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Amazon Prime Day already greeted us with countless technology-related deals in July and the online retail giant is working hard behind the scenes to prepare the stalls for another round. We're still waiting for Amazon to confirm when precisely its Prime Big Deal Days will take place, but if we were to make some bets, we'd say it will be somewhere in the middle of October to match what we experienced the year prior.
The central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) are two components we focused on with this hub due to the spike in prices in recent years. This was due to electronic shortages, shipping issues, and national lockdowns. Things have eased and prices have returned to almost MSRP levels, but the best GPUs launched with vastly inflated prices compared to their predecessors, which left a sour taste in many mouths.
Amazon's Prime Day in July helped by reducing prices further, and we expect the same to occur in October (or whenever Amazon hosts its second 2023 sales event).
Will there be a second Prime Day in 2023?
You can bet Amazon will be running a second Prime Day in 2023! The retailer already shared Prime Big Deals Day as the name for its second event of the year. From what it implies, we're expecting some big savings to be had, especially on PC hardware such as the best CPUs and GPUs. We don't anticipate there being many differences between the first Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days, aside from the confusing name.
Do you need to be a Prime member to save on Prime Big Deal Days?
Just like any other Amazon Prime sale, you need to have an active Amazon Prime subscription to be able to take part. It's likely all the deals will be publicly available for viewing but only those with an active membership will be able to save. If you've never shopped on Amazon before, we'd recommend holding off until near Prime Big Deal Days to start up the 30-day free trial, which will provide you full access.
Amazon Prime
Join the savings event with a subscription to Amazon Prime. Once active, you can shop around and enjoy all these discounts!
FAQ
Q: How much should you spend?
This is a tough question to answer, especially for PC components, as it depends on what you intend to use the desktop for. For the CPU and GPU, it's recommended to spend as much as your budget will allow on a part that you will make good use of. There's no need to spend $1,500 on an RTX 4090 GPU if you only have a 1440p monitor. Likewise, a $600 CPU will likely sit mostly idle for web browsing and some word processing. An Intel Core i5-13600K or AMD Ryzen 7 7600X is usually good enough for most PC builds, but we always recommend carefully reading through the specifications.
Q: What is the best CPU?
The very best processor for most people is the Intel Core i5-13600K. This strikes an excellent balance between price and performance, allowing you to get much more done at once. It may not have the highest clock speeds or physical core and thread counts, but it's an excellent chip for playing the latest PC games and running intensive software. Already a relatively affordable processor, one can usually find Intel Core i5 chips on sale through Prime Day for additional savings. For those who want the best-performing Intel processor, we'd steer you to the Intel Core i9-13900K.
Q: What is the best GPU?
Our top-recommended graphics card right now is the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX in terms of price and performance. This is the flagship GPU from the company and is an excellent choice for gamers wanting to crank their visual settings up to a maximum resolution of 4K. It won't win awards for the best benchmark results, especially when compared to the insanely powerful (and expensive) Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, but it's still a very capable gaming powerhouse.
Q: What makes a good deal?
We would only recommend buying a GPU or CPU if the discount applied is worth considering. Sometimes retailers can inflate the price of products ahead of promotions such as Prime Day only to "discount" them once again. The deals we cover here are actual discounts, and you can check prices yourself by using tools such as CamelCamelCamel.