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.
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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.
Junior Member
Posts: 19
Joined: 2013-05-14
Maybe, or it is possible that GPU prices are affecting PC component sales. I do not see any upgrades in the near future, the same goes to all my friends. GPU + RAM pricing will take down the numbers also for other components, especially CPUs. Maybe that is one of the reasons why Intel went for AMD iGPUs. I would say if they want to keep PC gaming growing they need to bundle CPU and GPU and keep the price reasonable. AMD has upper hand here. Do not expect any Intel + Nvidia combo sold together directly from manufacturer.
Senior Member
Posts: 214
Joined: 2014-06-11
Unreasonable RAM prices are keeping me from upgrading. It's just silly.
Additionally, with more functionality moving to the CPU and motherboards doing less, motherboards are unreasonably-priced these days as well. How are they doing less than ever, but costing more than ever? But WOW! They sure do have lots of pretty lights now?!
Don't even get me started on the GPU prices...
Senior Member
Posts: 858
Joined: 2012-05-24
Few days ago when i was checking hardware prices i spotted the same thing. Also in my opinion difference in price between 1700x and 1800x makes 1700x pointless and there is no reason to buy it. Also i've seen slight drops in price of ram by 10-30% and more ram options available at some stores but still far from 120-140 euros for 16GB 3000MHz which was before prices increase.
GPUs are still sick overpriced, for example radeon rx 580 8GB costs about 500 euros. It supposed to cost how much? 300 on release and with time getting cheaper? Unfortunately it went totally opposite and here (Poland) has never been available at recommended price.
Senior Member
Posts: 14000
Joined: 2004-05-16
Unreasonable RAM prices are keeping me from upgrading. It's just silly.
Additionally, with more functionality moving to the CPU and motherboards doing less, motherboards are unreasonably-priced these days as well. How are they doing less than ever, but costing more than ever? But WOW! They sure do have lots of pretty lights now?!
Don't even get me started on the GPU prices...
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.
Senior Member
Posts: 319
Joined: 2015-06-25
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.