K, Hyper-Threading is only available on the P-cores, so the CPU has a total of 28 threads. The chip can boost the P-cores up to 5.6 GHz, while the E-core boost clock is 4.3 GHz.

Interestingly, the Core i7-14700K supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory at 3200 MT/s and 5600 MT/s, respectively. The CPU is compatible with the LGA 1700 socket featured in the 600-series and 700-series Intel motherboards. There is also support for 16 PCIe Gen 5 lanes and 4 PCIe Gen 4 lanes.

The Core i7-14700K has a TDP of 125W, with a higher PL2 limit of 253W. Integrated graphics are also offered in the 14700K in the form of UHD Graphics 770. There is 33MB of shared L3 cache on the chip. Perhaps more importantly, the Core i7-14700K is fully unlocked for overclocking, which is a big advantage over its competitor for today, though that requires a Z-series motherboard.

Zooming out a bit, it is clear that the Core i7-14700K is vastly superior to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D on paper. It is a newer CPU, so it has a better feature set, including PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 support. It offers more cores, a higher boost clock, integrated graphics, and an unlocked multiplier for overclocking.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

Nothing is decided on paper alone, but the Core i7-14700K offers much better specs, newer features, and even has overclocking support. It takes this round quite easily.

Gaming Benchmarks and Performance: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

AMD claims to have “re-engineered” the Ryzen 7 5800X3D for its 2026 re-release, so we have tested it again, along with a whole bunch of worthy competitors, including the 14700K. We chose the 1080p resolution for our 16-game test suite in order to maximize the performance differences between the various CPUs. The graphics card used was the GeForce RTX 5090 to keep potential GPU bottlenecks to a minimum. Let’s get into the results.

Starting off with our 16-game FPS geomean at 1080p, the Core i7-14700K dominates the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with an average result of 166.7 FPS across our tested games, compared to the 145.6 FPS result of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. That is a 14.5% difference in favor of the 14700K in our performance geomean. In 1% lows, the 14700K leads the Ryzen 7 5800X3D by 20% on average, putting out 114 FPS against the Ryzen’s 95.

However, there is another side to this benchmark table. The Core i7-14700K supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, so we tested it in both configurations. With DDR4-3200 memory, the 14700K’s advantage vanishes, and instead the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads by 1.04%, or just 1.5 FPS. The 1% lows are in favor of 14700K by only 3 FPS (3.15%), which is astonishingly close.

When the Intel CPU is paired with DDR5 memory, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s cache advantage seems to be struggling against the Core i7-14700K’s raw core count and higher boost clock (along with far faster memory speeds). Looking at individual titles, we see a similar pattern with the Core i7-14700K holding a consistent lead over the 5800X3D.

In 007 First Light, the 14700K paired with DDR5 memory has a 25.7% lead on average over the 5800X3D. That lead shrinks to 21.5% in Crimson Desert, and the difference is 13.7% in favor of the 14700K in Cyberpunk 2077. Interestingly, the Core i7-14700K leads the entire pack in Flight Simulator 24, establishing a 26.6% lead over the 5800X3D in this title. The DDR5-equipped 14700K also leads the 5800X3D in Spider-Man 2, Starfield, The Last of Us Part One, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Counter-Strike 2.

However, when the Core i7-14700K is paired with DDR4-3200 memory, the picture changes completely. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads the i7-14700K with DDR4 memory in Baldur’s Gate 3 by 11.7%. In Crimson Desert, the lead is 3.2% for the 5800X3D, and 2.6% in Cyberpunk 2077. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D sits between the DDR5 and DDR4 versions of the 14700K in a few other titles, including Counter-Strike 2 and DOOM: The Dark Ages.

There are also some titles in which the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads both the DDR4 and DDR5-equipped versions of the Core i7-14700K. In F1 2024, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D leads the DDR5 14700K by 5.6%, and the DDR4 14700K by 13.7% on average. The same pattern can be seen in Final Fantasy XIV, with a 6.6% lead over the 14700K using DDR5 memory, and in Minecraft RT, with a 18.5% lead over the 14700K using DDR4 memory.

It is certainly all over the place when you put both configurations of the 14700K into the mix, but the two behave more like separate CPUs. The long and short of it is that the 14700K with DDR5 memory provides the best gaming performance on average, followed by the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The DDR4-equipped 14700K is ever-so-slightly slower than the 5800X3D, but it really just depends on the game you’re playing.

During our testing, the Core i7-14700K averaged 4.93 GHz with DDR5 memory and 4.88 GHz with DDR4 memory. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D could only manage 4.34 GHz, but it sipped only 77.5 watts during our gaming tests. The 14700K DDR5 averaged 132.4 watts, while the DDR4-equipped 14700K averaged a whopping 155.1 watts during gaming. This is why the 14700K with DDR4 reached an average temperature of 80 °C, compared to 62 °C for the 14700K with DDR5 and 59 °C for the 5800X3D.

In addition to running the coolest, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is also the most efficient CPU of the bunch. The 5800X3D had an FPS-per-watt output of 1.88, compared to 1.26 for the Core i7-14700K with DDR5 memory, and just 0.93 for the DDR4 version. It is amazing how much the Core i7-14700K suffers when paired with DDR4 memory.

Lower overall performance also hurts the value proposition of the DDR4-equipped 14700K, as it puts out just 0.39 FPS-per-dollar, compared to the 0.45 of the DDR5-equipped 14700K. Astonishingly, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D falls between the two 14700K versions, delivering 0.42 FPS per dollar. This makes the Core i7-14700K the value king, but only if you pair it with DDR5 memory. I suspect that will be tricky in the current market.

⭐Winner: Tie

While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D does slightly pull away from the DDR4-equipped 14700K, both of these setups get demolished by the 14700K when it is paired with DDR5 memory. We're calling this round a tie considering the massive price disparity between DDR4 and DDR5 memory right now.

Productivity Benchmarks and Performance: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

Productivity performance spans single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, so we tested the CPUs across a range of benchmarks covering both categories. Just like in our gaming tests, we tested the 14700K with both DDR5 and DDR4 memory, since it does impact the performance significantly.

Intel’s hybrid architecture has historically been quite strong at multi-threaded workloads due to E-cores, and that pattern appears here too. In our multi-threaded performance ranking geomean, the Core i7-14700K scores 492 points, a massive lead of 116.7% over the Ryzen 7 5800X3D that could only manage 227 points on average. Even when the Core i7-14700K is paired with DDR4 memory, it has a 105% higher average score than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

The superior core count of the 14700K is proving to be the difference maker in this category. In the Cinebench 2024 multi-core test, the 14700K with DDR5 memory is a whopping 126.6% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Even the DDR4-equipped 14700K secures a 107% lead over the 5800X3D in Cinebench. The lead for the 14700K is about 137% in POV-Ray, and it shrinks to 135% when using DDR4 memory.

Blender tests were also favorable for the 14700K, but we didn’t see a big difference between DDR4 and DDR5 systems in these benchmarks. In Junkshop, the DDR5-equipped 14700K leads the 5800X3D by 116.4%; in Monster, by 116.6%; and in Classroom, by 118.3%. The DDR4 variant follows closely behind, by 1 or 2 percentage points.

The memory generation again comes into play when we look at HandBrake x265 10-bit encoding, with the DDR5-14700K leading the 5800X3D by 90.5%, while the DDR4-14700K manages a 82% lead. The gap is even larger in x264 encoding, with the DDR5 variant gaining a 105% lead over the 5800X3D, while the DDR4 variant can only manage a 63% lead.

That still makes the Core i7-14700K far better than the 5800X3D in productivity workloads, regardless of the memory generation. However, we still have single-threaded results to look at. Our single-threaded performance ranking geomean puts the Core i7-14700K 36.6% faster on average than the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Interestingly, there is no difference in single-threaded performance between the DDR5 and DDR4 variants of the 14700K.

The same trend is seen in individual benchmarks as well. The 14700K is about 25% faster than the 5800X3D in Lame’s audio encoding test, and the DDR4 variant is in the same ballpark as well. Curiously, the DDR4-equipped 14700K is slightly faster than the DDR5-14700K in Cinebench 2024 and also outperforms the 5800X3D by 36.6%. Safe to say, the RAM difference doesn’t really come into play in these tests.

Overall, though, the winner is quite clear. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a gaming-oriented chip with only 8 cores and 16 threads, so it is no match for the 20-core 14700K in productivity workloads. Whether you go for DDR4 or DDR5 is your decision, but the productivity champion of this faceoff is the Core i7-14700K.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

With an average lead of 116% over the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in multi-threaded tasks, the Core i7-14700K sweeps the productivity round quite easily.

Overclocking: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

Overclocking has never been a strong suit of AMD Ryzen processors; however, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D doesn’t support core overclocking at all. AMD cited the 3D V-Cache technology as the reason the 5800X3D can’t be overclocked, and they were right to assume so.

Due to the vertically-stacked cache, heat transfer from the CPU die to the heatspreader was a real issue. An overclocked 5800X3D would have sipped more power and produced more heat. Therefore, an efficient heat-transfer system was needed but could not be developed in time for the first-generation V-Cache product.

AMD has since reinstated overclocking support for Ryzen 9000 series X3D CPUs by flipping the cache layout, so it no longer hinders heat transfer. However, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s core multiplier still remains locked, but you can still tune the DRAM and Infinity Fabric clocks.

The Core i7-14700K, on the other hand, is tailor-made for overclocking. Being a K-series SKU, the 14700K comes with an unlocked multiplier and all the Intel bells and whistles for overclocking. It can reach 6.1 - 6.2 GHz on individual cores with proper cooling, and users can expect a 5.6 - 5.8 GHz all-core overclock on most setups.

Its overclocking toolkit features traditional multiplier adjustments, voltage controls, and established BIOS interfaces that most enthusiasts are already familiar with. The Core i7-14700K also has a significant amount of power headroom to play with, although temperatures become a concern as soon as the power consumption ramps up.

By all overclocking metrics, the Core i7-14700K is the superior CPU for tinkerers. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D can’t be manually tuned, at least not in the traditional sense, and therefore doesn’t really stand a chance in this round.

⭐Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

The 14700K is the real deal when it comes to overclocking support. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is locked and therefore can’t be overclocked, so Intel sweeps this round.

Power Consumption and Efficiency: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D has a base TDP of 105W and a PPT of 142W. Intel’s is much higher, with the 14700K clocking in at 125W TDP and a PL2 limit of 253 watts. However, TDP numbers don’t give us a good idea of real-world power consumption, so we ran our own detailed tests.

First, at idle, the 5800X3D consumed only 5 watts, while the 14700K consumed 27 watts. In an active-idle situation, such as YouTube playback, the Core i7-14700K consumed 28 watts with DDR5 memory and a concerning 39 watts with DDR4 memory. The 5800X3D, on the other hand, sipped only 9 watts, making it anywhere from 67% - 76% more efficient than the 14700K.

Moving on to all-core workloads, in our y-cruncher multi-threaded AVX power test, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes 119 watts, while the Core i7-14700K clocks in at a staggering 335 watts, a 181.5% higher figure. Even the Core i7-14700K with DDR4 memory consumed 307 watts, which is still a 158% increase over the 5800X3D’s power consumption.

In Linpack, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is again more reserved, with the 14700K consuming 168.6% more power than the Ryzen. The DDR4 setup was not much better, with a 137.2% higher power consumption than the 5800X3D in this test. The gap widens even more in Cinebench 2024’s multi-core render and our Blender tests, which show the 14700K consuming anywhere from 250% to 285% higher power than the 5800X3D.

In our encoding tests, the situation remains pretty much the same. In Handbrake x264, the DDR5-14700K consumed 242% more power than the 5800X3D, while the DDR4-14700K consumed nearly 200% more. Similar numbers were seen in Handbrake x265 and SVT_AV1 encoding, with the 5800X3D being the clear winner.

We even looked at single-threaded workloads to determine the power consumption of those tasks. In y-cruncher’s single-threaded AVX power test, we saw the 14700K consume 157% more power when paired with DDR5 memory, and 132% more when using DDR4 memory. Safe to say, the Intel CPU does not fare any better in these workloads either.

To determine the efficiency, we calculated the watts-per-FPS number in Handbrake x265. The 5800X3D was 43.4% more efficient than the 14700K with DDR5 RAM, and about 41% more efficient in this task than the 14700K with DDR4 memory. The pattern can again be seen in Cinebench 2024’s efficiency test, where we look at points-per-watt. The 5700X3D is anywhere from 62% to 68% more efficient than the 14700K in this task.

We can also visualize the efficiency differences using our handy scatter plots. In the Linkpack power efficiency plot, the 5800X3D is towards the bottom left of the chart, while the 14700K is more towards the top. This means that the 14700K uses substantially more energy to deliver marginally higher performance than the 5800X3D. Ideally, you want to be towards the bottom right of this graph.

So, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes much less power in both single-threaded and multi-threaded productivity workloads, and as we saw in our gaming tests, it runs cooler as well. The Core i7-14700K has a distinct performance advantage in all-core workloads, but the power consumption ramps up quickly once it gets going. Still, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the clear winner in this round.

⭐Winner: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D consumes between 150% and 300% less power than the Core i7-14700K in all-core workloads, making it the definitive winner in this round.

Pricing: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

The pricing situation is a bit of a wildcard in this comparison, since these are not exactly “new” CPUs. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D was recently re-released at $350, which is $100 lower than its 2022 price tag. The Core i7-14700K is currently priced at $370 at the time of writing, which makes the 5800X3D $20 cheaper in a direct comparison.

However, comparing the two CPUs is more than just comparing their sticker price. We must also look at the platform costs of the two CPUs. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D uses the fan-favorite AM4 socket, which has a whole heap of chipsets in all price brackets. You can pair the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a mid-range B550 or a high-end X570 motherboard, but older 400-series motherboards are also compatible, depending on the board.

As far as the price goes, B550 motherboards can be purchased for $80 - $180, while higher-end X570 motherboards range from $150 - $300. Some premium models can even go beyond $400, but those are not really needed for our CPU since it doesn’t support overclocking. A nice mid-tier B550 or X570 motherboard will be more than enough for our needs.

Memory is where the price difference really grows. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D only supports DDR4 memory, so it is relatively safe from the ongoing DRAM crisis. A nice 32GB DDR4-3200 kit can run you about $140 - $160, which is definitely higher than DDR4 prices of the past, but nothing compared to current DDR5 rates. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D also needs an aftermarket cooler since it doesn’t come with one, and that can cost you about $100 - $150 too.

For the Core i7-14700K, you have the option of either a DDR4 or a DDR5 motherboard. Even then, you still have to choose between a 600-series or a 700-series chipset. For the sake of this comparison, let’s go with a Z790 motherboard since the 14700K is unlocked and we want those overclocking capabilities. A basic Z790 motherboard can be found around the $150 mark, but we would want to go with something that has decent VRMs. That can cost around $200-$250 at current prices.

Of course, as evidenced in our benchmarks, DDR5 memory is the best way to maximize the 14700K's performance. Due to the RAMpocalypse, DDR5 memory is ridiculously expensive, and a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit can cost between $390 - $550 at the time of writing. Going with DDR4 would require a motherboard swap, but it would save you between $300 and $350 on the system based on these two components alone.

For cooling, the 14700K requires special consideration, as we have the option to overclock. Even a stock 14700K sips more power and produces more heat than a 5800X3D, but if you plan to overclock, the thermals can get out of hand pretty quick. You’ll ideally use a solid 360mm AiO liquid cooler for the 14700K, which can add about $100 - $150 to the cost of your build.

Another factor to consider when determining the value of a CPU is the longevity of its platform. AMD’s AM4 platform has been going strong for a decade, and AMD has continued to support it through updates and releases such as the 5800X3D. However, it would be hard to see AMD releasing more CPUs for the AM4 platform going forward.

On the other hand, Intel’s LGA 1700 socket was already semi-retired, but new reports suggest that Intel will bring this platform back in early 2027. New “Raptor Lake Next” CPUs will reportedly be available on the same socket and the same motherboards, so there is certainly a better upgrade path on Intel’s side.

When we put everything together, the Core i7-14700K is a bit hard to recommend from a value perspective. The motherboards for the 14700K are more expensive on average, and if you want to maximize its performance, you will have to take a massive hit to your wallet with DDR5 memory. Moreover, it is more expensive to cool, too. Its platform looks more future-proof in light of recent rumors, but that can’t guarantee it a win in this round.

⭐Winner: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

The 5800X3D is cheaper to get up and running, since you only need an affordable B550 motherboard and some DDR4 memory to get started. The 14700K can be cheap, but that requires you to leave serious performance on the table and go with a DDR4 setup.

Bottom Line: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D vs Intel Core i7-14700K

After a grueling 6-round back-and-forth, we finally have our winner. The Intel Core i7-14700K is the superior CPU of the two. Now, it is not as black-and-white as the 4-3 score might suggest, but the 14700K is still the winner of this faceoff.

The Core i7-14700K delivers better gaming performance on average than the 5800X3D. Sure, there are some titles that favor AMD’s 3D V-Cache, but those wins were not as frequent. However, AMD’s 5800X3D has a better chance if the 14700K is limited by DDR4 memory.

Intel’s 14700K is also vastly superior in productivity and has support for manual overclocking. AMD’s main selling point for the 5800X3D in 2026 is its low price, both upfront and in terms of platform costs. It is also an easier CPU to maintain since it runs cooler and consumes less power.

Interestingly, the choice also depends heavily on your memory generation of choice. It is better to save a few bucks and go with a 5800X3D if you plan to stay on DDR4 for now. However, if you are willing to make the (difficult) jump to DDR5, the 14700K is the clear choice.

Potential buyers who want to stick to gaming should still prioritize a Ryzen 7 5800X3D over a Core i7-14700K with DDR5 memory. On the other hand, if you regularly run any type of productivity workload, the 14700K blows the Ryzen out of the water.

⭐ Winner: Intel Core i7-14700K

Nonetheless, the overall winner of our faceoff is Intel’s Core i7-14700K.

Check Out More CPU Faceoffs

• Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus vs AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus vs AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
• AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D vs AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
• Intel Core i7-14700K vs Intel Core Ultra 7 265K
• AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 vs Ryzen 9 9950X3D

The Amazon Prime Day sale continues, and day two of the sale promises more deals on all your favorite tech, PC gaming hardware, and peripherals. As PC prices continue to squeeze consumers, an event like Prime Day is a great way to save some money on a new build, component upgrades, monitors, and beyond.

Our expert team curates deals 24/7 during the event, leveraging our testing data and hands-on experience to bring you recommendations. We also use extensive price tracking to ensure that deals are always actually worthwhile, avoiding price inflation or exaggerated discounts.

As always, you need a Prime membership to take advantage of Prime Day deals, but we're also sharing lots of listings from rival retailers like Newegg and Best Buy.

Quick Links: Amazon Prime Day deals

• Amazon: Prime Free Trial
• Amazon: Prime Monthly Plan: $14.99
• Amazon: Prime Annual Plan: $139
• Amazon: All Prime Day deals
• Amazon: 62% off computers and accessories deals
• Amazon: All Gaming GPU Deals
• Amazon: Up to $500 off Gaming Monitors
• Amazon: Desktop and gaming PCs
• A few of our other dedicated Hub Pages: Best Prime Day gaming PC deals | Best Prime Day RAM deals | Best Prime Day gaming laptop deals | Best Prime Day monitor deals | Best Prime Day SSD deals | Best Prime Day PC peripherals deals | Best Prime Day motherboard deals

Hottest Prime Day Tech Deals

Welcome to Day 2 of Amazon Prime Day! There's plenty going on in the world of PC hardware, and we'll be taking you through the best savings on components, hardware, tools, peripherals, and more! - Stephen

Beat PC building prices with this RTX 5060 pre-built

New for day two is this CyberPowerPC pre-built, which costs just $1,049. For that, you get an Intel Core i5 14400F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 8GB, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1 TB gen 4 SSD, as well as Windows 11.

Building this PC by yourself would be pretty much

As you can see from our testing, the 5060 is a respectable entry-level card that beats out Intel offerings and AMD's 9060XT. This card will do just fine at 1080p, making this build a great first-time gaming PC for a budding young enthusiast. If you've been trying to build a budget gaming PC, this is probably your best bet. - Stephen

Grab this attractive, versatile gaming mouse for $130

If you're looking for a great all-around gaming mouse that's also gorgeous, the Logitech G502 X Plus is the prettiest wireless gaming mouse that's also a total powerhouse. It's currently on sale in both black and white variations for just $113.99 at Amazon — down 29% from its retail price of $159.99.

The G502 X Plus is a large, right-handed contoured gaming mouse with a thumb rest, 13 programmable buttons, and 8 RGB zones. It features Logitech's Hero 25K optical sensor and an adjustable/removable DPI shift button, as well as a dual-mode scroll wheel that lets you switch between smooth free-scrolling and precise notched scrolling with the press of a button. It also has hybrid optical-mechanical switches in its primary buttons — optical for speed and low-latency, and mechanical for improved battery life (it gets up to 130 hours with the lighting turned off, but that drops to around 37 hours with the lighting turned on). You can read my full review of the Logitech G502 X Plus here. — Sarah

UK SSD deal, just £30 off 2025 pricing for this 9100 Pro

SSD prices have gone through the roof, but this Samsung 9100 Pro SSD is just £30 more than it was in August 2025 at Amazon UK. That means you're getting close to pre-AI crunch pricing, which is unheard of in this economy.

The 9100 Pro is one of the fastest drives we've ever tested, making it perfect for professional workloads of gaming. This will improve load times and, of course, make Windows boot faster. As noted, this is only £30 more than the lowest price we've ever seen on this model, so it's a real bargain given the SSD economy right now. - Stephen

Save 47% on Samsung's excellent 32-inch 240 Hz 4K Odyssey gaming monitor

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (G80SD) is a premium 32-inch gaming monitor built around a 4K QD-OLED panel. Right now, Amazon is selling the monitor for $657.77, which is $47% off its normal list price.

The G80SD’s OLED panel features Quantum Dot enhancement, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and wide color coverage. It offers a 240 Hz refresh rate and features an ultra-fast 0.03 ms gray-to-gray response time, making it ideal for competitive gaming on high-end PC setups. It is also compatible with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-Sync for smooth, tear-free gameplay.

You’ll also find HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort connectivity, while Samsung's OLED Glare-Free coating helps reduce reflections. To address OLED longevity concerns, Samsung incorporates its OLED Safeguard+ suite, which includes a dynamic cooling system, thermal modulation, and automatic brightness adjustments for static elements such as logos and taskbars to help minimize screen burn-in.

Beyond gaming, the monitor Samsung's Gaming Hub, allowing you to access cloud gaming services and connected consoles, while built-in Smart TV features allow streaming without a PC. — Brandon Hill

Another excellent pre-built PC is $700 off

New to the Prime Day sales in the last few minutes is this MSI Codex R2 gaming PC. If you want a PC that comes ready to play out of the box and don't want to negotiate tricky RAM and SSD prices, this is a great option.

While the CPU is an older generation model, that's a great way to save in the current crisis, and the RTX 5070 should provide plenty of grunt for gaming at 1440p. As per our testing data, the 5070 is excellent in the mid-range category, and gives out average frame rates of over 100 fps at 1080p, or 75 at 1440p. 4K gaming is definitely a stretch on this one, but at just $1,589 that's to be expected. - Stephen

Logitech's MX Brio 4K webcam is just $161

You probably don't need a 4K webcam, but if you do, now's a great time to get one on sale. Logitech's MX Brio is a webcam that shoots in 4K resolution at 30fps and 1080p at 60fps, and it's currently on sale for just $161.49 at Amazon — 19% off its retail price of $199.99.

This sleek 4K webcam features a large 1.58-inch lens with a movable ring that twists to open and close a built-in privacy shutter (similar to the shutter on Razer's Kiyo Pro Ultra). In addition to its 4K resolution, it sports a 90-degree field of view, 4x digital zoom, and has dual beamforming microphones, in the event you have no other mic-enabled device plugged into your PC.

Its 8.5MP Sony Starvis sensor captures images very well in all lighting situations, and it does an especially good job of evenly lighting everything in a scene (maybe too good of a job — some scenes ended up looking a little flat). It has AI image enhancement to reduce noise and smooth the picture out, and it's just a very good webcam if you're looking for a reliably professional picture. While most video conferencing platforms don't support over 1080p, the 4K resolution will help if you want to zoom in and crop out a messy background. You can read my full review of the Logitech MX Brio here. — Sarah

A smashing UK Alienware deal

This potent Alienware gaming laptop is on sale in the UK, down to just £1,549. For that, you get an excellent Intel core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, Nvidia RTX 5070, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

In our Alienware 16X Aurora 5060 review, we flagged that model as lacking performance. This spec is much more enticing thanks to the RTX 5070 GPU, and the CPU is also much more potent. While we don't have tests of this specific model, here's how the 275HX performs inside the HP Omen Max 16

As you can see, there's plenty of juice for both performance gaming and productivity here. You also get a snappy 240Hz display with 2560 x 1600 resolution, which the RTX 5070 will have no problem keeping up with. - Stephen

Bundles bonanza at Newegg - RAM for $215

Newegg bundles are back this morning with some big RAM savings. If you buy this bundle of Gigabyte X870 Aorus Elite and Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5, you get the RAM for an effective price of $215. Given RAM currently costs $350, that's a no-brainer.

There's also this dark-flavored version which is better by $1, getting you the RAM for $214. However, this is an LGA 1851 motherboard, so you'll be limiting yourself to Intel's most recent CPUs, rather than AM5, which is what the above gets you. If you want to build a PC with AMD's coveted X3D SKUs, the above bundle is the way to go. If you're team Intel, check this one out - Stephen

A massive MSI monitor

I've just found with 49-inch MSI OLED monitor at Newegg for less than $700. This gets you 5120 x 1440p resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, and all the advantages of OLED for less.

This is the perfect deal for anyone who just wants to buy one display then never think about monitors every again. It's effectively two 1440p monitors stacked side-by-side, perfect for lots of productivity and, of course, expansive gaming. - Stephen

Save a massive $750 on an RX 9070 XT + 9800X3D gaming PC

An all-AMD gaming PC could be in your very near future. This iBuyPower Y40 gaming PC is on sale at Walmart right now, and it's fitted with some of our top choices for a build. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, along with an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage for $1,749 right now, giving you a 4K-capable machine for less than $1,800.

That's a brilliant price for a spec sheet like this. iBuyPower has built a reputation for its powerful and gorgeous-looking builds. and this liquid-cooled rig using the wrap-around Hyte Y40 case is formidable.

The 9800X3D is one of our favorite X3D chips from AMD. This 8-core, 16-thread processor features AMD's newest Zen 5 architecture and comes equipped with a boost clock speed of up to 5.2 GHz. The boosted 96MB L3 cache means that it doesn't need to drop down and rely on the slower system RAM, reducing latency and ensuring much higher frame rates in-game. The RX 9070 XT, meanwhile, is one of the best gaming GPUs out there: it's the perfect all-rounder with 4K-ready performance that rivals Nvidia's mid-tier RTX 5070 Ti.

A $750 saving on a PC this good is a steal. Expect to see this one fly off the e-shelves.

Razer Huntsman Mini is 45% off

This 60% Razer Huntsman Mini keyboard is a nifty small-form gaming keyboard with Linear Optical Switches and RGB. Usually $129 on Amazon, right now you can grab one for just $69, a new lowest-ever price. The price has dropped in the last hour, making it one of the newest Prime Day deals.

We loved the Huntsman's light switches and keycaps in our review. It also features a removable cable and five onboard memory profiles, with software for customization, including for the addressable RGB. If you prefer, you can also grab the black version for $2 more. - Stephen

Steal a portable monitor this Prime Day

This nifty Acer Nitro Portable gaming monitor is now 37% off. For $113 you get a 15.6-inch portable IPS display with 165Hz refresh rate, perfect for on-the-go gaming.

This mini monitor is perfect for travel and vacations, and is ideal for adding an extra display to a gaming setup, or even as a standalone display for a console if you're travelling. 1080p resolution is also great for watching movies or YouTube videos. If you want to save more, there's a basic $99 version, but for the extra $14, the gaming version seems like a no-brainer. - Stephen

A brand new lowest-ever price for June 24, this excellent XG27AQDMGR is a little less premium than some other Asus QD-OLED monitors. The panel is from LG, and there's a proximity sensor to turn the screen off when you step away to prevent burn-in.

This 2560 x 1440 monitor has a TrueBlack Glossy WOLED display with up to 240Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms GTG response time. IT's also DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified, and offers DisplayPort 2.1, HDMI, and USB 3.2 connectivity. At just $434, this is the lowest-ever price we've seen on this monitor, beating the previous low of $449 thanks to a new discount this morning. - Stephen

This MicroSD Express Card deal for Switch 2 will not last long...

Finding a decently-sized MicroSD Express card for the Nintendo Switch 2 is nigh impossible these days, with the culmination of the new interface standard and the global memory shortage conspiring to send pricing through the roof. Luckily for a very short time (checks watch), B&H has a 512GB Samsung P9 Express card for only $119, a massive 40% discount that shaves off $60 with a coupon that's added to your cart when you check out.

This deal runs for only 14 more hours, but there is always the looming threat of B&H running out of stock. The time is now if you want to score this deal. — Paul Alcorn

Don't forget your membership...

Remember, you'll need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of the best deals this week. Even the free 30-day trial will get you access:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial
• Amazon Prime Monthly Plan: $14.99
• Amazon Prime Annual Plan: $139

Day 2 price drop on LG's premium 27-inch RGB Tandem OLED 540 Hz/720 Hz dual-mode gaming monitor

Earlier this week, we highlighted this excellent LG monitor with a $300 discount. If you blinked the first time, the price has just fallen by an extra $15 to an all-time low of $684.

The LG 27GX790B-B is a premium monitor featuring an RGB Tandem OLED panel with a 2560 x 1440 (QHD) resolution. It has a native refresh rate of 540 Hz, which is already among the fastest available. However, if you're willing to drop the resolution to 720p for eSports titles, you can boost the refresh rate to a staggering 720 Hz. If you have the graphics muscle to handle pushing out 700+ FPS and you're willing to accept 720p resolution, this one's for you.

In addition to its speedy fundamentals, the 27GX790B-B also offers AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, features DisplayPort 2.1/HDMI 2.1 ports, and a built-in USB hub (with DisplayPort Alt Mode supported via its USB-C port). - Stephen Warwick

Secure Intel's fastest DDR4 CPU with a new all-time low on the Core i9-14900KF

There aren't a ton of deals on Intel's Raptor Lake chips, which makes sense given the current RAM crisis and the fact that Raptor Lake supports both DDR4 and DDR5. The Core i9-14900KF is an exception, now selling for its lowest price ever of $372.99 for Prime Day.

The Core i9-14900KF is a 24-core chip that offers identical performance to the Core i9-14900K, just without integrated graphics. Based on our latest testing, this chip remains Intel's fastest gaming CPU, outclassing the newer Core Ultra 7 270K Plus.

Pairing the Core i9-14900KF with a DDR4 motherboard represents a performance loss of around 15% in games, but it depends on the title. Regardless, this is a flagship CPU that's normally sold for north of $500, so this Prime Day deal is excellent. — Jake Roach

This 140W 3-port UGREEN portable power bank is 45% off for a limited time

People who frequently travel know that whenever they have the opportunity, they should always charge their mobile devices. Whether you're waiting on a layover at the airport, sitting in your seat on a plane with a power outlet in front of you, or in your hotel room hours before your next meeting. But when you don’t have quick and easy access to wall power, it’s great to have a portable power bank on hand to keep your devices charged. That’s where UGREEN’s 25,000 mAh Nexode Power Bank comes in handy, and it’s on sale for $59.98 ($45% off) at Amazon for Prime Day.

The Nexode Power Bank supports Power Delivery 3.1 up to 140 watts and offers a battery capacity of 25,000 mAh. You’ll find three USB ports: two USB-C and one USB-A, allowing you to charge three devices simultaneously. USB-C1 has a maximum output of 140 watts, USB-C2 at 65 watts, and USB-A3 at 22.5 watts. The power bank recharges at 65 watts and can go from empty to 100 percent in 2 hours.

According to UGREEN, the Nexode Power Bank has enough juice just to recharge a typical laptop from empty to 100% 1.3 times, and can charge an average iPhone or Android smartphone over 5 times before conking out. — Brandon Hill

Save a whopping 50% on the Zalman Cubix-G chassis - $30 MicroATX case with panoramic glass includes three RGB fans

Cases are another item that hasn’t been affected by the AI boom and subsequent memory shortages, and Zalman’s MicroATX Cubix-G is on sale for only $29.99 (50% off MSRP) during Prime Day 2026. This tiny case supports Mini-ITX and MicroATX motherboards, video cards up to 280mm, CPU coolers up to 155mm (note it does not support AIOs), and 140mm ATX-size power supplies. It also comes with three 3-pin DC-controlled ARGB fans (rated up to 1,000 RPM), which, for the price, I did not expect.

Externally, it’s a good-looking case with panoramic class on two sides, while at the bottom, there is a separate chamber for the power supply (and cables), where you can also mount some of your HDDs/SSDs. Connectivity-wise, the front panel offers 2x Type-A ports, 1x Type-C (10 Gbps), power/reset buttons, and a 3.5mm audio jack. For $30, you’re not going to find a better deal on a panoramic MicroATX case that includes three fans. If this isn’t the case for you, please check out our Best PC cases page or Best PC case deals for more options. Get it while it lasts at this price. - Joe Shields

Get the cheapest RTX 5090 around with MSI's Gaming Trio card

No RTX 5090 is cheap right now. The midpoint of prices for Nvidia's halo card has been hovering around $4299 of late, more than 2X its MSRP. But if you need to save a couple hundred bucks on the fastest gaming graphics card around, B&H is offering up MSI's Gaming Trio RTX 5090 for $4099, making it the cheapest 5090 we've seen in this Prime Day stretch.

The Gaming Trio RTX 5090 boasts a ginormous quad-slot cooler with a nifty translucent shroud that reveals slashes of RGB LED lighting underneath. A full-length metal backplate with a huge cutout for flow-through cooling comes emblazoned with MSI's dragon motif to show your allegiance to the world, and MSI includes a GPU support to prevent your extremely large and expensive graphics card from sagging. 5090s don't last long at any price right now, so save a couple of hundred and get this one. -- Jeff Kampman

Rapoo MT760 Mouse is 15% off for Prime Day - Logitech MX Master clone is on sale for $36, an all-time low price

Rapoo’s MT760 is a wireless mouse that supports BT 5.0 and 2.4G connections on up to four different devices (one-click switching). Priced at an all-time low price of $36.32, it’s a solid deal for Prime Day 2026. It has seven adjustable DPI modes from 800 to 4000 DPI, allowing seamless sensitivity adjustments with the press of a button. The 1K polling rate isn’t ideal for hardcore esports gamers, but enough for your average lite gamer. The MT760 has 11 programmable buttons, including two scroll wheels, one of which is a Hall-effect magnetic induction scroll wheel for precise horizontal scrolling (the thumb scroll wheel on the left).

Physically, it’s a large mouse with a wing/extension on the side that’s ideal for resting your thumb and for palm-style grips. It looks like it works fine with the claw, but the larger footprint is ideal for palm or modified-palm grips. Rapoo says the battery lasts up to 160 hours, which is plenty for productivity or gaming, and it charges wirelessly. Did we mention it’s a lot cheaper than the MX Master mice, too? If this isn’t the mouse for you, check out our best gaming mouse page for more options. - Joe Shields

Anycubic's award-winning Kobra X 3D printer gets its price slashed to just $299 at in this Amazon Prime Day discount

A stunning deal at Amazon on Anycubic’s Kobra X 3D printer. This Prime Day deal has absolutely slashed the cost of this Tom’s Hardware Editor’s Choice award-winning printer by a massive $60 (17%), making the Anycubic Kobra X just $299. This is $50 less than the cost of the identical printer direct from Anycubic in their own sale.

The Anycubic Kobra X may look a little like the Bambu Lab A1, with a similar brushed aluminum frame, but that’s where the comparisons end. The Kobra X uses the ACE Gen 2 multi-color system, which is built directly into the toolhead, and doesn’t use an extra external box for the filament. The filament feeds straight in from stationary top-mounted spools, but you can add extra optional hubs, with the ability to connect up to four ACE 2 Pro units for as many as 19 colors in your print creations.

Check out our in-depth review of the Anycubic Kobra X for more information on this superb multi-color 3D printer. — Stewart Bendle

Save 43% and upgrade your gaming monitor to a 27-inch 1440p Acer Nitro for only $170 - 240Hz Fast IPS panel is a wallet saving $130 off for Prime Day

Even though we’re seeing a lot of great gaming monitor deals for Prime Day 2026, not everyone can afford fancy high-refresh OLED monitors. Acer’s Nitro VG27U (W2BMIIPX) bridges that gap at $169.99 (43% / $130 off), offering a fast IPS panel with a 240Hz refresh rate that’s great for games and productivity alike. The Nitro supports AMD Freesync Premium technology to minimize screen tearing, while the 0.5ms response time (GTG) defeats ghosting. It is also VESA DisplayHDR 400-certified (400-nit brightness).

The VG27U sports ‘frameless’ bezels on three sides, has two integrated speakers (2W), and connects through two HDMI (v2.0) ports or one DisplayPort (v1.4). It does not come with any USB ports but does have a 3.5mm audio output. The current $170 price point is an awesome deal on a budget gaming monitor. In fact, my son may have just been upgraded. - Joe Shields

The Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG 27-inch gaming monitor is a smoking deal at $549

The ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27AQWMG is a premium 27-inch gaming monitor with a 1440p Tandem OLED panel. The monitor launched at $649 and is now priced at just $549 on Amazon, which is an amazing price given its capabilities.

It features an ultra-fast 280 Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms gray-to-gray response time, delivering exceptionally smooth motion and minimal blur. We reviewed the monitor earlier this year, and it hit all the right notes in terms of performance. Not only was color performance off the charts, but it had incredibly low input lag. And given the underlying WOLED technology, the XG27AQWMG excels in delivering high brightness levels that most QD-OLEDs can’t match. — Brandon Hill

Save 40% on the MSI Forge GK600 TKL wireless gaming keyboard - upgrade to a hot-swappable TKL mechanical keyboard for only $59.99

This versatile tenkeyless keyboard is on sale for $59.99 and is one of the best deals going on Prime Day 2026 for a name-brand, wireless, TKL keyboard with mechanical switches. The compact and portable Forge GK600 uses linear-profile mechanical switches out of the box, along with sound-dampening gaskets for quiet operation so your roommate won’t hear you beating on the keys late at night. If linear switches aren’t your thing, that’s OK, as they are hot-swappable.

The GK600 TKL uses dye-sublimated PBT keycaps which are backlit by RGB lighting. The 4,000mAh battery helps keep connected times to a minimum. One of the cool features is the 1.06-inch display that shows essential information like battery status, brightness levels, and RGB backlighting profiles so you’re kept in the know at a glance. If you get this deal through Newegg, it also comes with a second set of transparent keycaps (ClearCaps Set, a $29.99 value). Or, if this isn’t the keyboard for you, check our expert-picked best gaming keyboards for other options. - Joe Shields

Grab the Audioengine A2+ speakers at up to 25% off during price day, the lowest price they’ve been in a year

The Audioengine A2+ speakers are legendary, and for good reason. They’re built from a real wooden cabinet, come with an on-board 24-bit DAC, and feature plentiful connectivity, all for an affordable price. Now, they’re even more affordable, with the white version of the speakers dropping from $279 to $223, and the red version dropping all the way down to $209.

I’ve had a pair of these speakers on my desk for probably seven or eight years (I don’t remember exactly when I bought them), and our managing editor Matt Safford has owned a pair for more than a decade. They sound surprisingly good considering the tiny 3-inch woofer, though you shouldn’t expect exceptional low-end.

They’re good all-around speakers. A pair of headphones is better for gaming while a solid Bluetooth speaker with a bass radiation chamber handles music better. For great all-around sound, though, it’s hard to beat the A2+ speakers at this price. — Jake Roach

Save $575 on Asus’ compact Zephyrus G16 with the RTX 5070 and a 240Hz OLED display

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a surprisingly thin and light gaming laptop considering the hardware inside. This model is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, 16GB of memory, a 1TB SSD, and the RTX 5070 mobile GPU. It also comes in an all-aluminum chassis with a 1600p, 240Hz OLED display.

memory and lower TGP values, particularly on high-end GPUs. That’s an issue we ran up against in our Zephyrus G16 review when we tested a configuration with the RTX 4090. The RTX 5070 is a much better fit for this design. The RTX 5070 here tops out 105W, with a base of 90W plus an extra 15W from Dynamic Boost. The RTX 5070 tops out at 115W plus Dynamic Boost.

Although you can squeeze extra performance out of an RTX 5070 with full TGP, you can’t do it at this size. The build quality and portability are big upsides to the Zephyrus G16. — Jake Roach

Corsair's T3 Rush gaming chair gets a steep price cut to just $189.99

The Corsair T3 Rush is a gaming chair that not only looks good, but it also won’t break the bank. The chair is on sale for $189.99 at Best Buy, a healthy $160 discount off its normal asking price.

This particular version of the T3 Rush is covered in breathable, charcoal-colored fabric and has a sleek, racing-seat-inspired design (complete with loops where you’d run seat belts in a track car). It has a padded neck cushion and memory foam-backed lumbar support. Other features include 65 mm dual-wheel casters, 4D armrests, and a seatback that adjusts from 90 degrees to 170 degrees. — Brandon Hill

A rare discount on the Core i7-12700KF brings the 12-core CPU down to just $220

We don’t see a lot of discounts on Intel’s LGA 1700 chips these days, as they’ve become the go-to alternative DDR4 CPUs when DDR5 prices are out of control. The Core i7-12700KF is on sale for Prime Day at a reasonable price of $220. We’ve seen the chip drop as low as $150 before, but it’s sold for above $250 for all of 2026 so far. Given Alder Lake inventory and DDR4 demand, we don’t anticipate another big price drop like we saw at the end of last year.

Based on our most recent testing, which you can see below, the Core i7-12700K (identical to the KF version, short of including integrated graphics), the chip is about 14% behind the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in games when paired with DDR4. With DDR5, however, the 12700K is on-par with AMD’s first X3D CPU. The chip earns back some stripes in applications, where it’s competitive with AMD’s newer Ryzen 7 9700X.

You can slot the Core i7-12700KF into motherboards sporting a 600- or 700-series chipset on the LGA 1700 socket, though you may need a BIOS update. Motherboards with the LGA 1700 socket are available with either DDR4 and DDR5 DIMM slots, though note the performance differences you can see above between DDR4 and DDR5. — Jake Roach

Get a fully modular 850W 80 Plus Gold PSU for just $64 with this Prime Day deal on a Thermaltake power supply

The Thermaltake Toughpower GT 850W is a fully modular power supply with an 80 Plus Gold efficiency certification, and critically, it supports the AVX 3.1 standard, fit with a native 16-pin connector for your GPU. Short of an RTX 5090, that should cover you for just about any build. You should use at least a 1000W PSU with the RTX 5090.

For the RTX 5080 and lower, however, 850W should do the trick at stock settings. One interesting quirk about this PSU is that the 16-pin connection is limited to 450W, while most higher-end PSUs rate that connection for up to 600W. You probably shouldn’t be pushing more than 450W through your GPU with an 850W PSU, but it’s a limitation to note nonetheless.

The PSU includes a 0 RPM mode for the fan, along with two 8-pin EPS cable, two dual 8-pin PCIe cables, a single 16-pin cable, two SATA cables, and a Molex cable. It also comes with overcurrent, overvoltage, over power, under voltage, over temperature, and short circuit protections. — Jake Roach

Get into MSI's MAG 272UP 4K OLED display for an all-time low price

32" 4K OLED monitors are the superstars of gaming displays right now, but if you'd rather have a denser 27" 4K display instead, Amazon has you covered with an all-time low price of $649.99 on MSI's MAG 272UP X24, making it the cheapest 27" 4K OLED we've seen by a wide margin.

The MAG 272UP comes packed with all the premium features you'd expect from a cutting-edge QD-OLED gaming monitor, including 99% DCI-P3 gamut coverage and DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification for vivid color and incredible contrast. You'll also enjoy enviably clear motion thanks to OLED's near-instant response times.

A DisplayPort 1.4a connector and two HDMI 2.1 ports are ready for your PC and consoles, and a USB Type-C port with DisplayPort Alt Mode support can charge connected devices with 15W PD. Get this sweet display for its cheapest ever price this Prime Day.

This ABS Cyclone Aqua prebuilt is on sale for $1,049 with an RTX 5060, Core i5-14400F, and 32GB of memory

One of the cheapest prebuilt deals we’ve seen so far on Prime Day, the ABS Cyclone Aqua comes with a Core i5-1440F, RTX 5060, 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. We’ve seen some prebuilts with this configuration for around $900, but only with 16GB of memory. This is the cheapest we’ve seen with a 32GB configuration.

ABS is Newegg’s house brand for custom-built PCs, so the specific components are actually listed. In this case, the RTX 5060 is Zotac’s Twin Edge OC model, while the memory is a kit from G.Skill’s Ripjaws V line. The SSD, meanwhile, is a Kingston SNV3S 1TB drive. The machine also sports an ASRock B760M-C/D4 motherboard and 650W 80 Plus Gold power supply.

Based on our most recent testing, there’s a growing gap in performance between DDR4 and DDR5 platforms, though that mostly applies to the higher-end of CPUs. The Core i5-14400F will see lower performance with DDR5 in most games, with older titles seeing little to no performance loss and newer titles dropping by upwards of 15%. — Jake Roach

Get the Netgear Orbi 770 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router (2-pack) for only $424

The Netgear Orbi 770 has received a steep price cut in time for the latest Prime Day festivities. The 2-pack carries a list price of $549.99, but is currently available with a $125 discount, taking the price to $424.99.

The main node (router) features three 2.5 GbE LAN ports and a dedicated 2.5 GbE WAN. The second node (satellite) only features two 2.5 GbE ports. Regarding wireless connectivity, the Orbi 770 supports 2.4 GHz at up to 688 Mbps, 5 GHz at up to 4,320 Mbps, and 6 GHz at up to 5,760 Mbps. It also covers up to 5,550 square feet, which should be more than adequate for most homes.

We reviewed the Orbi 770 (3-pack) when it first hit the market and praised its performance and utility, but lamented its price tag. This week’s sale most certainly addresses the pricing concerns.

Replenish your thermal paste reserves with Arctic MX-6 at less than $1/gram

If you go through a lot of thermal paste as we do in the TH labs (either for benchmarking, PC building, or graphics card TIM refreshments), you always want to have plenty on hand, as getting caught short can throw a wrench into emergency repairs on an overheating system or stop a component replacement cold. If you need to refresh your toolkit, Amazon has 8g tubes of Arctic's MX-6 for $7.49, a great low price and less than $1/g.

MX-6 is easy to apply, performs great, stays put with time, and cleans up without a fuss, so it does everything you want from a thermal compound and nothing you don't. I've used it on my CPUs and the eldest GPUs in the TH arsenal without hesitation, and it's always good to have more around. Pick some up on the cheap during this Prime Day. -- Jeff Kampman

Skytech has the ultimate gaming rig with an RTX 5090 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D on sale for $5,000

$5000 is a lot of money to spend on a PC, but considering how expensive RTX 5090s are, that's really not a bad price. Currently, the cheapest RTX 5090 you can buy will run you $4,200, and that's on sale. This Skytech rig somehow managed to cram 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 2TB of storage, and all the other trimmings into that remaining $800.

With prices right now, you wouldn't be able to build this same PC for less money (it'd run you a few hundred dollars more, at least). The barnds for each component vary, but Skytech is using a motherboard with the X870 chipset, alongside a PCIe Gen4 2TB NVMe SSD. — Jake Roach

Get the original SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless at an all-time low price of $237.49

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro is an all-out wireless headset, sporting a dedicated base station that doubles as a charger and 2.4GHz receiver, alongside two batteries, active noise cancellation, and simultaneous Bluetooth. The abundant features, plus a healthy dose of excellent sound quality, earned the headset an Editor’s Choice award in our SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless review.

It’s a headset that wants to do it all, and it does a fairly good job. Although I’ve mainly used my own pair for gaming, I’ve taken them on a couple of trips, as well. The ANC isn’t top-shelf like what you find on mainstream Sony and Bose headsets, but it still does a decent job isolating the sound while you’re on a plane. I mainly like them in a desktop setup, however.

The base station does a lot for the Arctis Nova Pro headset, allowing you to hotswap batteries, tweak EQ settings, and switch between two devices connected via USB-C. You can actually take both of those outputs into the SteelSeries Sonar software and blend them, allowing you to listen to two different sources at once. — Jake Roach

Add a great thermal camera to your toolbox with Topdon's TC002C Duo

A thermal camera is one of those handy tools that you might not need every day, but when you need it, you need it. Whether you need to figure out why something electronic "smells hot" or track down an air leak from a door or window, a good thermal camera makes the job quick and easy. And you can also just point it at your cat or dog for science.

If you don't yet have a thermal camera of your own, Topdon's TC002C Duo is the thermal imager we use in the TH labs for tasks like checking the temperature of power cables and laptops. It's surprisingly sensitive and has a high-resolution IR sensor for detailed images. And the companion app offers all sorts of neat visualization options. It's great, in other words, and Amazon has it for an all-time low price of $229.89 this Prime Day.

When you're buying a phone-dependent device like this, you want a tool, not a toy. You want it to last through multiple devices and work across vendors. The TC002C Duo has a USB-C connector and companion apps for iOS and Android, so you can be assured it'll work no matter who needs to use or borrow it. And it draws power from the host device, so it's always ready to go, unlike models with batteries that have to be charged separately and are never at the ready. Get this exceptionally handy tool for an all-time low price today. --Jeff Kampman

Get the Asus ROG Azoth X for $100 off its current retail price

Asus' Azoth line of wireless mechanical gaming keyboards are premium — and they usually come with a premium price. But you can grab the ROG Azoth X for just $169.99 at Best Buy right now, which is $100 off its listed retail price of $269.99 (though, when it debuted, it was priced at $299.99).

The ROG Azoth X is a 75-percent wireless mechanical gaming keyboard with a hot-swappable PCB and extra attention paid to case dampening. It features a distinct white case with the company's "Stellar" themed keycaps, which are white and black with accents in a blue-red gradient. It has an aluminum top plate and a plastic bottom case and a small OLED screen in the upper right corner. It offers a solid typing and gaming experience, though I didn't love the extra dampening in the space bar when I tested it (this is easy to remove or swap out, however). It comes with a soft-touch wrist rest and has bright RGB backlighting that displays especially well against the white case. You can read my full review of the ROG Azoth X here. — Sarah

Guard your PC setup against surges, brownouts, and blackouts with APC's Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2 1500VA/900W UPS

Amid the RAMpocalypse and NANDpocalypse, no PC or component is disposable. Acts of God like lightning strikes, power surges, brownouts, and blackouts that we might have accepted as troublesome but rare inconveniences in the recent past can now do apocalyptic damage to your wallet as well as your PC. So you should plug your valuable gear into a uninterruptible power supply as insurance. I can personally attest to the reliability of APC's Back-UPS Pro BR1500MS2, on deep discount at $218.99 at Amazon this Prime Day.

This 1500VA/900W unit has 10 outlets (six of which are battery-backed, all of which are surge-protected), so it fully protects the Tom's Hardware GPU lab test bench. It has plenty of capacity to let you ride out temporary power dips or gracefully shut down your gear in the face of extended outages. And its true sine wave output plays nicely with all types of electronic loads, so you can rest easy in the knowledge that any gear you plug into it will keep running if an outage does occur.

As a bonus, this unit has USB Type-A and USB Type-C charging points on its front panel, so you can always tap into it if you need to charge a phone or other small devices in a pinch. I've relied on this unit (and another, smaller one in its series) to protect all my gear for years. Get one for your own invaluable electronics this Prime Day. -- Jeff Kampman

Amazon Prime Day is upon us once more, and this year the retail titan's annual sale is more important than ever. With PC prices skyrocketing across the board, finding a discount on SSDs, RAM, GPUs, CPUs, and other components has never been harder or more important.

We aren't just selecting deals willy-nilly, either; our domain experts are curating a list of the best value items, often based on our in-depth reviews, benchmarks, and extensive historical pricing analysis to ensure that when we say it's a great deal, it truly is.

We'll be bringing you 24/7 coverage of the Prime Day event, which officially runs from June 23 through June 26. Remember, you'll need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of the best deals at Amazon.

Quick Links: Amazon Prime Day deals

• Amazon Prime Free Trial
• Amazon Prime Monthly Plan: $14.99
• Amazon Prime Annual Plan: $139
• Amazon: All Prime Day deals
• Amazon: 62% off computers and accessories deals
• Amazon: All Gaming GPU Deals
• Amazon: Up to $500 off Gaming Monitors
• Amazon: Desktop and gaming PCs
• A few of our other dedicated Hub Pages: Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best SSD deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best motherboard deals

Hottest Prime Day Tech Deals

Good morning and welcome to Amazon Prime Day at Tom's Hardware. We'll be live 24/7 this week bringing you all the latest from Amazon and rival sales, so stay tuned for deals on SSDs, RAM, GPUs, CPUs, 3D printers, tools, and more!

Don't forget your membership...

Remember, you'll need an Amazon Prime membership to take advantage of the best deals this week. Even the free 30-day trial will get you access:

• Amazon Prime Free Trial
• Amazon Prime Monthly Plan: $14.99
• Amazon Prime Annual Plan: $139

Lowest-ever price on the 9800X3D

Good morning from the UK, where the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU has just fallen to its lowest-ever price at Amazon, now just £339. The undisputed best gaming CPU on the market, this 8-core beast with 16 threads comes with clock speeds of up to 5.2 GHz, and shines in benchmark testing.

While this CPU has technically been dethroned by the more recent 9850X3D, that chips draws a lot more power than this one for negligible performance gains, making the 9800X3D the best bet overall for gaming. This will chew threw any 4K title, and paired with the right GPU is the first step to building the ultimate gaming PC.

An early OLED monitor

We're seeing a new lowest-ever price on this MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED monitor in the UK. As the name suggests, this 27-inch monitor has a 2560 x 1440 OLED panel and a mind-blowing 500Hz refresh rate. There's also a 0.03ms response time, DisplayHDR True Black 500, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, HDMI 2.1, and DP 1.4a.

Half price deals? We're on the case!

Building a PC in this economy is tough, but if you're going to go for it in 2026, you might as well save 50% on the case. Right now at Amazon UK, these two Corsair numbers are 50% and 49% off, respectively.

As you can see from our testing data, the 3500X runs cooler than rival NZXT's H5 flow case in CPU intensive workloads, with a difference of over two degrees at 130W power consumption:

Switch 2 at Woot

It's early in the US, I know, but the Switch 2 is currently $399 for new customers at Woot, or $419 for returning customers, a big saving on the recently revised price of $499.

The Switch 2 is now officially $499. This deal is listed at $449, which is already a $50 saving. If you're a new Woot customer you'll save $50 with code CHEAPSWITCH2, otherwise you'll save $30, bringing the price to $399 or $419, respectively. That's a big saving on this console, which has suffered under recent AI-driven price hikes. Limited to one per customer, we expect this to sell out extremely quickly.

UK gaming keyboard

There's a great deal at Amazon UK on this SteelSeries Apex Pro Mini Gen 3, a 60% keyboard with fully adjustable hall effect switches. The wired version of this is now just $132.89 instead of £179.99, a new lowest-ever price according to our price tracking.

The Tom's Hardware deals Discord

New to our operation for 2026 (for Prime Day and beyond) is a new Tom's Hardware deals Discord. We see hundreds of deals throughout the week that we simply don't have time to tell you about, or often discounts on products are lightning deals or low stock, selling out before we can even finish an article! To that end, we've created the Tom's Hardware deals Discord, a read-only server where you can get alerts to deals on a wide range of categories, tailored to suit you:

• Tom's Hardware deals Discord

Lenovo LOQ Gen 10 at Amazon UK

If you're in the market for a gaming laptop in the UK, this Lenovo LOQ Gen 10 might be the answer. With an Intel Core i5-13450HX and RTX 5060, this is great for some casual gaming as well as productivity. It also comes with a generous 24GB of RAM and 1TB SSD.

Make room for GTA VI

If you've got an Xbox Series X and you're running short on space, Seagate's official Storage Expansion cards are the way forward. They're not as cheap as they used to be thanks to the AI component crisis, but right now you can get the 2TB version for $219, which is the lowest price we've seen in a while. It's only $30 more than the 1TB version, making the 2x capacity a no-brainer.

The Seagate Storage Expansion range is built using Microsoft's Xbox Velocity Architecture, which means games stored on the drive run just the same as they do on your Xbox's hard drive. That means support for Quick Resume with no drop in frames or latency, so you don't have to move games around in order to play them.

Steal a MacBook Air

The M3 MacBook Air came out in 2024, so it's a couple of years old now. However, if you want a fantastic portable machine that will give you great battery life, this is not to be sniffed at. For just $200 more, this blows the MacBook Neo out of the water. Its M3 chip has an 8-core GPU and 10-core CPU, and you also get 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. That means you get a better CPU and GPU core count, twice the RAM, twice the storage, and higher memory bandwidth versus the Neo. The M3 also offers drastically better battery life and a host of other extra features.

An OLED monster

This 49-inch Odyssey OLED G9 is a mainstay of tech sales events these days. This Dual QHD QD-OLED monitor gets you an enormous 49-inch display, 144Hz refresh rate, and 1440p resolution for just $799. That's a return to the lowest-ever price we've seen on this model.

While we haven't reviewed this specific model, we loved the more potent 240Hz refresh model when we reviewed it. Get a monitor that can serve all your gaming and productivity needs. Why have loads of screens when you can just have one giant one?

Upgrade your networking for $8

I bought a TP-Link Litewave Switch recently, and it has changed my life. I used to run a cable to my PC and suffered Wi-FI over Xbox, because I didn't want the hassle of two cables coming from my router in the hallway through to my office. With a TP-Link Litewave 5, I now have a single high-quality cable serving the switch and two cables serving my PC and Xbox. It means I always get the fastest speed possible over a wired connection without ever having to move cables or change anything, and latency is much better as a result. Game changer.

Add some touchscreen to your setup

Over the weekend, this discount on the Corsair Xeneon Edge has been extremely popular. This 14.5-inch display is a desktop extension you can add to a PC case or anywhere on your desk. You can show apps like Spotify or YouTube, or pair it with iCUE to show off internal monitoring metrics like CPU and GPU temps.

Ends tonight!

We absolutely love Hoto's premium range of DIY tools here at Tom's Hardware. Right now you can get this 25-in-1 mini electric screwdriver set for just $29.98 instead of $39.99. That's a 25% saving on this USB-C rechargeable set that is useful for really any PC maintenance task you can think of. It comes in a nifty carry case, and you get 24 S2 steel bits along with the screwdriver itself.

Just $10 above MSRP

This PowerColor Reaper AMD Radeon RX 9070 at Woot is the cheapest model anywhere, just $10 more than MSRP and $20 less than the cheapest alternative.

As you can see from our testing the regular 9070 (this is not the XT version) easily outperforms the Nvidia RTX 4070 Ti and even the newer RTX 5070. It can't match the aforementioned 9070 XT, but that's why this card is $120 cheaper.

52% off the best looking gaming chair on the market

The Thermaltake Argent E700 is the winner of our best looking gaming chair award, and now it is just $619, a massive 52% off its usual Amazon Price and very close to its previous all-time-low.

This is a collaboration with Studio F.A. Porsche, so premium is in this chair's DNA. Our Thermaltake Argent E700 review makes clear what a stunner it is, too, with a gorgeous, glossy design that looks like it was taken straight from a real sports car.

The original downside? The price, which this incredible deal completely negates. You're getting a Porsche-designed gaming chair, made with real leather, with a brilliant finish and build quality, for just $619 here.

$220 off an 9800X3D + RTX 5070 gaming PC

Thanks to the AI price room, a pre-built gaming PC is now often the most affordable way to get a high spec rig. Luckily, this Best Buy deal brings down the cost of this 4K-capable CyberPowerPC machine, featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, to just $2,199.99.

Our CPU benchmarks will confirm what you already know: the 9800X3D is a powerhouse processor that continues to be our top pick as the best gaming CPU.

Eight cores, built on AMD's latest Zen 5 platform, with a boost clock speed of 5.2 GHz. The big deal, however, is that boosted L3 V-Cache, bumping it up to 96MB. That extra cache delivers the top gaming performance you'll expect with this rig, with 32GB of fast RAM and a 2TB SSD.

This is a machine built for 1440p and 4K gaming, and with this discount, it's one of the cheapest with this spec that you can buy right now.

Get 32GB DDR5 RAM for just $213 in this Newegg combo deal

RAM bundles at Newegg have become a fixture over recent months, and this one is a good option if you're planning a PC build or upgrade. This kit comes with 32GB of DDR5 RAM from Corsair, along with a Gigabyte Z890 motherboard and Intel Core Ultra 7 265KF CPU, for $861.97.

This deal means you'd be paying just $213 for 32GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM which, in this economy, is a fine deal indeed.

The Gigabyte motherboard is one we've reviewed before and is a solid mid-tier option for an Intel build, with the 265KF is a good enough choice for a budget-focused rig, featuring 20 total cores. It's overclockable, but it does lack an integrated GPU, so you will need a graphics card if you build with it.

LG's premium 27-inch RGB Tandem OLED 540 Hz/720 Hz dual-mode gaming monitor is $300 off right now

High-refresh-rate gaming monitors are all the rage these days, with LG being one of the top panel suppliers in the business. It should come as no surprise that LG would include these panels in its own line of gaming monitors, which brings us to this early Prime Day deal on the 27GX790B-B. The monitor has an MSRP of $999 but is already available for $300 off, bringing the price to just $699.99 at Amazon.

The LG 27GX790B-B is definitely a high-end "premium" monitor, featuring an RGB Tandem OLED panel with a 2560 x 1440 (QHD) resolution. More importantly, the panel has a native refresh rate of 540 Hz, which is already among the fastest available. However, if you're willing to drop the resolution to 720p (we're looking at you, eSports fiends), you can boost the refresh rate to a staggering 720 Hz. If you have the graphics muscle to handle pushing out 700+ FPS and you're willing to accept 720p resolution, this one's for you.

In addition to its speedy fundamentals, the 27GX790B-B also offers AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, features DisplayPort 2.1/HDMI 2.1 ports, and a built-in USB hub (with DisplayPort Alt Mode supported via its USB-C port). — Brandon Hill

Save $50 on the 25,000mAh, 200W Power Bank - Just $89.99 gets you a portable UGreen laptop charger in this Prime Day deal

Get a great deal on a 25,000 mAh 200W portable charger. UGreen's Nexode power bank is currently on sale for only $89.99 ($50 off). You can charge up to three devices (2x USB-C, 1x USB-A) simultaneously with the Nexode, about to output up to 200W (90Wh) total output via USB-C (140W max for one port, 100W each when both ports are used) so charging your laptops or other devices will be fast as it uses the latest PD 3.1 charging.

The TFT display shows real-time information, including battery level, remaining time, output/input power, voltage, current, and other information, and is quite useful when looking for high-level/at-a-glance information. UGreen also boasts about its durability, claiming 80% capacity after 1,000 discharges.

UGreen also throws in a single USB-C to USB-C cable so you can get to using the device right out of the box. You should jump on this deal now before it's too late.

Save $500 on this Lenovo Legion

This excellent Lenovo Legion laptop is $500 off at B&H Photo right now. For just $1,599, you get an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX 24-core processor, RTX 5070, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

Perhaps my favorite feature of this laptop is the OLED display, which is a 2560 x 1600 OLED panel with 165 Hz that will look fantastic and really put that 5070 to good use. The 24-core processor is excellent for both gaming and productivity, and the RTX 5070 will give you good frame rates at this resolution. You'll also get Wi-Fi 7 for connectivity, as well as Bluetooth 5.3. For ports, there's Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, and USB-A.

Save an incredible $100 off this TP-Link Wifi 7 Router

If you want to make the most out of network performance, 95% of the time you'll want to purchase your own router in lieu of using any hardware provided by your ISP. This not only often includes better specs but also a greater degree of administrative control over your network. Today, we're excited to have found a good deal on the TP-Link Tri-band BE9300 Wi-Fi 7 router, which should be plenty suitable for most users. It usually goes for around $249, but right now it is discounted to $149.99, a whopping 40% off.

The TP-Link BE9300 is a tri-band router offering Wi-Fi 7 support, which operates on a 6 GHz band. Alongside the Wi-Fi 7 are optional 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi options. You get a handful of ports to take advantage of, including a USB 3.0 port. As far as network support goes, you get five Ethernet ports to use — one of which is a dedicated WAN port, with the other four providing LAN support.

Like we said before, administrative control is always ideal when it comes to network security. In this case, you can implement WPA, WPA2, and WPA3 encryption options to help protect your network. The TP-Link is compatible with other EasyMesh environment devices produced by TP-Link. To control the router, TP-Link recommend using their Tether mobile app.

In general, this is a pretty good deal, but if you want to get a better idea of where it stands against the competition, check out our list of the best Wi-Fi routers and see which ones we recommend.

Get AMD's eight-core Ryzen 7 7700X at a 42% discount to start your AM5 rig

AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X is down to one of the lowest prices it has ever seen. You can pick up the eight-core / 16-thread chip sporting the Zen 4 architecture for $232, which is 42% off its list price of $399. We’ve seen the Ryzen 7 7700X drop as low as $225, but we’re splitting hairs. This is a solid deal on a relatively new AMD chip, which is worth the price of admission alone. It slots into the AM5 socket, which AMD says it’s supporting with new processors through 2029, giving you a solid runway for upgrades in the future.

The Ryzen 7 7700X is a solid all-around CPU. It doesn’t sport AMD’s coveted 3D V-Cache, so you shouldn’t expect gaming performance that can rival CPUs that cost twice as much, like the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. Still, the 7700X holds its own. It’s nearly as fast as Intel’s new Core Ultra 5 250K Plus in games, and only about 6% behind AMD’s newer Ryzen 7 9700X, which uses the Zen 5 architecture.

As with most of AMD’s CPUs, the Ryzen 7 7700X is unlocked for overclocking. It already has a decently high boost clock speed at 5.4 GHz, but you can push beyond the default 105W TDP to achieve higher clock speeds. That won’t give you a big boost in multithreaded performance — with eight cores, the Ryzen 7 7700X has limited legroom in intense multithreaded workloads — but it will push lightly-threaded performance and gaming performance up.

Get this Acer 27-inch 240Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor for just $330

If you’re looking for value in the OLED gaming monitors segment, we have some good news for you. Thanks to OLED panels flooding the market and newer OLED technologies seemingly arriving every month, we have great deals on monitors like the Acer Predator X27U, which is currently selling for $329.99 at Amazon, a significant discount from its usual $549.99 asking price.

Any time OLED monitors, especially with a QD-OLED panel, dip below $400, we start taking notice. And in the case of the X27U, it’s even closer to the $300 mark. You’ll get a 26.5-inch panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a speedy 240 Hz refresh rate. The monitor supports AMD FreeSync Premium and comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports and a single DisplayPort 1.4 hookup. It also has a full range of tilt, swivel, and height adjustments.

The X27U is a relatively low-frills QD-OLED monitor, but at this price point, it’s hard to complain given its fundamentals.

An extremely enticing Alienware deal

This Alienware gaming PC comes with an RTX 5070 and Intel Core Ultra 7 265F. While it only has 16GB of RAM, at $1,479, it is one of the best prices we've seen on a prebuilt this week, and certainly cheaper than building your own machine. It's all thanks to a decent discount on the 5070 upgrade option on the Alienware website. For $270, you can choose to upgrade to 32GB of RAM, which is still a very good price, but 16GB is not a bad trade-off given the rest of the rig.

As you can see from our testing the Core Ultra 265 falls just behind the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in terms of value in our FPS/$ data, making it a fantastic pick for a mid-range rig. Otherwise, you get a 1TB hardware. While the motherboard is proprietary, there's space for an extra M.2 slot, and you should be able to upgrade most components in future should you so wish.

Bundle your way to a new PC

Buying individual components, especially RAM and SSDs, is very difficult in 2026. Thankfully, some bundles for components make the overall cost a bit more palatable, if not exactly pre-AI crunch in price. Bundles like this Ryzen 5 9600X with a motherboard, RAM, and SSD will save you a bit of cash on buying all the components individually, and you can put that saved cash towards a new GPU, case, cooler, or anything else you can think of!

This particular deal gets you a full ATX motherboard, the Ryzen 5 9600X, and 16GB of Team Group RAM. This is a great start to a budget AM5 build. If you take a look at some of the other bundles on offer you'll also find Intel Core Ultra options with 32GB of RAM, or even a Ryzen 7 7800X3D bundle for excellent gaming performance. Take a look at our full round up:

• The secret to building a PC during the RAMpocalypse are bundles — here are some of the best ones, and why they're so popular

Get an RTX 5080 upgrade at a price that's finally right

The GeForce RTX 5080 is the second-best-performing graphics card for 4K gaming and RT after the indomitable RTX 5090, but that card has only rarely been priced in line with the performance boost it offers over the already impressive RTX 5070 Ti.

As we roll into Prime Day, however, you can finally find an RTX 5080 that's priced proportionately. Zotac's Solid Core OC RTX 5080 is on sale at Newegg and Amazon for $1249 right now, and at 13% or so above the midpoint of 5070 Ti prices, that's right in line with the 16% or so better performance this card offers over the 5070 Ti at 4K.

If you want an incredible 4K gaming foundation, whether for native rendering or as a starting point for DLSS upscaling and MFG, this Zotac RTX 5080 is a rare opportunity to pick one up at a price that's not wildly inflated. And Zotac's large triple-fan cooler promises quiet running to go with this card's impressive performance. If you've been on the fence about a 5080 upgrade, this is the time to pounce. -- Jeff Kampman

Get ASRock’s Z890 Taichi for $199.99 for Prime Day - the motherboard market is so bad, you can buy a flagship-class motherboard for 15th-gen Intel processors at less than half price

ASRock has been known to provide high-quality motherboards at reasonable prices. The Taichi is a flagship-class motherboard that, at the time of release, cost $459.99. Now you can find one of the best motherboards for your 15th-generation Intel processor for under $200. That’s right, you’re saving more ($260, 56% off) than you’re paying for this awesome motherboard.

While I didn’t cover the board for this site, I did review it elsewhere and loved the SIX M.2 sockets, robust power delivery, top-notch audio solution using the flagship codec plus a DAC, and fast networking with integrated Wi-Fi 7 and two ethernet ports (2.5 and 5 GbE). There are plenty of USB ports on the rear IO, including two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C and 10 other USB-A ports. The Taichi always did well against their rivals as one of the least expensive flagships available for a given platform. And now, you get it for under $200? Crazy.

It’s not all about the hardware, though; the Taichi’s premium appearance and 'cog' theme will also look good inside any dark build theme. For those who like RGB lighting, there are two locations (the VRM heatsink and the bottom-plate M.2 heatsinks), and they give off a nice glow inside your chassis. For $199, there isn’t another motherboard that comes close to this Prime Day 2026 deal.

TP-Link’s Deco BE63 Wi-Fi 7 mesh router is a great bargain at $249.99

When it comes to affordable Wi-Fi 7 mesh routers, it doesn’t get much better than the TP-Link Deco BE63. Not only does it offer tri-band coverage (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz), but it also offers plenty of performance for typical household needs. Amazon currently has the Deco BE63 two-pack on sale for $249.99, a nearly 30 percent discount compared to its MSRP.

Each wireless node features four 2.5 GbE ports, any of which can be used for connecting to your cable, fiber, or 5G modem. I personally used this very same Deco BE63 two-pack in my home for the past year. I have one node downstairs in my living room connected to my T-Fiber home, and the second node upstairs in my home office. The two nodes use a wired backhaul, connected via CAT6 cabling that runs up my home’s exterior wall, then snakes across the attic.

With my setup, I can take full advantage of my 2 Gbps fiber connection with my wired connections and get extremely close using my wireless clients. In addition, since I have a home full of TP-Link/Tap smart switches, plugs, and cameras, the Deco router app also serves as a central control hub for the devices without needing to install an additional app. — Brandon Hill

Save an incredible $150 (45%) on Acer’s 27-inch Nitro 1440p monitor - just $179.99 buys a wicked-fast 270Hz IPS gaming monitor

With the RAMapocolypse in full swing and no end in sight, unless you’re looking at combo deals or prebuilt systems, chances are you aren’t upgrading your RAM, storage, or graphics card, but we’re seeing some awesome deals on monitors that aren’t affected by the AI boom and subsequent storage.

Take this Acer Nitro (XV270U Z1bmiiprx) for $179.99. It's a 27-inch 2560x1440 (WQHD) IPS panel that supports up to 270 Hz over DisplayPort (144Hz over HDMI). While its brightness isn’t the highest we’ve seen at 250 nits, it does support AMD Freesync Premium technology to eliminate screen tearing, and it has a fast 0.55ms GTG response time that reduces ghosting. The IPS panel support 99% sRGB color gamut for accurate color reproduction and Acer VisionCare technologies (think blue light shield, flicker-free tech, etc).

The Nitro sports Zero frame technology for a thin bezel, and is supported by the ‘Ergostand’ with Tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustment capabilities. If you happen to require sound, it also has two integrated speakers (2W each). In all, this is a great deal on a solid monitor. If you’re at 1080p or already using a lower-refresh-rate 1440p monitor, the Acer Nitro XV270U is a worthwhile upgrade. Right now, it’s the least expensive 27-inch 270Hz WQHD IPS panel I can find, and at under $180, it’s a steal.

Score AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X at a new all-time low price

AMD’s Ryzen 9 9900X doesn’t get a lot of attention, flanked by chips that make more sense for a lot of builders. At its current price, however, the chip is worth a look. It’s down to an all-time low price of $329, which is a steal. It’s a 12-core / 24-thread part on AMD’s latest Zen 5 architecture, and it boasts boost clock speeds of up to 5.6 GHz.

Based on our testing, the Ryzen 9 9900X is a solid all-around CPU. It’s in the middle of the pack for gaming, beating out Intel’s Core i5s from the last few generations while falling short of 3D V-Cache chips like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. The extra cores help the Ryzen 9 9900X stretch out in multithreaded applications, however, beating out Intel’s Core i7-14700K and nearly matching the newer Core Ultra 7 265K.

The chip slots into AM5 motherboards, and supports both 600- and 800-series chipsets, though you may need to update your BIOS. AMD says it will support the AM5 socket with new releases through 2029, as well.

Grab this NVMe to SATA offline cloner for only $20, 60% off its list price

The oddities around Prime Day are where you find the best deals, and that’s certainly the case here with this Rosewill NVMe to SATA cloner. It supports standard SATA drives, including power and data connections for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives. The M.2 slot also supports SATA drives, along with much more common NVMe drives.

The device connects to your PC with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection, giving you 10Gbps of bandwidth to play with. You can certainly use this device as a minimalist dock; it supports both read and write functions, assuming your drive is using a compatible file system with your OS. With two drives connected, you can clone them offline using just the dock, or with a program like Macrium Reflect.

You can use just about any drive with the dock, as well. In addition to SATA and NVMe support for the M.2 slot, the dock has mounting points for 2230, 2242, 2260, and 2280 drives. With the M.2 slot, you can use drives up to 4TB, while the SATA connection supports up to 18TB.

Get 65W of power in a portable GaN charger for just $26 with this lightning deal

It’s remarkable how cheap GaN chargers have gotten over the past few years. UGreen is selling its 4-in-1 65W GaN charger for just $26 on a lightning deal ahead of Prime Day. That’s 35% off list price and a few dollars cheaper than competing chargers we’ve featured in our Prime Day USB charger hub.

The charger comes with four ports total, including three USB-C connections and a single USB-A port. Two of the USB-C ports support the full 65W output, but only one of them at a time. The third USB-C port can supply up to 30W, meanwhile, and the USB-A port tops out at 22.5W.

You can still use multiple devices at the same time, however. If you plug, for example, the Steam Deck into one of the USB-C ports, you can still distribute 20W across the other ports.

Onkyo’s feature-packed, attractive Creator Series speakers are back down to their all-time low price – some of the best speakers we’ve tested, offering excellent connectivity for PC, TV, or stereo, steups

I tested Onkyo’s Creator Series speakers last year, both the GX-30ARC, with 4-inch woofers and HDMI (ARC) support, and the smaller 3-inch GX-10DB. The speakers look great and pack lots of features, like Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C connectivity, a built-in phono preamp, and HDMI ARC on the higher-end model, which make them surprisingly versatile.

The larger GX-30ARC pair earned a spot on our Best PC Speakers list, in part because they also include speaker stands to better angle the sound to your ears. Just keep in mind that the speaker stands are plastic. Our chief complaint was price, but Amazon is offering both models at all-time lows for Prime Day. These aren’t new low prices, but they are the lowest prices we’ve seen on these attractive, great-sounding speakers.

As someone who remembers Japan's Onkyo brand fondly for its 80s- and 90s-era Hi-Fi equipment, I was pleasantly surprised by these speakers, both for their sound quality and looks, but also for the plethora of modern connectivity. With their phono preamp, you can hook either speaker directly to a record player, and both also feature a subwoofer out if you want to add some low-end thump.

I enjoyed these speakers so much that, I am still using the smaller GX-10DB pair as the sound system for my bedroom projector. I’m not the type who likes earth-shaking sound for watching movies, so this 34-watt speaker set delivers plenty of sound for my movie needs. The 50-watt GX-30ARC get louder, delivering 99 dBA from a meter away, which might be overkill for some if you’re planning on putting the speakers on your desk.

But the GX-30ARC are also a little large for that, making the GX-10DB a better fit for those looking to outfit their PC with some serious sound while keeping their desk looking stylish.

Both speakers also come with a remote for media controls and input selection. Just note that, the input indicator light that lives behind the cloth speaker grilles can be a little bright during low-light settings. Personally, I stick one of these LED-dimming stickers over the light on the GX-10DB and have been super happy with these speakers ever since.

TP-Link’s pocket Wi-Fi 7 router is a $89 bargain for frequent travelers

When you need a small, pocketable router to carry with you for work or vacation, the TP-Link TL-WR3602BE is one of the best options on the market. And Amazon is currently selling the device for $89.99, a $40 discount off its MSRP.

The TL-WR3602BE, which we reviewed in 2025, is incredibly compact, measuring just 5 x 3.7 x 4 inches and weighing roughly 8 ounces. But don't knock that small size: it still provides dual-band Wi-Fi 7 coverage (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz) and includes a 2.5 GbE WAN, GbE LAN, and a USB-C port for power. Although the TL-WR3602BE includes a USB-C power adapter in the box, its miserly power requirements let you power it from a USB power bank.

The router also offers several operating modes, including the ability to share a paid Wi-Fi connection on an airplane (this would be a handy place to leverage the aforementioned power bank) or in a hotel room. And you can even tether your smartphone to the router via USB or connect to a USB cellular modem.

Get this Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti for just $900 as Prime Day swings around

Nvidia's GeForce RTX 5070 Ti recently earned our pick as the best all-around enthusiast graphics card for gaming in 2026 thanks to its strong baseline performance for both raster and RT gaming at 1440p and 4K.

The one catch is that the price for that all-round excellence has been quite high of late. We found that you can expect to pay $1099 or so at the midpoint of RTX 5070 Ti prices during our recent research for our guide to the best graphics cards in 2026, as well as our work for the 2026 GPU Benchmarks Hierarchy.

But as Amazon Prime Day rolls around, both Best Buy and Newegg are making Asus' Prime RTX 5070 Ti available for just $900 — the cheapest we've seen one of these cards go for in a long time.

We use the OC Edition of this Asus card for our own testing in the Tom's Hardware labs, and its clean design, quiet triple-fan cooler, and full-length metal backplate all make for a fine example of the 5070 Ti. The base Prime 5070 Ti on sale here sacrifices only 45 MHz of stock clocks to the OC Edition—a difference you'll never notice in games.

But you'll definitely feel the extra $50 to $100 in your pocket compared to the next-cheapest 5070 Tis out there, and this Asus Prime card offers an all-around nicer build than most board partners' most attainable product lines.

Beyond its strong baseline performance and 16GB of GDDR7 memory, the RTX 5070 Ti's support for superior DLSS 4.5 upscaling and Multi Frame Generation makes it easy to achieve fluid, responsive gaming across a broad range of resolutions, target frame rates, and quality settings. Especially for cutting-edge path-traced games, you'll want DLSS 4.5 and MFG at your disposal for the best experience.

If you've been waiting for an RTX 5070 Ti upgrade to elevate your gaming PC and missed out on lower prices late last year, this Asus card is the best opportunity that we've seen so far during the Prime Day stretch. Don't wait. -- Jeff Kampman

32GB of DDR5 and 2TB of SSD capacity now feels like a luxury... (this is the worst timeline)

It wasn't that long ago that 32GB of DDR5 memory and 2TB of SSD capacity were not thought of as a luxury, but the ongoing memory and storage pricing crisis has completely changed the calculus. Due to insane pricing increases, finding what was once considered table stakes at a decent price point is wonderful, as we see with this prebuilt gaming machine from CyberPowerPC that comes armed with that magical 32GB of DDR5 and a 2TB SSD.

This rig has plenty of power under the hood, too, with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D running the show and an Nvidia RTX 5070 pumping out the visuals.

This powerful combo can handle 1440p gaming with aplomb, and allow you to reach up to 4K for some titles, especially if you're leveraging DLSS and the other bells and whistles that come with Nvidia GPUs. — Paul Alcorn

Samsung's 49-inch, 32:9 Odyssey G9 is back down to its lowest price ever at $665

The Samsung Odyssey G9 is a monitor that wants to do everything. It's a 49-inch display with a 32:9 aspect ratio — what Samsung calls super ultrawide — and a resolution of 5120 x 1440. It's basically the result of stitching two 27-inch 1440p monitors together, just without the bezels to block your view.

Samsung has had several variations of the Odyssey G9 over the years, but this is the G95C model. It's curved with a 1000R curvature, and it uses a VA panel with typical brightness of 450 nits and a static contrast of 2500:1. The panel supports a 240Hz refresh rate, as well.

At $665, this monitor is back down the lowest price it's ever sold for, and it looks like the deal is only on Amazon right now. On Samsung's website, the G95C is still listed for $800. — Jake Roach

Grab a sweet triple-fan MSI RTX 5070 for just $30 above MSRP

We've seen plenty of good deals on Radeon cards leading into Prime Day, but GeForces haven't seen as many deep discounts. Right now, though, MSI's Shadow 3X OC GeForce RTX 5070 is taking the fight to cheap RX 9070s at Newegg with a promo code offer that cuts the final price to just $579.99, or just $30 above MSRP — the lowest price we've seen so far this week for our best midrange graphics card pick.

To take advantage of the deal, you will need a Newegg account if you don't already have one. Click the "FantasTech Discount Available" link on the product page, enter the email associated with your Newegg account in the pop-up that appears, and ensure that you're logged in before applying the promo code in your cart.

If you can get through that minor bit of friction, you'll enjoy a great price on a great midrange graphics card. The RTX 5070 offers great 1440p performance across both raster and RT games, and it can even game well at 4K in a pinch. You can dial in DLSS 4.5 upscaling and Multi Frame Generation to further tune performance to taste. Enjoy. -- Jeff Kampman

MSI's MAG 272URDF E16 4K monitor offers dual-mode versatility for cheap

In this era of ballooning prices, a gaming monitor upgrade offers some of the best bang for your buck of any component upgrade. Case in point: MSI's MAG 272URDF E16, a dual-mode Rapid IPS display that lets you have both the crispy detail of 4K and the responsiveness of 320Hz 1080p gaming in one display. Best of all, this versatile monitor is just $259.99 at B&H right now (or $299.99 at Newegg).

Unlike many cheap monitors, the 272URDF E16 doesn't cut many corners to hit this low price. It still boasts a 400-nit maximum brightness, a wide 93% DCI-P3 color gamut, and variable refresh rates from 48 to 160 Hz in 4K mode and 48 to 320Hz in 1080p mode.

It offers one DisplayPort 1.4a connector and two console-ready HDMI 2.1 ports, plus a built-in USB 2.0 hub for peripherals. And its fully articulated stand still offers height, tilt, pivot, and swivel adjustments.

Get this versatile, budget-friendly display and enjoy the best image quality modern upscalers like DLSS 4.5 and FSR 4 can offer in AAA games, along with fast, responsive gaming in more competitive titles. What's not to love? -- Jeff Kampman

More Prime Day Tech Deals

If you're looking for dedicated pages with loads of deals in specific categories, hit any of these pages below -- yes, we have over 20 dedicated hub pages that are updated constantly.

Best Tech and PC deals | Best gaming PC deals | Best RAM combo deals | Best 3D printer deals | Best RAM deals | Best gaming laptop deals | Best monitor deals | Best Wi-Fi Router deals | Best GPU deals | Best SSD deals | Best hard drive HDD deals | Best CPU deals | Best gaming chair deals | Best PC building tool deals | Best PC peripherals deals | Best filament and resin deals | Best motherboard deals | Best CPU cooler deals | Best PC case deals | Best Dell and Alienware deals | Best USB charger deals | Best gaming and productivity laptop deals under $1,000 | Best laptop PC deals

Also, you can join the Tom's Hardware deals Discord for up-to-the-minute hardware deals.

Get a more powerful Steam Machine for less money with this Stormcraft RTX 5060 prebuilt

The Steam Machine just released at the gobsmacking price of $1,050 for the 512GB model (make sure to read our Steam Machine review), and this Stormcraft RTX 5060 prebuilt puts that price to shame. Not only is it more powerful with an RTX 5060 and much higher power limits, it’s also cheaper at $900 and comes with twice the storage space.

Valve has said that it’s broadening support for SteamOS, and you can download the OS and install it on just about anything right now (including this prebuilt). The heart of the machine is the RTX 5060 with the Core i5-14400F. The kicker, and the reason why the price is so low, is that the machine uses DDR4 memory. The same desktop with 32GB of DDR5 is currently selling for $1,600.

Although DDR5 is ideal, rumor has it that Intel is prepping a release of new processors on the LGA 1700 socket, giving this desktop some runway for future upgrades. Combined with DLSS 4.5 for upscaling and multi-frame generation, this Stormcraft desktop can run circles around the Steam Machine for less money. — Jake Roach