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

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.

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.