Cyber Monday is Basically Black Friday for PC Gamers
Cyber Monday has blurred into the wider Black Friday madness, but for PC gamers that is actually good news. Many of the best Black Friday PC hardware deals have quietly rolled straight into Cyber Week, and some retailers are even pushing fresh discounts on GPUs, gaming laptops, SSDs and monitors.
If you are planning a new build, an upgrade, or just want to squeeze more frames out of your current rig, this is one of the best times of the year to buy. Below we will walk through the standout categories and explain who each type of deal is best for, so you do not end up buying shiny hardware you do not actually need.
The deals highlighted here focus on real gaming performance: graphics cards, CPUs, memory, storage and the displays and peripherals that let you feel the difference in game.
Ready to Play: Gaming PCs, Laptops and Graphics Cards
The heart of any gaming setup is the GPU, and Cyber Monday is stacked with offers across Nvidia, AMD and Intel. On the Nvidia side you will find discounts from entry level RTX 5050 and 5060 cards up to power hungry RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 monsters. The RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti in particular land in a sweet spot this generation, offering big gains over the older 40 series at more sensible prices, especially now that retailers are cutting under MSRP.
AMD fans are covered too. The RX 9060 XT and RX 9070 series deliver excellent raw performance and plenty of VRAM for modern titles. The RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT compete closely with Nvidia’s mid to upper tier cards, usually winning on straight raster performance and memory capacity, while giving up some ground on ray tracing and fancy upscaling tech. If you care more about high frame rates at 1440p than you do about ray traced reflections, these AMD cards are well worth a look.
Intel’s Arc B570 and B580 cards have also dropped to compelling prices. They can be very fast for the money, especially if you want more than 8 GB of VRAM on a tight budget, though game support can still be a bit hit and miss. If you are comfortable tweaking drivers and settings, they can deliver huge bang for buck.
Prebuilt gaming PCs are another big winner this Cyber Monday. There are small form factor systems built around budget parts like the Ryzen 5 5500 and RTX 5060 for players who want a compact, affordable rig for 1080p and light 1440p gaming. Step up a tier and you will find builds pairing RTX 5060 Ti or RTX 5070 cards with Intel Core i5 14400F or Ryzen 5 9600X processors. These machines are ideal for smooth 1440p gaming today, and can even flirt with 4K with some settings tweaks.
At the high end, systems sporting RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 GPUs and CPUs like Ryzen 7 9700X or Ryzen 5 7600X3D deliver seriously powerful setups aimed at high refresh 1440p and 4K gaming. RAM configurations vary, but a common theme is 16 or 32 GB of DDR5 and at least a 1 TB NVMe SSD. If you choose one of these more expensive builds, it is worth checking the memory speed and considering a future upgrade to 32 GB of fast DDR5 if it does not already have it.
Gaming laptops follow a similar pattern. This Cyber Monday you will see RTX 5060 based machines comfortably under the four figure mark, which is a strong entry point for portable 1080p gaming at high refresh rates. Mid range laptops with RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti GPUs combine powerful Intel Core i7 and Core Ultra 9 processors or Ryzen 7 chips with fast 1200p or 1600p screens at 165 Hz or higher. For enthusiasts, RTX 5080 laptops like MSI’s Vector 16 HX AI cram desktop like performance into a still portable chassis, though you will probably want to expand the RAM to get the most out of them.
Speed Up Your Rig: Monitors, SSDs, CPUs and RAM
There is not much point owning a fast GPU if you are still playing on a slow 60 Hz panel. Cyber Monday monitor deals are particularly strong this year. On the budget side, there are surprisingly capable 1080p displays hitting 200 Hz for the cost of what used to be a basic office monitor. If you are into competitive shooters and care more about response time than resolution, a 1080p 240 Hz VA or IPS monitor is a cheap way to gain a noticeable edge.
For most gamers though, 1440p strikes the perfect balance. There are 27 inch 1440p panels with refresh rates between 165 Hz and 200 Hz at very reasonable prices, plus curved VA options for extra immersion. If you want more screen real estate, ultrawide 34 inch 3440 by 1440 monitors are finally affordable, and many now include 180 Hz refresh rates which pair beautifully with GPUs like the RTX 5070 or RX 9070.
At the premium end sit 4K and OLED displays. LG’s 32 inch 4K 144 Hz IPS offers crisp visuals and fast response for a high end but still reasonable price. If you want the deep blacks and instant response of OLED, QD OLED monitors from Alienware and MSI deliver stunning 1440p or 4K visuals at 165 Hz to 280 Hz, provided your GPU can keep up.
Storage is another area where Cyber Monday shines. PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives like Western Digital’s Black SN850X and SN7100 and other 7 GB per second class SSDs are heavily discounted. A 1 TB or 2 TB NVMe drive makes an excellent boot and game drive, and larger 4 TB models are now within reach for players with massive libraries. If you are still loading games from a SATA SSD or even a hard drive, this is the moment to jump to modern NVMe and slash load times.
CPUs and RAM also see some meaningful cuts. On the AMD side, chips like the Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 5 9600X and the legendary Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 9800X3D cover everything from budget gaming to absolute top tier frame rates. Intel’s Core i5 14600KF and newer Core Ultra chips still offer strong gaming performance with lots of threads for streaming and content creation.
Memory prices have climbed, but there are still sensible options. For older DDR4 platforms, 16 GB kits at 3200 MT per second remain affordable, and 32 GB RGB kits are discounted enough to make upgrades attractive for AM4 and LGA1200 systems. On new DDR5 builds, 16 GB kits at 5600 MT per second or 32 GB kits around 6000 MT per second hit a sweet spot for gaming without going crazy on cost.
Peripherals and Buying Strategy: What Is Actually Worth It
Around Cyber Monday it is easy to get carried away with cheap peripherals. There are indeed some excellent deals: budget mechanical keyboards with rapid trigger Hall effect switches, wireless gaming mice with high end sensors and long battery life, and gaming headsets from brands like HyperX, SteelSeries, Razer and Logitech with proper positional audio and solid mics.
You will also find discounted gaming chairs, microphones for streaming, and gamepads with Hall effect thumb sticks that practically eliminate stick drift. All of these can improve your experience, but they are not as important as your core components.
The best way to approach Cyber Monday is to decide your priorities up front. If your GPU is several generations old, that should be your first target. If your SSD is tiny or painfully slow, look at NVMe drives next. When those big pieces are sorted, then consider a high refresh monitor, more RAM, or a better keyboard and mouse.
Most crucially, stick to a budget and avoid buying hardware just because the discount looks big. Check reviews and real world benchmarks for the GPUs, CPUs and SSDs you are eyeing, and make sure any prebuilt system you consider has a balanced spec: a decent CPU, enough RAM, a fast SSD, and a power supply that can handle the GPU.
Handled with a bit of planning, Cyber Monday can be an excellent time to level up your gaming PC, whether that means building your first rig, upgrading from 1080p to 1440p, or finally grabbing that high end GPU you have been watching all year.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/cyber-monday-pc-gaming-deals-in-uk/
