AMD's Ryzen 9000 (codenamed Granite Ridge) series, among the best CPUs, has dropped to its lowest-ever prices at Micro Center—listed for up to 28% lower than their launch prices, which should increase AM5 adoption rates.
The market initially ignored Zen 5 at launch owing to lackluster gains in performance value and the lack of an incentive for existing AM5 owners. However, retailers seem to be pulling out all the stops to encourage new PC builders to choose Zen 5 over Intel's Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) CPUs.
One of the largest retailers in the U.S., Micro Center has the entire Granite Ridge family offering juicy price cuts following AMD's early holiday promotions. The Zen 5 flagship Ryzen 9 9950X is now available for $569 - $80 cheaper than MSRP. Following is the Ryzen 9 9900X, which sees a large 28% drop in price, now available for just $359. That does leave a large $210 delta between AMD's 12-core and 16-core offerings, making ample room for Intel's Core Ultra 7 265K to shine.
Next up is the Ryzen 7 9700X—at $309 for a 14% discount—still overshadowed by the 9900X's steep price drops. As a customer with $300 on hand, it will be tempting to purchase the Ryzen 9 9900X for just a bit more. If this trend continues, the hexa-core Ryzen 5 9600X is now creeping close to the $200 price point and may soon supersede the last-generation Ryzen 5 7600X ($190).
AMD will make hay when the sun is shining as Intel's Core Ultra 200S non-K CPUs are expected to arrive by no sooner than CES 2025 - leaving the entire holiday season open for Team Red. While these price cuts might not incentivize enough for Zen 4 owners, they may usher in a wave of new Zen 5 adopters.
Motherboards are relatively affordable because this is the second generation of AM5. AMD does lag in the memory department since Ryzen 7000's sweet spot is DDR5-6000, which was recently upped to DDR5-6400 with Ryzen 9000. AMD promised support for AM5 into 2027; hence, we could see Zen 6 arrive on the same platform; the same cannot be said for Intel's new LGA1851 socket, which is heavily rumored to only support Arrow Lake.
