14 PCWorld AUGUST 2019NEWS QUEUES FOR RYZEN 3000 DESKTOP CPU
pricing or promotions, the
hype will translate into sales.”
Neither AMD nor retailers
have released any initial sales
figures but if selling out is an
indicator, the company has
certainly succeeded. Besides
reports of the Ryzen 3000
CPUs being sold out from
Brazil (go.pcworld.com/brzl)
to Tustin, a check of Newegg.
com and Amazon.com
showed zero availability of any
of AMD’s new Ryzen 3000
chips by themselves. It looks like the only way
to snag a Ryzen 3000 at this point is to buy it
packaged with a motherboard or more.
And while pent-up demand for AMD’s
other 7nm product, the Radeon RX 5700
series graphics cards (see page 60), probably
contributed as well to the lines, we’ll note that
they’re fairly easy to buy today (go.pcworld.
com/bytd) at the same stores.
It’s not just e-tailers either. An inventory
spot check of all 25 Micro Center locations on
the afternoon of July 8 showed Ryzen 3000
CPUs out of stock.
While getting your customers enthusiastic
enough to line up for the products is a good
look, that enthusiasm can quickly turn into
frustration when they can’t actually buy the
hardware, either. AMD officials said they are
aware the chip parts are in high demand and
denied comments that the parts weren’t in veryhigh supply. And—for fans who were left
empty handed—more parts are on the way.
“This is a historic launch for AMD with
eight CPU and GPU products for gamers
launching simultaneously,” AMD told
PCWorld in a statement. “We are providing
significant product volumes to our retail and
e-tail partners. We’re excited to see the
overwhelmingly positive reaction to Radeon
5700 Series and Ryzen 3000 series desktop
processors. AMD is working quickly to
restock e-tail and retail partners globally
following significant launch day demand.”
If your money’s burning a hole in your
pocket, AMD’s last-gen Ryzen 2000
processors have received massive price cuts
(go.pcworld.com/ryz2) now that the newer
parts have arrived. The huge single-thread
performance gains in Ryzen 3000 might be
worth waiting just a bit longer for, though.If you didn’t wait in line at a Micro Center like many did on July 7
at 6 a.m., it looks like you’ll have to wait for the next shipment of
Ryzen CPUs.