Zen 4 is a great CPU architecture, but AMD's platform costs are too high
Published: 19th October 2022 | Source: WCCFTECH | Author: Mark Campbell
AMD's Ryzen 7000 series is suffering from low demand - Are prices too high?
According to a report from WCCFTECH , AMD has lowered its Ryzen 7000 series production plans in response to lower than expected demand for its processors. Simply put, the PC market is in decline, and a poor global financial outlook has consumers looking for greater value from their purchases.
While AMD's Zen 4 processors offer strong performance levels, AMD's AM5 platform has not been recieved well by the enthusiast PC market. AM5 motherboards are expensive, and so is DDR5 DRAM. With this in mind, it is easy to see why many call AMD's Ryzen 7000 series poor value products, as expensive platform costs makes upgrading unappealing.
Motherboard and DRAM pricing is too high
In the UK, AMD's cheapest AM5 motherboards cost over £200. It was not long ago that £200+ motherboards were considered premium products. Today, baseline B650 motherboards cost over £200. Add on the high cost of DDR5 memory, and it is easy to see why many consumers are unwilling to upgrade to AMD's Ryzen 7000 series. Add on high costs for AMD's Ryzen 7000 processors themselves, and it is easy to see why consumers are waiting for cheaper options.
For Ryzen 7000 series CPUs to become more appealing to a larger number of PC enthusiasts, motherboard pricing and memory pricing needs to be lowered. Beyond that, AMD may also need to look at their CPU prices, especially now that Intel is ready to respond to AMD's Ryzen 7000 series with their new 13th Generation Raptor Lake products. Raptor Lake CPU will support cheaper DDR4 memory on many LGA1700 motherboards, and they will work on existing Intel 600-series motherboards, most of which are available for lower prices than their AM5 counterparts.
Enthusiasts are waiting
Today, hardware enthusiasts have good reasons to wait before buying AMD's Ryzen 7000 series processors. For starters, they can wait for DDR5 pricing to lower, and for AMD motherboard prices to drop to more reasonable levels. Additionally, they are waiting to see what Intel has to offer with their 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors, which are expected to launch with notable generational improvements over their 12th Gen Alder Lake products and competitive pricing.
AMD fans also have another valid reason for waiting. Zen 4 3D. AMD's V-Cache technology can be applied to AMD's Zen 4 processors, a change that would greatly enhance the gaming performance of AMD's already powerful Ryzen 7000 series CPU lineup. With their Ryzen 7 5800X3D, AMD has proven that an enlarged L3 cache can greatly increase the gaming performance of their processors. For this reason, it makes sense for gamers to wait for Ryzen 7000 X3D processors.
You can join the discussion on AMD reportedly decreasing Ryzen 7000 series CPU production on the OC3D Forums .