January brought a lot of CPU options to our attention from AMD and Intel, and as a result we’ve made a whole host of changes to the processor column of our main chart!

New and Old CPUs, New and Old RAM

Some of the CPUs coming to our chart this month are brand new options, like the R5 7600 (no X). Some are older options which now have more reviews, like the i5-13700K. And some are worthwhile variants of chips we were already recommending, like the i9-13900KF.

Additionally, DDR5 memory is now a lot more affordable, so we can recommend it in more tiers. But it is still priced higher than DDR4 RAM, so we still cannot recommend DDR5 RAM everywhere.

The Full Changelog

The list of changes (by tier) are as follows:

• • • • Very good: Replaced i5-12400F with i5-13400F, added new mobos, added DDR5 RAM
      • Great: Replaced i5-12400F with R5 7600 and R5 7600X, added new mobos, added DDR5 RAM
      • Superb: Added i5-13600KF as an option, added new mobos, added DDR5 RAM
      • Excellent: Replaced i5-12600K with R5 7600X, added new mobos, added DDR5 RAM
      • Outstanding: Replaced R5 7600X with i5-13600KF and i5-13600K, added new mobos
      • Exceptional: Replaced i5-13600K with i7-13700KF and i7-13700K
      • Enthusiast: Replaced R9 7900X with i9-13900KF and i9-13900K, added new mobos
      • Extremist: Added i9-13900KF as an option
      • Monstrous: Replaced R9 3970X with i9-13900KS, added new mobos, added DDR5 RAM

CPUs Around the World

These updates are already live in the tiers of the USA version of the chart, and will roll out to the versions for other countries as they get updated in the near future.