AMD has finally confirmed the price and availability of its next-gen Ryzen 9000 desktop chips. While the Ryzen 5 9600X is a decent offering at $279, it needs to be paired with a dGPU for most gaming workloads. Meanwhile, budget-focused builders who are on the lookout for an APU can consider the Zen 4-based Ryzen 5 8600G, which has dropped to its lowest price ever on Amazon.

Initially launched with an MSRP of 229, the Ryzen 5 8600G can now be had for just $181, effectively the same as its lower-specced sibling, the Ryzen 5 8500G. CamelCamelCamel's price tracker confirms this is the cheapest it has ever been, although it has retailed at around $199 for a while. It features a 6-core (2 Zen 4 4 Zen 4c) CPU with a max boost clock of 5 GHz, 65 Watt TDP and a Radeon 760M GPU.

Our benchmark database indicates you can play most games on the Radeon 760M at 1080p with "Low" settings. Do note that this applies to laptops only and the desktop version could fare better due to relaxed power limits and better cooling. If you have a little extra cash to spare, consider the the Ryzen 7 8700G. While it costs $298, the extra money gets you eight Zen 4 cores and a faster Raden 780M iGPU. With proper cooling, you can overclock it to get a decent performance boost.

Plus, you can extract more performance out of your Ryzen 5 8600G and Ryzen 7 8700G via AMD FSR 3.1 and Fluid Motion Frames 2. Pair it with any cheap B650 motherboard and a DDR5-5600 kit, and you have a decent 1080p gaming machine. You can even add a GPU down the line and upgrade the CPU to a newer Zen 5/Zen 6 SKU thanks to AMD's long-term support for the Zen 5 socket.

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