Industry insiders have not heard or seen any indication of AMD wanting to raise Ryzen CPU pricing.
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It appears that AMD's Ryzen 9000 (codenamed Granite Ridge) series, renowned for delivering some of the best CPU performance out there, currently remains unaffected by rumored price hikes. Two industry sources that wish to remain anonymous, one from one of the largest U.S. distributors, have informed Tom's Hardware that there have been no indications of impending price adjustments for Ryzen processors, and no evidence suggests such changes are imminent, contrary to recent rumors.
The computer hardware industry has been under significant scrutiny due to sustained demand for DRAM and NAND, driven by artificial intelligence, which has affected both availability and pricing of consumer hardware components. Memory prices have surged to unprecedented levels. Following recent price increases for Radeon graphics cards, AMD has been the subject of considerable attention amid rumors of an alleged price increase for Ryzen processors. According to our sources, the manufacturer has not implemented any Ryzen price hikes thus far.
Unlike SSDs, graphics cards, or memory, processors are less susceptible to price fluctuations caused by NAND shortages. AMD recently revised the prices of Radeon products; therefore, the chip manufacturer may be delaying adjustments on processor pricing to prevent further customer dissatisfaction, assuming there was any minimal credence to the rumor to start with.
It is increasingly difficult to find affordable memory in stock, whether for upgrades or building a new system. Therefore, it is reassuring to know that AMD's Ryzen processors, which are excellent for gaming and productivity, should remain available at reasonable prices, at least for now.
The current top three best-selling processors at retailers such as Newegg and Amazon are all Ryzen models. Specifically, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, recognized as the leading gaming processor, occupies the foremost position in both instances. The most recent Steam Hardware Survey indicates that the Red Team has attained a record-high market share of 42.61%, representing an increase of 0.52% from the previous month. It is merely a matter of time before AMD attains a 50% market share, provided that Intel persists in its current decline.
It is evident that AMD's Ryzen processors are progressively capturing a larger share of the gaming market, resulting in a challenging situation for Intel. The company's latest Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors are unable to compete with AMD's Ryzen products effectively. Intel has recently elevated the pricing for previous generations of processors, likely attributable to the lackluster sales of Arrow Lake.
Ryzen currently maintains strong market momentum. AMD would be wise to uphold its existing pricing strategy for Ryzen processors, even if this results in a marginal decrease in profits, given the current uncertain landscape.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
