AMD finally confirms Ryzen 9000 launch date, but not pricing

New desktop CPUs are launching on July 31st.

It’s official now, confirmed by several retailers stocking the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs or preparing for preorders and AMD themselves: the official launch date for Zen5-based desktop CPUs is July 31st, the last day of this month, fulfilling their promise.

The launch includes four SKUs: the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X , 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X , 8-core Ryzen 7 9700X , and 6-core Ryzen 5 9600X . AMD has not yet disclosed pricing information, which is expected to be unveiled next week. This carefully planned approach may be to prevent Intel from gaining an advantage in pricing their Core Ultra 200K series, or to gather feedback from reviewers who are already testing the new series.

AMD has clarified rumors about potential changes to the Ryzen 7 9700X’s TDP, confirming it will launch with a planned 65W TDP. Only the Ryzen 9 9950X will use 170W, while the Ryzen 9 9900X remains at 120W. Both the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X will be 65W parts.

Ryzen 7 9700X vs. Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Source: AMD

There has been significant discussion about the 8-core SKUs, particularly since AMD’s Don Waligroski stated that it wouldn’t match the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in gaming performance. AMD appears to confirm this with a slide comparing the Ryzen 7 9700X to the first-generation X3D SKU, the Ryzen 7 5800X, showing an average 12% performance improvement.

Source: AMD