AMD Ryzen 9000 pricing freefalls, hits all-time lows — Micro Center slashes up to 28% off Zen 5
Should you buy now or wait for the holiday season?
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.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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Mama Changa Wow US prices in freefall while AMD screws over the rest of the world to subsidise the cuts.Reply -
helper800 Reply
Ohh, so kind of like how the citizens of the US subsidize the entire world's drug and medical R&D industries.Mama Changa said:Wow US prices in freefall while AMD screws over the rest of the world to subsidise the cuts.
On an actually serious note, this just shows how dominate Microcenter is with their in-store deals that are only available to people within a reasonable driving distance of one, and there are very few of them. -
Kondamin Reply
I think that’s more of a dealer thing than amd offering lower prices in the US.Mama Changa said:Wow US prices in freefall while AMD screws over the rest of the world to subsidise the cuts.
In the EU dealers seldomly go lower than the msrp -
newtechldtech Reply
Because they cant ... too much INCOME TAXES in EU (dealers cry from it) add 20% VAT to it , the consumer is #$#$%$ (he pays the dealer income TAX and the VAT)Kondamin said:I think that’s more of a dealer thing than amd offering lower prices in the US.
In the EU dealers seldomly go lower than the msrp -
logainofhades Microcenter's bundle deals kinda suck right now, considering what the 7800x3d bundle was selling for just a few months ago.Reply -
DingusDog Reply
Yeah well not everyone in the US lives near a Micro Center I'm personally not driving 6+ hours to visit one. Also have no interest in non-X3D skus.Mama Changa said:Wow US prices in freefall while AMD screws over the rest of the world to subsidise the cuts. -
spongiemaster Reply
Most US customers pay taxes on PC purchases as well that isn't included in the prices that vendors list. Anywhere from 0-9.5% depending on where you live.newtechldtech said:Because they cant ... too much INCOME TAXES in EU (dealers cry from it) add 20% VAT to it , the consumer is #$#$%$ (he pays the dealer income TAX and the VAT) -
Syntaximus The 9900X for $359 is pretty nuts.Reply
Microcenter is a location lottery though as said, there are only 28 stores nationwide.