AMD's best Us for gaming, thanks to their abundance of U cores and low prices. However, Intel's processors still usually come out ahead in a few areas, like single-core performance. Now you can get a last-generation Core i7 processor, the 9700F, for just $279.99. That's the lowest recorded price for the U yet.
The Intel Core i7-9700F has eight cores and eight threads, with a base clock speed of 3GHz and a maximum clock of 4.7GHz. It was released about a year ago for $335, but it received an official price cut to $298 in October.
The U is nearly identical to the Core i7-9700K, with one major difference—this processor has no integrated graphics, while the 'K' variant does. Most people probably won't be building a gaming PC with a high-end U without also buying a dedicated graphics card, so that isn't a deal-breaker by any means. However, if your graphics card does suddenly die, you won't have a backup.
Beyond the lack of integrated graphics, the Core i7-9700F is a very capable processor, as long as you have a compatible motherboard with an FCLGA1151 socket (Z390, most commonly).
