AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series CPUs are well past their launch now, especially on the X570 platform, where the final CPU, the Ryzen 9 3950X had its review embargo lifted two weeks ago. I was supposed to launch on Nov. 25th, and whilst that might have been the case for a brief moment, that's no longer the case.
The new chips are completely out of stock at NewEgg and cannot be ordered, and Amazon’s listing of the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X is difficult to find at best – its listing can only be found through a Google search and clicking through multiple links, as searching for the 3950X through Amazon itself yields only inferior CPUs as results. Once at the listing, the chip is listed as ‘currently unavailable’ with Amazon stating “We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.”
Elsewhere in the world, this is no different. In Europe the chip is also generally unavailable for purchase. ComputerBase from Germany had contact with a few sellers, and it turns out that there the demand for AMD’s Ryzen 9 3950X chip outweighs the supply by a 16-fold. This means that for every chip that the sellers had in stock initially (though they’re all gone now), they have 16 “preorders” still standing and won’t specify a delivery date. The situation is so dire that many resellers, among which Alternate.de, Caseking.de, and Mindfactory are asking higher prices for the chips whilst they’re in this re-instated ‘preorder’ phase.
Looking at the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X, the situation is no different. These chips only launched two nights ago though, so we’re a little more understanding in their case.
Currently, if you absolutely have to get your hands on one of AMD’s new 16-core number crunchers, your best bet is to turn to eBay. You won’t be much happier there though because many of the 3950X chips on offer there will set you back twice the chip’s MSRP of $749.
Our best advice is to wait it out, and spend your Black Friday budget on something that’s actually discounted and in stock.
