This is still the best CPU for most players, and it’s never been cheaper

There’s a lot of debate about what the best CPU is at the moment, mainly because Intel and AMD can’t stop releasing new ones. Although it can be difficult to keep up with the latest and greatest processors, I’m not mad. There are now so many viable DDR5-compatible options out there that anyone who hasn’t upgraded to a current-gen system yet has ample opportunity to do so. And, as we head into Black Friday, all of these great gaming chips will only get more affordable as they try to compete with one another.

Take the Intel Core i5-13600K, for example, which is still my favorite CPU to recommend to most players. You can currently grab it for $215 at Amazon, which is the most affordable it’s ever been at the retailer since it launched to the tune of $329. I grant you, this CPU hasn’t been at its MSRP for a while now, and since April it’s been slowly falling down in price. Even if you look at its average cost at Amazon though, which is $253, this is still a $38 reduction.

Part of the reason why I awarded the 13600K with the top spot on our best CPU for gaming guide is because of its bang for buck factor. It might wear the label of an “i5”, but this is an i9 from a few years prior in disguise, and beefed up with better architecture. The same value currently applies to the i5 variants from both the 12th and 13th Intel generations too. The 12600K is only $169 at Amazon, which is silly money to pay for a chip that one of our editors paired with an RTX 4090 and faced next to no bottlenecks. The more recent 14600K is only $256, so if you’re willing to spend a little more, maybe some futureproofing might appeal.

Should you buy the Intel Core i5-13600K?

(Image credit: Future / Duncan Robertson)

Until very recently, the Intel Core i5-13600K was the CPU I used in my own gaming PC, and while gaming in 4K and putting it under 4K content creation loads, it never let me down. Some may argue that AMD’s 3D V-Cached CPUs may be the best for gaming overall, or might stipulate that the Intel Core i9-13900K will give you better performance. For that reason, let me make myself clear.

The 13600K isn’t going to give you the be-all and end-all of performance from a modern processor, but it will absolutely, without doubt, give your average gamer everything they will need to play modern games or do heavy content creation. This may be surprising to many because the stigma remains that you need an i7 or an i9 for these sorts of tasks. That certainly used to be the case, but when the 13th Gen i5 rocks 14 cores and 20 threads, as well as a boost clock of 5.1GHz, there’s no need to spend more on an i7 or i9.

If any of you were paying attention throughout the summer, you might have heard some rumblings that the 13th and 14th Generation of Intel CPUs were becoming volatile. For a full rundown of what was going on, check out my feature where I tell you if it’s safe to buy Raptor Lake CPUs again. In short, this isn’t a reason not to buy, because extended warranties and motherboard patches seemed to have solved the issues.

Of course, this discount comes right after Intel announced its Arrow Lake desktop processors, which need an updated motherboard and slot into a new processor socket. With that new wave coming before the end of the month, and Black Friday CPU deals right around the corner, there’s every chance we’ll see even better desktop processor prices in a month’s time.

If you’re planning on upgrading more PC parts this Winter, check out Black Friday gaming PC deals, Black Friday graphics card deals, and Black Friday SSD deals.