I've searched every retailer, and none of them beat these six Prime Day CPU deals at Amazon

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D | $400 $341 at Amazon
Save $59 - Leading the charge on this list of Prime Day CPU deals is what I consider to be the best pound-for-pound processor on the shelves. The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is like a piece of gaming hardware wizardry. It makes use of clever architecture to provide you with excellent gaming and content creation performance.

Buy it if:

✅ You want excellent price-to-performance
✅ You want to play games in 4K

Don't buy it if:

❌ You have an LGA1700 motherboard

Price check: Newegg | Walmart | Best Buy

UK: £326 at Amazon

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | $299 $160 at Amazon
Save $139 - This is an amazing budget option if you're looking to build a rig without spending a small fortune. I tested out the slightly modernized version of this chip, the AMD Ryzen 5 8600G, and I was blown away by the amount of power something this affordable could get me. Usually, people are hesitant to use CPUs like this for 4K PCs, but this is more than capable.

Buy it if:

✅ You're building on a budget
✅ You still want excellent gaming potential

Don't buy it if:

❌ You plan to play RTS games in 4K max settings

Price check: Newegg | Walmart | Best Buy

UK: £159.99 at Amazon

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X | $549 $303 at Amazon
Save $246 - This is a much larger saving, and that's because the Ryzen 9 processors tend to be a lot more expensive to begin with. We recently reviewed the Ryzen 9 9900X, and based on the minimal improvements we saw over the older versions (ie, this one), the Ryzen 7000 looks like much better value.

Buy it if:

✅ You want a Ryzen 9 for fewer compromises
✅ You still want room to upgrade

Don't buy it if:

❌ You can afford a newer X3D model

Price check: Newegg | Walmart | Best Buy

UK: £281 at Amazon

Intel Core i5-12600KF | $189 $122 at Amazon
Save $67 - For those looking for a quick fix while building a DDR5 rig for the first time, this is a surprisingly good deal - don't let the age of this processor fool you. My colleague and fellow Hardware Editor Phil was using this chip to pair with the RTX 4090 when they reviewed it, and it was more than capable of keeping up at the time. The good news here is that you have room to upgrade. The version with integrated graphics is also on offer, but if you've got a graphics card already, there's no need to spend more on that version.

Buy it if:

✅ You're on a tight budget
✅ You don't need integrated graphics

Don't buy it if:

❌ You're looking for something newer

Price check: Newegg | Walmart

UK: £117 at Amazon

Intel Core i7-14700K | $320 $272 at Amazon
Save $48 - In my eyes, this is the best pound-for-pound Intel CPU at the moment. By all accounts, it's better at gaming tasks than the newest Core Ultra 256 range, and it provides a decent, middle-of-the-road price compared to the performance boosts of the i9 options. It also improves upon the thermal performance of the Intel Core i7-13700K, which was an absolute must.

Buy it if:

✅ You want great gaming performance without spending big on an i9
✅ You want something on the newer side

Don't buy it if:

❌ You don't have an LGA1700 motherboard socket

Price check: Newegg | Walmart | Best Buy

UK: £290 at Amazon

Intel Core Ultra 7 256K | $404 $259 at Amazon
Save $145 - I usually don't recommend the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, but having just overseen a review of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, I'm slightly more taken by it. When these chips launched, they required you to have a new motherboard and were worse at gaming and content creation tasks than the previous versions (which were going through a PR crisis). After updates through BIOS firmware and the like, they're now worth considering if you want a brand-new motherboard. They're also cheaper than some of the 14th gen options, which is unheard of.

Buy it if:

✅ You've secured an LGA1800 motherboard
✅ You want something up-to-date

Don't buy it if:

❌ You're upgrading on an LGA1700 motherboard

Price check: Newegg | Walmart | Best Buy

UK: £263.99 at Amazon