AMD Ryzen 7 9700X And Ryzen 5 9600X See Slow Start In Retail Debut But It's Complicated
Some early (very early) sales data seemingly reveals that AMD's brand-spanking-new Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors are not exactly flying off store shelves. This could be due to a number of factors, including the 65W TDP on these mainstream chips. Should AMD be concerned with the early numbers, though? Probably not, at least now yet.
For the most part, these are solid offerings within their performance tiers. If you haven't done so already, check out our 9700X/9600X review for a slew of benchmarks and analysis. As we noted in our review, both chips are "clearly faster and more efficient than their predecessors," and the Zen 5 architecture is better suited for emerging compute workloads. At the same time, we understand that some may find the launch a bit underwhelming, in terms of generational leaps (both in specs and performance).
That latter bit could be playing a role in the early sales data. Which, if looking at the numbers at Mindfactory, a popular retailer in Germany, the numbers could certainly be better. The Ryzen 7 9700X listing has a sales counter that indicates "over 40 sold," while the Ryzen 5 9600X listing shows "over 20 sold." We presume the counters are updated for every 10 chips sold. So by "over 40 sold," it likely indicates between 41 and 49.
🔥 CPU Retail Sales Week 32 (mf)
— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphanyYT) August 11, 2024
barely any Zen 5 CPUs sold
ℹ️ Units
AMD: 2855 units sold, 86.91%, ASP: 269 (+6)
Intel: 430, 13.09%, ASP: 285 (-3)
ℹ️ Revenue
AMD: 768521, 86.23%
Intel: 122756, 13.77%
ℹ️ By Socket
AM5: 2020
AM4: 835
1700: 410
1200: 20
(Added sales from 2017… pic.twitter.com/jpZq1wGCQF
X/Twitter user TechEpiphany often rounds up and shares stats from Mindfactory, which you can see in the post above for a more detail comparison of how the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X unit sales compare to other CPU options. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is by far the most popular slice of silicon at Mindfactory, which has sold over 950 units.
Another snapshot of early sales data can be found at Amazon, which maintains a list of best selling CPUs. At the time of this writing, the Ryzen 7 9700X (priced at $359) ranks at number 47, while the Ryzen 5 9600X (priced at $279) is all way down at number 85, which is sandwiched between the Core i3-14100F (No. 84) and Core i5-9600K (No. 86). Again, though, it's very early.
The Ryzen 7 7800X3D also tops the list at Amazon, followed by the Ryzen 5 7600X, Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X, and Ryzen 5 5500 founding out the top five. If looking at the top 10 best selling CPUs on Amazon, the list continues with the Ryzen 9 7950X, Core i7-12700KF, Ryzen 7 5700X3D, Ryzen 9 5900X, and Ryzen 7 5700X.
If you're keeping count, AMD dominates the top 10 spots with nine CPU models, and accounts for 14 of the top 20 best sellers. So in that regard, AMD need not be in panic mode over early Ryzen 9000 series sales.
Also complicating the matter is that the higher end Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X models are releasing to retail very soon. Likewise, we've posted our 9950X/9900X review, and be sure to check that out if you're curious about how AMD's flagship chips compare.
One other wrinkle is that AMD is rumored to be releasing an AGESA update that bump the 65W TDP on the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X to 105W. We'll have to wait and see if that happens, and if so, how it affects performance and the overall outlook.
