I’ve always been sceptical about the need for high-powered processors like AMD’s Ryzen 9s and Intel’s Core i9s in ordinary gaming PCs. It’s all very well if you use your PC for work editing videos, animating 3D models or running virtual machines and the like, as the extra processing power afforded by their considerable number of cores and threads is no doubt exceedingly useful in these sorts of cases. But if all you want is a fast CPU for gaming, they’ve rarely been better value than their cheaper Ryzen 7 / Core i7 counterparts.

It was certainly the case with AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X, which, while fast, wasn’t really that much nippier gaming-wise than the Ryzen 7 3700X. I suspect it will probably be the case for the Ryzen 9 5900X, too, as while I haven’t yet been able to test the Ryzen 7 entry in AMD’s new Ryzen 5000 family just yet (although a review is coming), the performance gains the 5900X offers over the stonkingly good Ryzen 5 5600X are also quite minimal. Certainly not enough to convince me to spend another £300 / $250-odd on it in any case. However, if you are in the market for the bestest best gaming CPU money can buy right now and you only care about having the fastest possible processor, then the Ryzen 9 5900X is definitely the one to go for, as it trounces Intel’s Core i9-10900K in almost every test going.

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When AMD first unveiled their Ryzen 5000 CPUs at the beginning of October, their new Zen 3 architecture hinted at several tantalising performance boosts, both in terms of power efficiency and overall gaming speeds. Alas, they’re also coming at much higher than expected prices, with their mid-range Ryzen 5 5600X starting at a decidedly not-mid-range £280 / $299. It had me worried.

While AMD’s outgoing Ryzen 3000 CPUs weren’t as quick as their Intel counterparts when it came to gaming performance, their lower prices (and bundled coolers) often made up for it, making them great value options in the face of their Intel competition. But the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t just more expensive than its immediate predecessor, the Ryzen 5 3600X. It’s also more expensive than Intel’s monstrously powerful Core i5-10600K, which rather takes a sledgehammer to their previous value proposition.

Turns out my fear was misplaced, as the Ryzen 5 5600X isn’t just faster than the Core i5-10600K, both in terms of its gaming prowess and its multitasking chops, but you also don’t need ludicrously fast (and expensive) RAM or an equally beefy cooler and power supply to get the best out of it.

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You’re naked, in the desert, with a grubby carrier bag at your feet. “What’s inside?” reads a note taped to it, in jaunty comic sans beneath a Hearthstone logo. You are just crouching to look, when you hear rustling. Ten paces away, an emaciated, dog-eyed wreck of a man is rummaging through a bag of his own, and you are struck with the sudden, brutal understanding that one of you must die here. You search the bag for a weapon, but find only nonsense: a broken tin opener, an onion on a string, a faded novelty telephone that looks just> legally distinct from Garfield. And now, your opponent is advancing. He has a half-blunted Stanley knife in his hand, and a cringe of desperate, feral hope on his face. You are going to die.

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Horizon has some of the flashiest abilities we’ve seen of any Apex Legends character. With her custom spacesuit and gravity-defying abilities, she has mastered the art of repositioning both her team and the enemy team to her advantage. Learn how to use each of her abilities to win fights with our Apex Legends Horizon guide below.

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Good news, US gaming mouse hunters, the excellent Logitech G502 Hero is back down to its all-time low price of just $35 over at Best Buy right now, matching the price it was over Amazon Prime Day. Voted the RPS readers’ favourite gaming mouse of all time back in 2019, the G502 is a great all-round gaming mouse for the money, offering loads of customisable buttons and different weight options. It’s not the only bit of Logitech kit on sale, either, as their brilliant G203 Lightsync mouse is also down to a ridiculous $15, and their brilliant G432 headset is also a bargain $40 as well.

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If you’ve pre-ordered Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War digitally, you’ll be able to preload the game before it launches next Friday. While consoles can preload from today, for us PC folk it will begin on Tuesday the 10th at 6pm GMT (10am Pacific).

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Apex Legends

has a cute new character, a lush new map and a cool vehicle now. Oh, and it’s on Steam, too. The battle royale’s seventh season, Ascension, launched last night, dropping players on Olympus. It’s a gorgeous city in the sky with wide open spaces that are ripe for chasing down enemy squads in Apex’s first vehicle, the Trident.

As well as all this, the Season 7 update brought with it the new Legend Horizon, a Club system, and a load of changes to the way the battle pass works – not good changes, unfortunately, because now it’s even grindier than it was before.

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[cms-block] is getting closer by the day, and the number of early Black Friday gaming monitor deals grows with it. Indeed, there are some proper good deals to be had right now, letting you grab a great gaming monitor bargain on the cheap before the big rush at the end of the month. Whether you’re after a G-Sync Compatible monitor, an ultrawide display, or a 240Hz gaming monitor deal, we’ve got you covered.

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Commander, it’s once again time to save the Earth – but this time you can do it from the comfort of your toilet seat. XCOM 2 today launched on iPhones, iPads, I don’t know anymore. The iOS release comes with all the DLC too, enough game to occupy your attention for potentially thousands of bowel movements. And I think technically you’re allowed to play phone games in other places too?

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Those early [cms-block] deals just keep on coming over at Amazon UK, and today you can nab a 250GB Crucial MX500 SSD for just £30. 250GB may not be large enough to hold many games, but it’s a great size for having as your main Windows drive, and the Crucial MX500 is one of the best budget SATA SSDs you can buy today, too. It’s the perfect combination – especially when this matches the cheapest price the 250GB MX500 has ever been, too.

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