Is AMD Clearing Stock in Anticipation for the 12nm Zen+ April Update? Prices are dropping.

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 02/26/2018 06:35 PM | source: | 21 comment(s)

In April AMD is going to release the Ryzen refresh processor. It is expected that for example the Ryzen 7 1800X will be replaced with a model like 2800X. The newer models are slightly optimized and likely clocked a bit higher. However often before a new refresh generation kicks in, prices often drop. I did some rounds and yeah check it out.

So the historical trend is showing a dip year to year for pricing. Initially, when launched the Ryzen 7 1800X sold (in the EU) for roughly 550 Euros. Over the month's prices gradually dropped, during black Friday, for two weeks there was an action that brought some even better value to Ryzen processors. After Black Friday, the prices went back to normals and from there in early January, prices started to drop, now to an all-time low, and even lower than the prices during Black Friday.

From the looks of it, AMD is clearing stock in anticipation for the new Zen+ 12nm refresh slash updated processors. Check the chart below to see what is going on. These are Western EU based prices, by the way, incl VAT.


Processor model	Cores/Threads	L3 Cache	TDP	Base	Turbo	Unlocked	Original Price	Current Price
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	8/16	16 MB	95 W	3.6 GHz	4.0 GHz	Yes	499	~310
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X	8/16	16 MB	95 W	3.4 GHz	3.8 GHz	Yes	399	~285
AMD Ryzen 7 1700	8/16	16 MB	65 W	3.0 GHz	3.7 GHz	Yes	329	~275
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X	6/12	16 MB	95 W	3.6 GHz	4.0 GHz	Yes	249	~160
AMD Ryzen 5 1600	6/12	16 MB	65 W	3.2 GHz	3.6 GHz	Yes	219	~160
AMD Ryzen 5 1500X	4/8	16 MB	65 W	3.5 GHz	3.7 GHz	Yes	189	~145
AMD Ryzen 5 1400	4/8	8 MB	65 W	3.2 GHz	3.4 GHz	Yes	169	~135
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X	4/4	8 MB	65 W	3.4 GHz	3.7 GHz	Yes	129	~110
AMD Ryzen 3 1200	4/4	8 MB	65 W	3.1 GHz	3.4 GHz	Yes	109	~95

So the 1800X you can now spot for 309,- Euros which is just tremendous value. I ran some more checks and pretty much this effect you'll see on the entire Ryzen lineup. I need to make a strong note here as prices will and do vary throughout Europe and ROW. However the trend in price drop indicative for clearing stock. And as such, if you had it planned, now might be an excellent time to pick up a new Ryzen processor. Remember, once stock runs dry, prices would go up again.

The prices for Ryzen Threadripper seem to be holding steady, you can spot the sixteen core 1950X for 860 euros, the 12 core 1920X for 640 euros and the eight-core 1900X for 385 Euros.

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Sempaii
Senior Member

Posts: 128
Joined: 2014-10-16

#5523335 Posted on: 02/26/2018 08:53 PM

gave up on upgrade atm prices are to high here in Denmark
best price atm Ryzen 1800X 328,91euros

vonSternberg
Senior Member

Posts: 162
Joined: 2017-09-12

#5523340 Posted on: 02/26/2018 08:57 PM

Tell that to the retailers. Last time there was that 30% price decrease in manufacturing, every retailer here increased the price by 30%.

ubercake
Senior Member

Posts: 214
Joined: 2014-06-11

#5523353 Posted on: 02/26/2018 09:09 PM

I paid $400 for the Asus Striker Extreme back in 2007 - which is about $500 with inflation. My current X299 SLI board has 2 more USB ports than the striker, 4 extra DIMM slots, more/better VRMs, double the number of SATA connectors, U.2, Dual BIOS's, UEFI which is far superior to anything back then in terms of software, better looking in every way imaginable, better audio output, 2x M.2 and it has pretty lights and it cost half the striker did (Paid $220 for it,- arguably cheaper because the deal I got included a Corsair H75 but I won't subtract that out).

Motherboard pricing seems fine to me. GPU Pricing also seems fine if you ignore miner inflation. RAM pricing is unreasonable - I'll agree with that one.
With the exception of things outside of higher quality and additional electrical connections you named (which I hope would get cheaper over time and do), better sound processing and dual BIOS may be notable and not that expensive. The electrical connections/interfaces (USB,DIMMS,PCIe, etc...) and circuit boards are likely cheaper than ever to produce since circuit boards are used in darned-near everything these days.
I agree a UEFI is a superior interface, but could be provided easily as well through 3rd parties (just like the BIOS has historically been - e.g. AMI).

Ricepudding
Senior Member

Posts: 859
Joined: 2017-02-17

#5523355 Posted on: 02/26/2018 09:14 PM

Those are some pretty sweet deals.

I was kinda skeptical about what improvements Zen+ would offer over Zen beyond minor tweaks. This move by AMD makes me somewhat hopeful we'll see noticeable improvements and possibly OC potential.

From what i've gathered it will only be minor tweeks, Higher default ram, slight bump in clocks, maybe a bit of IPC improvement though that will likely come from the higher clocks. Beyond that though, very little differences

Clouseau
Senior Member

Posts: 2809
Joined: 2011-05-17

#5523373 Posted on: 02/26/2018 10:03 PM

Faster ram speeds and tighter timings is what makes Ryzen tick. That is why I have pushed the timings and speed as far as I can and keep voltages within reason. 3600 is not going to be enough unless tighter timings can be achieved as well. The reviews are going to need to take that into consideration. Overall system performance and responsiveness is completely noticeable over 3200 and I am only at 3487 (best am able to achieve). CPU speed is not as important as how the ram is set.

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