Whether you're building a new PC or upgrading an older system, you'll need a great CPU and you'll want to get it at the best possible price. To help you choose the right processor, we maintain a list of best CPUs and a CPU benchmark hierarchy that compares each recent SKU to the others, based on gaming performance.

Once you've decided which processors you're considering for your desktop, it's time to get shopping and here's where the price index below can help. The tables below contain up-to-date lowest prices for every desktop 13th Gen Intel Gen CPU and AMD Ryzen 7000 and 5000 series processors.

Each weekday, we check the major U.S. and UK online stores and update the tables below with the cheapest price for each CPU whether it's on a sale today or not. So, whether you're looking for a Core i9-13900KF,  a Ryzen 9 7950X3D or a Ryzen 7 5800X, you should be able to find it at the lowest cost here. We've divided up the results by processor manufacturer and generation.

Intel 13th Gen Core: Lowest CPU Prices

Ranging from the powerful, unlocked Core i9-13900K on the high end to the affordable Core i3-13100 on the low end, Intel's 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" processors have a lot to offer. These CPUs are made from a 7nm process and most, but not all, of them feature a mix of efficiency and performance cores.

Intel 13th Gen Core CPUs require motherboards with 600 or 700 series chipsets and LGA 1700 sockets. Depending on the motherboard, you will be able to use either DDR4 or DDR5 RAM.

AMD Ryzen 7000 Series: Lowest CPU Prices

The latest processors from AMD, the Zen 4 7000-series Ryzen CPUs, have up to 16 cores and 32 threads. Those with an X3D at the end of the model name have tremendous amounts of L3 cache thanks to AMD's 3D V-Cache innovation. Right now, the AMD Ryzen 7 7950X3D CPU is the absolute fastest CPU for gaming thanks to its 128MB of L3 cache.

AMD's 7000-series processors use the AM5 socket and can only be paired with DDR5 memory as DDR4 RAM is not compatible with the AM5 standard.

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series: Lowest CPU Prices

Still a very popular choice for upgrading an older system or building a budget gaming PC, AMD's Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors offer great performance for the price. The best price-for-performance options for gaming from this tier is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D which uses AMD's first iteration of 3D V-Cache technology which propelled this CPU to the top of benchmarking lists when first released.

AMD's Zen 3 5000-series Ryzen processors use the AM4 standard socket and must be paired with DDR4 RAM. Due to this series of CPUs being from the last generation of processors from AMD, you can often pick up some great deals on CPUs, motherboards (400 and 500 series), RAM, and GPUs from this gen.

These are the lowest prices we could find in the U.S. and UK as of the publish date on this article (updated each week day). However, you may also want to check out this curated list of the Best CPU deals .