The best-value desktop CPUs you can buy right now
AMD and Intel’s latest processors offer increased performance at attractive prices.
The chips are now available in South Africa and offer great upgrade options for gamers or professional desktop users.
To see how much value the CPUs offer for their price, we took data from PassMark’s benchmark database and compared their “value scores”.
Value score for this comparison was calculated using the chip’s PassMark benchmark score and the price of the product in South Africa.
Each CPU benchmark score was divided by its rand price, with a high value score denoting a better benchmark score and a lower price.
Pricing from online retailers such as Wootware, Evetech, Rebel Tech, and Raru was used for the processors.
Older-generation processors were excluded from the comparison as these are not readily available in South Africa and offer worse value.
Value comparison
The top 10 budget processors available in South Africa, offering the best performance for your rand, are listed below.
| CPU | Benchmark | Price | Value Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Pentium G4560 | 4,914 | R899 | 5.47 |
| AMD A8-9600 | 4,966 | R1,055 | 4.71 |
| Intel Core i3-8100 | 8,147 | R1,999 | 4.08 |
| AMD A10-9700 | 5,484 | R1,360 | 4.03 |
| Intel Core i5-8400 | 11,739 | R3,049 | 3.85 |
| AMD Ryzen 3 1200 | 6,810 | R1,879 | 3.62 |
| Intel Pentium G4600 | 5,143 | R1,428 | 3.60 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 1600 | 12,323 | R3,499 | 3.52 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 1600X | 13,310 | R3,999 | 3.33 |
| AMD Ryzen 3 1300X | 7,483 | R2,297 | 3.26 |
Intel’s lower-end chips feature prominently in the comparison, due to their impressive performance and clock speeds.
AMD’s Ryzen CPUs also make an appearance, but are outpaced by its latest generation of APUs in terms of value.
The AMD A-Series chips offer integrated graphics in addition to powerful CPUs, competing against Intel’s integrated graphics solutions.
The Intel Pentium G4560 reigns supreme in terms of value, offering impressive performance in a compact and affordable package.
Integrated graphics
It must be noted that the benchmarks above refer only to CPU processing power and do not reflect the GPU performance of the chips.
Intel and AMD A-Series chips featured above are technically APUs, and include a number of GPU cores on their die in addition to CPU cores.
This means these processors can use integrated graphics to drive displays and do not have to rely on discrete graphics cards.
While most gaming systems will feature discrete graphics cards, APUs can be useful in small systems such as professional desktops, media players, and servers.
AMD’s Ryzen chips do not have onboard graphics, opting to use the extra space on their die to cram in more CPU cores.
The AMD A-Series chips include a number of Radeon R7 GPU cores, which can be used to drive basic display tasks and certain games, depending on the power of the underlying processor.
When purchasing a processor, it is important to know whether you will require integrated graphics.
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