Report suggests AMD’s new Ryzen 9000 CPUs aren’t selling well at all — but Intel shouldn’t get too excited just yet
AMD’s new Ryzen 9700X and 9600X processors aren’t selling well, according to a new piece of information. We should be careful about jumping to conclusions, though.
As you may recall, these are the first Zen 5 (Ryzen 9000) processors that AMD is releasing, and they hit the shelves last week. Wccftech reports that according to figures from TechEpiphany – a source that regularly provides statistics on CPU sales from a major German retailer, MindFactory, on X – only a handful of Ryzen 9000 chips were sold in launch week.
🔥 CPU Retail Sales Week 32 (mf)Hardly any Zen 5 CPUs soldℹ️ UnitsAMD: 2855 units sold, 86.91%, ASP: 269 (+6)Intel: 430, 13.09%, ASP: 285 (-3)ℹ️ RevenueAMD: 768521, 86.23%Intel: 122756, 13.77%ℹ️ Per SocketAM5: 2020AM4: 8351700: 4101200: 20(Added sales from 2017… pic.twitter.com/jpZq1wGCQFAugust 11, 2024
We’re told that only 30 units of the Ryzen 7 9700X processor were moved, and even fewer for the Ryzen 5 9600X, of which only 20 were sold. In total, 50 processors were sold in the opening week, which is a pretty weak performance for Germany’s largest retailer.
There is one big caveat, though: this is just one source, one seller, and we can’t draw any conclusions whatsoever about the total sales figures of these two new Zen 5 chips.
However, this is a worrying indication from AMD that reception to the Ryzen 9700X and 9600X has been lukewarm, and that’s confirmed by the online opinions we’ve picked up on Reddit and other forums.
Analysis: Potential Headwinds for AMD
So what could be the problem here (with emphasis on the word power)? Given Intel’s current issues with instability regarding its current (and previous) generation of CPUs, plus the fact that Team Red has made the Zen 5 slightly more affordable than its predecessors, shouldn’t the new Ryzen 9000 processors be selling like hotcakes?
Those factors certainly favor AMD, but the problem Team Red has now is that attractive (much lower) price points for Ryzen 7000 models don’t shine a good light on the newcomers. People are looking at the Ryzen 7 7800X3D – gamers especially – instead of the 9700X. Or maybe in the case of gamers, they’ll stick with the 9800X3D, as AMD is rumored to be readying the 3D V-Cache spins on Zen 5 for an early launch later in 2024.
With the likelihood that discounts will come on these Ryzen 9000 processors soon – even if they’re not deep discounts, some money will certainly be shaved off, since the full MSRP is never valid for that long after launch – that could also be a reason to be cautious about any Zen 5 purchasing decision. Especially if the lack of sales momentum itself causes those discounts to come to fruition sooner than we normally see.
Another rumor that has surfaced before is that AMD may significantly increase the TDP (power consumption) of the 9700X, which would give it better performance. This speculation has just surfaced again. Leaker Chi11eddog on X tells us that both the 9600X and 9700X can increase their TDP from 65W to 105W with an incoming BIOS update (tip of the hat to Video cardz).
Since this rumor has been circulating for a while now, the more informed potential CPU buyers might want to wait and see how this plays out before pulling the trigger on a purchase. One could also argue that this move is AMD’s response to try and boost the appeal of these Zen 5 processors.
If we’re being honest, we find it very hard to believe that AMD would launch a pair of mid-range CPUs at 65W, aiming for greater efficiency with the design, and then suddenly release a BIOS update to bump that up to 105W. It just doesn’t seem likely to happen, but we could be wrong.
As you can see, there are plenty of reasons why these early Ryzen 9000 models could struggle right from the start. But either way, that’s unlikely to last (especially if stock of the previous-gen Ryzen 7000 eventually thins out).
