Ryzen 9000 delay, it was a typo all along?

Ryzen 9 9700X instead of Ryzen 7 9700X.

AMD has not directly confirmed the reason for the Ryzen 9000 launch delay. Officially, the company cited quality issues that did not meet their expectations. However, it seems the issue might have been a simple typo.

A batch of Ryzen 7 9700X processors was shipped with the incorrect label “ Ryzen 9 9700X. ” This typographic error wouldn’t affect performance but could spark unnecessary discussions that AMD preferred to avoid. It appears that, as a result, the company decided to postpone the launch.

“We appreciate the excitement around Ryzen 9000 series processors. During final checks, we found the initial production units that were shipped to our channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations . Out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user, we are working with our channel partners to replace the initial production units with fresh units. ”

— AMD

The possibility of a typo in the Ryzen 9000 lineup was first mentioned by Ian Cutress. However, it remained unclear whether the typo is on the product packaging, which would be easier to replace, or on the CPU package itself.

It’s strange that all four SKUs were delayed, even if only one was affected by the mistake. Perhaps the errors extended to other units, or perhaps AMD wanted to be certain there were no Ryzen 9 9700X units anywhere on the market. Well, as it turns out, someone did find it and even decided to test it:

Ryzen 9 7 9700X test, Source: Bilibili

Given that the labels are laser engraved, correcting the mistake might not be a complicated fix, but it will require all CPUs to go through the same line again. The question remains: was all this trouble really necessary?

Source: Bilibili via HXL