*OK, the Ryzen 9 5950X is technically faster, but it costs way more and the difference in gaming performance is miniscule. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D also looks promising, but hasn’t yet been released and will likely cost more than this 5900X while packing fewer cores.
Get an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X CPU + Xbox Game Pass for PC (3M) for £345 w/ code SAVE20
I’ve used the Ryzen 7 5800X in my own work PC for months, and I’ve been incredibly impressed with the single-core speed AMD managed to unlock with its Ryzen 5000 processors. The 5800X is also a good choice for gaming, but it packs all of its cores into the same complex, making it harder to cool than the two-complex 5900X. It’s also not particularly competitive on price at the moment, costing £310 - so paying an extra £35 for 50% more cores is a pretty awesome deal. Right, back to the 5900X deal. If you’re not familiar with Xbox Game Pass for PC, it’s basically a Netflix equivalent for PC games, letting you play hundreds of titles for as long as you’re subscribed to the service, complete with Xbox achievements. There’s a really good selection of titles on there, and first-party Xbox titles that get a PC release are available day one for free, so it’s a pretty nice way to explore the limits of your new gaming processor. The Ryzen 9 5900X is compatible with a wide range of AM4 motherboards, but some may require a BIOS update in order to support these latest Ryzen 5000 CPUs. Google is your friend here, but if you get am AMD 400-series (B450, X470) or 500-series (B550, X570) motherboard with a USB BIOS flashback feature, you should be good to go - just double-check the compatibility before you hit ‘buy’.
