Our alternate pick for the best gaming CPU is $190 cheaper than the 9800X3D right now - pick up the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X for just $289

If you're after the very best gaming desktop CPU, then the good news is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D from AMD is back in stock at most retailers for around the $479 MSRP list price. However, for $190 less than our top pick, you can still bag an AM5 9000-series processor with the same 8-cores and 16-threads, just a lot less cache.

Head to Amazon, where in the Big Spring Sale, AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X is only $289. Although it's not a great time to build a new PC due to the GPU shortages, if you already have a pre-existing AM5 system and are looking for a CPU upgrade, the 9700X will slot straight in. If you're upgrading from an AM4 system, then the gains will obviously be much larger, but you will need a new motherboard and RAM to go with it.

Although the Ryzen 7 9700X didn't set the PC world alight when it first launched, optimizations to Windows and firmware updates have much improved this processor's performance in applications and gaming. AMD's 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread CPU, which has a base clock of 3.8 GHz and the ability to boost up to 5.5 GHz. There is plenty of headroom for overclocking on this CPU, and it even has a low TDP of just 65W, though you can push this higher if you want to get more out of the chip.

Our review of the Ryzen 7 9700X gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. We weren't initially impressed by this CPU, but since its release, the performance has improved and now we can easily recommend this processor as a great alternative pick for the best gaming CPU.