AMD's 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X is the cheapest it's ever been, apart from yesterday, when it was four cents cheaper

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | 12 cores | 24 threads | 5.6 GHz boost | 64 MB L3 cache | AM5 socket | 120 W TDP | $499 $379.27 at Amazon (save $119.73)
Overpriced when it was launched last year, AMD's Ryzen 9 9900X is actually a stellar all-round processor thanks to its high clock speeds and mountain of L3 cache. There are better choices for gaming but it's no slouch in this aspect whatsoever.

9900X price check: Newegg $379.27

Sometimes you think you've stumbled across a fantastic deal, only to discover it was actually cheaper in the past. That was very much the case when I thought the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X processor was the lowest it's ever been. Except it wasn't. It was at its cheapest yesterday. Fortunately, you're only missing out on that bargain by a whole four cents.

So why should you consider this Ryzen chip over anything else? For PC gaming, you want the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, but that has an MSRP of $479, and good luck finding one at that price. High demand has decimated stocks, so if you do happen to stumble across one, it's unlikely to be for that kind of money.

The Ryzen 9 9900X is a multithreaded monster so it's ideal for content creation tasks, but so too is Intel's Core Ultra 9 285K. That also has 24 threads but it's far more potent in offline renders and video editing than the 9900X. However, it's not as good in gaming and it also costs $599 at Newegg.

This is the beauty of the Ryzen 9 9900X—it's a jack-of-all-trades processor but that doesn't mean it's particularly weak in any one area. In fact, it's strong all-round and the only things I didn't like about it when I reviewed it last year were the price and the poor performance when working in Eco mode.

If you don't need all those threads and just want something that's great for gaming, but isn't too pricey, then you're better off going with the Ryzen 7 9700X ($307 at Amazon). With a 60 W TDP, it's very easy to cool, too.

I have a bit of a soft-spot for AMD's 12-core Ryzen processors. They often get overlooked but that's actually a good thing, as it forces the price down over time, and right now, spending $379 at Amazon for a 24-thread, super speedy processor seems like a great deal to me.

And I'd be happy to pay that extra four cents, any time.