One of the rarest skins in Fortnite history, the Black Widow skin, has made an unexpected return to the Item Shop after more than four and a half years of not being on sale.
24.11.2023 - 13:12 / pcgamer.com / Best / Of A
Intel Core i5 13600K | 14 cores, 24 threads | 6 P-cores + 8 E-cores | 5.1GHz | LGA 1700 | $329$270 at Amazon (save $59)
The Intel Core i5 13600K currently tops our recommendations for the best CPUs for gaming, and it's not hard to see why. Beyond its great gaming performance this is a multi-tasking marvel, and rivals the more expensive Core i9 12900K in both single-threaded and multi-threaded benchmarks. It's an all-round powerhouse, and although the 14th gen versions are now available, the performance is more or less identical. And since this one's cheaper, it makes sense to buy it, doesn't it?
Price check: Best Buy $299.99 | Newegg $270
The Intel Core i5 13600K is our current top pick for best gaming CPU, and it's on Black Friday discount at Amazon right now for $270. That's a super quick chip at a significantly cheaper price, and it's worth reminding ourselves why it's such a good shout for a top-end gaming PC.
The Core i5 13600K might technically be a mid-range chip, but its performance is absolutely mighty. In our Core i5 13600K review back in October of last year we found it matched the pace and even at some points out-performed the Core i9 12900K in gaming benchmarks, and even gets within a few frames of its successor, the 14600K.
That's margin of error stuff, and for my money it's definitely worth getting this chip at a discount over its refreshed model. Both CPUs use the Raptor Lake architecture, both feature 14 cores and 20 available threads, but this one's cheaper and it performs virtually the same. Bit of an easy decision that one, isn't it?
It's not just a great gaming CPU either. Its multi-threaded performance came within 12% of the Core i9 12900K, and it was a full 37% faster in Cinebench than the 12600K it replaced. Its Blender rendering scores simply trounced the AMD 7700X, and it scored a full 242 points higher in the PCMark productivity benchmark than the Ryzen 9 7950X, which many regard to be the best productivity CPU AMD currently provides.
It's not all roses, of course. It runs a little hot and power hungry, and we found that in a couple of games it was pipped to the post by its predecessor. However, overall there's very little here to hold you back if you really are looking for superb performance at a cheaper price than its successors.
In short, despite being over a year old the Core i5 13600K still reigns supreme at the top of our best list for good reason, and given that so many of it's competitors are still priced higher even on Black Friday it makes a fantastic deal at this price.
If you're looking to build on the LGA 1700 socket and want the best Intel gaming CPU for your money, look no further. It's very difficult to imagine going anywhere else.
Best Black Friday PC gaming
One of the rarest skins in Fortnite history, the Black Widow skin, has made an unexpected return to the Item Shop after more than four and a half years of not being on sale.
Black Friday itself may be beginning to fade into the distance to be replaced by the wonders of Cyber Monday, but we're still finding plenty of deals that look like they're going to stick around a little while longer. This year we've seen plenty of great Black Friday OLED monitor and TV deals, and for those of you that weren't quite sure whether to pull the trigger on the big day the good news is they seem to be hanging on for a bit longer than they might have done in previous years.
Alienware Aurora R16 | Core i7 13700F | RTX 4070 Ti | 16GB DDR5-5600 | 1TB SSD | $1,949.99$1,749.99 at Dell (save $200) You can score an RTX 4070 Ti PC for less than this, though usually with an older CPU than the Core i7 13700F here. This Alienware delivers a rather modern package, with a Raptor Lake processor (13th Gen, not 14th Gen, but that's fine), a big enough boot drive at 1TB, and a 1000W PSU. It's also liquid cooled and comes with two sticks of DDR5 memory.
The Holiday season has officially kicked off, which, of course, means retailers are slapping enticing deals on products across a wide range of categories. If you’ve been waiting to nab a PS5 at a reduced price, a new deal being offered by Target will let you do just that.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is undoubtedly one of the biggest PlayStation 5 exclusives to come out recently. Off the success of the first game and Miles Morales' own title, the series has become immensely popular with avid and casual gamers alike. So, when you get a Black Friday discount on the PS5 Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle, you grab it with both webshooters!
Asus ROG Ally | AMD Z1 Extreme | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD | 7-inch 1080p | 120Hz | $699.99$619.99 at Best Buy (save $80)The most powerful version of once of the best PC gaming handhelds just got hit with the Black Friday deal stick. The Asus Ally surprised us at launch with its relatively low price (for a premium Asus product). Now it's even cheaper. Has the time come for you to get in on some handheld gaming action?
Nine discs, for nine companions: There’s no question that the nine-disc 4K UHD Blu-ray box set of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is the ultimate way to own these classic movies. And now it’s massively discounted in a tasty Black Friday deal.
Pearl Abyss shared several Black Desert news this week. First of all, the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game can be purchased at a 90% discount until November 28 via Steam or until November 29 via the official website. This means you could get Black Desert for just a dollar (or euro).
All PS5 DualSense controller colours are on sale in the UK for Black Friday.
The Epic Game Store’s Black Friday sale 2023 has kicked off, bringing plenty of discounts for games. Most notably, Epic is offering a 33% off coupon during the sale, which can be applied toward Alan Wake 2.
Alan Wake 2 is worth every penny of its full cost, but Black Friday has brought an opportunity to buy the game for less on PC. Normally $49.99, the game is $33.49 with a single use coupon that the Epic Games Store is giving to all of its users. For those who might be wondering, Alan Wake 2 isn’t available on any other stores (yet) on PC.
The Epic Games Store has launched its Black Friday sale.