Upgrade your gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 processor (and save $170 while doing it)

SAVE $170: As of Oct. 18, you can save $170 on AMD's powerful Ryzen 9 PC gaming desktop processor at Amazon and give your rig a much-needed upgrade — normally $569.99, you'll pay just $399.99.

As game dev technology progresses, us lucky gamers get better games. It's kind of great how that works out, isn't it? But what that also means is that those technologically advanced games become more demanding on our machines — that remains the same whether you play on a console or a PC.

When it comes to upgrading consoles, it really just comes down to buying the newest version of the PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or whatever system you prefer. But if you play primarily on a PC, the choices can be overwhelming — you can pick up a new GPU for better graphics, a new cooling system, or even a prebuilt tower.

If you're intimated by the number of options you have, we recommend starting with upgrading your processor, which decides the baseline amount of power your rig will have to run games.

AMD's Ryzen 9 is one of the best you can get on the market, and for a limited time, you can save $170 on one at Amazon. Once you get it installed within your setup, your computer should be able to keep up with titles that require a lot of processing power (basically any modern AAA game) without any major hiccups.

The Ryzen 9 contains 12 cores and 24 processing threads, which helps it maintain speeds of 100-plus frames per second. You'll also get 4.8 GHz of Max Boost support, unlocked overclocking, 70 MB of cache, and DDR-3200 support. It's a pricey piece of hardware, but you certainly get what you pay for.