AMD's Ryzen 7 9700X on sale for $289 — get a killer CPU for 20% off plus Monster Hunter Wilds for free

For the PC enthusiast hungry to build a new PC, the modern DIY PC landscape is brutal thanks to low supply and ever-climbing prices. Thankfully for the prospective high-end builder, one of AMD's best CPUs has dropped to a low, low price, allowing more room in your budget to combo with one of Nvidia and AMD's newest GPU releases.

The 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is currently available for $289 at Amazon, dropping well below its recent price trend of $315-330 and MSRP of $360. The card also comes along with a free copy of Monster Hunter Wilds, the most popular new video game this month. No indication is made as to when this sale will end, but for now, it stands as one of the best ways to get near the peak performance that Zen 5 has to offer.

The Ryzen 7 9700X is perhaps the best 8-core CPU of the current generation. The chip edges ahead of Intel's i7-14700K in most tests, and at half of the power draw. AMD's 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread CPU, which is clocked at 3.8 GHz. Of course, the chip will boost up to 5.5 GHz, and has headroom for plenty of overclocking. It also offers 32MB of L3 cache, and supports up to 192GB of RAM. The chip sits at a low 65W TDP, but the BIOS includes an optional 105W mode for those looking to push performance even higher.

Our initial review of the Ryzen 7 9700X gave it a 3.5 out of 5 star rating, but in the months since its release, the 9700X has grown immensely more attractive. After firmware updates, better OS optimization, and a gradual price decline, the 9700X now stands as our second pick for the best overall CPU for gaming, and is one of the top dogs in our full CPU hierarchy. It's only beaten by AMD's X3D chips with 3D V-Cache and a few of the current gen's $400+ offerings.

Monster Hunter Wild, also comes bundled with the CPU for free as part of AMD's current hardware bundle. Wilds has sold $150 million in units since releasing on February 28th, with $69 million of that coming on day one. Capcom's biggest PC launch ever has already hit 1,300,000 concurrent players and offers sprawling, half-hour-long boss fights; though with its bad performance on all hardware, you will likely need the 9700X to reach acceptable framerates.

The 9700X, as its name would suggest, is part of AMD's Ryzen 9000-series, the first processors to launch on AMD's Zen 5 platform back in July. The Granite Ridge family slots into the AM5 socket, which AMD promises to support until 2027 and beyond, and is compatible with DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen5. Zen 5 is as future-proofed as a CPU architecture can be, especially when paired with an A-series motherboard (though we might suggest sticking with B850 for the 9700X).

For more savings on the rest of your PC build, keep your eyes on our list of the best GPU deals this month, as stock continues to phase in and out and AMD's RX 9000-series GPUs release very soon.