AMD: Intel to blame for poor 9800X3D availability
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is gradually coming back onto the market. According to AMD, demand is unexpectedly high due to poor Intel products.
(Image: c't)
AMD presented its best gaming processor, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, in November 2024 – but since then it has only been moderately available. Only now, in January 2025, are German retailers accepting orders (starting from 434,44 €) again at okay prices (starting from 434,44 €). However, the stores continue to exceed the official recommended retail price of 529 euros.
In a meeting with the US press at the CES 2025 tech trade fair, AMD managers said that demand for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was unexpectedly high. And Intel is also said to be to blame for this:
"We knew we built a great part. We didn't know that the competitor [Intel] built a terrible one," Tom's Hardware quotes AMD's chief architect for gaming solutions Frank Azor as jokingly saying. "So the demand was a little higher than we had predicted."
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Intel Arrow Lake-S weakened
Azor is referring to Intel's Core Ultra 200S processor series, also known as Arrow Lake. The initial models, such as the Core Ultra 9 285K, already had a difficult start because they clocked lower than the previous Core i-14000 due to a new manufacturing process. In addition, there were several problems that reduced gaming performance.
AMD also botched the market launch of its first Ryzen 9000, but was then able to score points as the fastest gaming processor with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which was introduced later. Like all X3D models, it uses extra stacked level 3 cache, which increases the frame rate in most games.
Increased production capacity
David McAfee, Head of Client Channel Business at AMD, says that demand for both the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, has been "unprecedented". AMD has therefore significantly increased the production capacity of both processors. "It's crazy how much we've increased compared to our planning," says McAfee.
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However, it takes some time after the order is placed before the increased production capacity at chip contract manufacturer TSMC becomes noticeable in retail: "Normal" chips can take up to three months from the first wafer exposure to arrival at the retailer. According to McAfee, the X3D processors require even more time due to the additional production steps for the stack cache.
A further improvement in the market can therefore be expected in the coming weeks and months. Prices should then also move back towards the AMD price recommendation.
Meanwhile, the upcoming 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D should have fewer start-up problems. According to McAfee, the eight-core 9800X3D and 7800X3D variants sell around ten times more than the other X3D models with more cores combined.
(mma)
