 Wait, what are you doing here? Just go buy a Ryzen 5 3600 and be done with it. Geez. Oh no, you're not getting off that easy. Come on, it's the holidays. All right. Well make yourselves comfortable guys, because there's a lot for us to cover here. Like this awkward segue to our sponsor team group. What do you need for Christmas? An RGB SSD. The T-Force Delta Max SSD features a large mirror-like surface full of RGB goodness. Click the link below and it'll also include their Christmas PC giveaway. If you want a cheap CPU that's fast enough for your grandparents to use Facebook and email, or maybe for a cheap NAS or test bench system, there's really no better choice than the Athlon 3000G from AMD. At just 50 US dollars, it's closer in price to a bag of potato chips than to a Ryzen 5, and it performs better than last year's Athlon 200GE with a more capable Vega-based integrated GPU, compared to Intel's budget Pentium Gold offerings. Better yet, it draws so little power that you can pair it with practically any third gen compatible socket AM4 motherboard, keeping the cost as low as under $250 for an entire system built around one of these chips. It is worth noting that for an extra $30 though, the Ryzen 3 2200G might have the same number of threads, but it's actually got double the cores on both the CPU and GPU. So for an entry-level eSports rig, that's definitely the way to go. As we move up to the $100 range, Team Blue's quad-core Core i3-9100F looks like a good choice for gamers, since it's faster per thread than the first gen Zen processors that it's up against. If you're looking for something more workstation oriented, the Ryzen 5 2600 is just $120 right now and nets you an extra 8 threads with decent per thread performance. So take your pick, depending on what you're looking for, either of those CPUs are going to serve you well, just like my water bottle serves me well. Lttstore.com. Now let's say you want something more serious, but you're not prepared to drop the kind of cache that a really high-end CPU commands. What do you get? Well, here's where things get hazy. Of the current gen CPUs, the six-core, six-thread Core i5-9400F is $50 cheaper than the Ryzen 5 3600 with similar gaming performance. But going with Ryzen nets you extra threads, faster PCI Express Gen 4, and a better memory controller. So as boring as it is to just keep recommending the 3600, it is just such a good value that we want to say, look, just spend the extra, even in this price tier, because it'll be worth it in the long run. However, if you're not a gamer, you can actually still find the last gen Ryzen 7 2700 for roughly the same price as that Core i5, and you can expect a reasonably close gaming experience, but with far better system performance in multi-threaded applications, thanks to the 2700's eight cores and 16 threads. So in this nebulous 150 to $200 price range, the best CPU for your money basically boils down to your priorities. Once you get into the very high end gaming or lightish workstation segment, you've got some outstanding options in the Ryzen 7 3700X or the Core i7 9700KF. Again, depending on your priorities, there are two major choices. As with the previous segments, the Core i7 isn't head and shoulders above the Ryzen 7 for gaming, and with an eye to system performance and multi-threaded performance, Ryzen's higher instructions per clock, more aggressive turbo boost, and symmetric multi-threading capability are all points in its favor here. So in our opinion, at least, it's less about Intel versus AMD and more about whether you should spend the extra $40 for the better bin 3800X for a bit of overclocking or stick with the 3700X. If you're gunning for best of the best, we're just about there, at least for gaming and consumer grade workstations. And it's here that the real red versus blue battle happens. The Core i9 9900KF and KS surround the Ryzen 9 3900X in terms of price and in terms of gaming performance, both are superior. However, there's a couple of variables left out of the equation here. While the Wraith cooler included with the Ryzen 9 3900X might not be ideal, it is included in the box and it's good enough for stock performance. The same cannot be said of those Intel chips and once you factor in the cost of a decent third party cooler, and for the KS by the way, you will need it, you're spending an extra 10% or more on top of the sticker price. Now you can maybe justify that for the 9900KF if you're a hardcore gamer, but frankly, the 9900 keep spending is only worth it if you must have the fastest single threaded performance on the market, which is becoming harder and harder to imagine a use case for. I mean, even a hardcore gamer might throw together a sick montage once in a while and the 3900X's four extra cores pull a lot of productivity weight while not lagging too far behind in gaming. For this segment then, we'll call it an even split between the 9900KF for a truly hardcore gamer and the 3900X if you do just about anything else. Speaking of content creation then, there's really no competition in the mid range workstation space. First and second gen Threadripper are dead end platforms that to me honestly make no sense by the time you're spending this much. And Intel's offerings can't compete with the consumer 3950X even though they are priced significantly higher in most cases. Not to mention that those two are on a dead end platform that is not getting any more upgrades. Buy a 3950X if you can find one in stock. Bringing us to high end workstations. So are you in anything to say here? As we showed in our reviews, third gen Threadripper completely dominates this landscape and Intel hasn't got much of a response for it outside of their much more expensive Xeon lineup. We recommend the Threadripper 3960X which brings most of the T-Rex 40 platforms current potential to bear while costing a cool $600 less than the 32 core that you can then spend on a good motherboard, some RAM or a couple of PCI Express devices to use up all of those lanes that you've got at your disposal. This was a fun video for us because it has been a long time since the CPU market has had such an exciting year. It all started with the late 2018 release of the Core i9-9900K which actually held strong at the top of the gaming charts for a long while but had its lead constantly eroded by AMD's continued EGSA updates and Windows scheduler improvements, not to mention its own security flaws that needed patching degrading its performance. Then not content with this slow erosion alone, AMD decided to spice things up with the Ryzen 3000 series which officially put Intel on notice, bringing gaming performance closer than it's been in over a decade at prices that were even lower than Team Blue, not to mention bringing PCI Express Gen 4 to the desktop for the first time. That's not to say that AMD's new X570 platform has had no teething issues, but overall I would say it was far smoother than any previous Ryzen launch and it spooked Intel so much that they responded with their pre-overclocked Core i9-9900KS in order to convincingly hold on to their gaming performance crown. How times have changed, right? Then Intel all but lost the HEDT market, not only the 3rd gen Threadripper, but to Ryzen too, with their shiny new $1000 Core i9-10980XE trading blows with the 16-core 3950X which cost $250 less, not to mention the cheaper motherboard. And then of course, let's not forget the Athlon 3000G, this is a fully unlocked APU that AMD snuck in at $50 to kneecap Intel's low-end too. So put simply, the back half of this year was not a good time to be on Team Blue. So all in all, 2017 was the year that AMD came back into the conversation, but 2019 was the year that AMD came back just overall. I just hope that they don't get too far out ahead and end up like Intel did, because guys, don't kid yourself, they've done it. For now though, we get to reap the benefits of renewed competition, and you guys get to build some awesome new PCs for the holidays. Just make sure you're subscribed for the rest of our holiday buyers guides, and if you're looking for something else to watch, why not get your feet wet with one of our recent AMD build guides? That way when your parts arrive, you'll know what to do. See you guys in the next one. The Massdrop X Hi-Fi Man HE4XX planar magnetic headphones are freaking sick. Hi-Fi Man was established in 2007 in New York and is known for their driver technology that delivers amazing audio at a great price. These ones feature an open back design with super smooth, engaging sound across the frequency range, nice sparkly highs and planar bass that slams, and they're comfortable thanks to their Focus A hybrid ear pads that offer extra cushioning with a soft, luxurious velour. Grab them today at the link below as they are now $130 for a new set. So thanks again for watching. If you guys enjoyed this video, subscribe and all that good stuff. This is just water by the way. It's supposed to be like tea or coffee or something, but you know, budgetary. I'm not talking to you! Did I say anything that sounded like, hey Siri? Geez, I hate this thing. Funnel? I won't respond to that.