AMD's upcoming 9950X3D might be surprisingly pricey at launch
AMD is soon set to launch a couple of its best processors, including the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the Ryzen 9 9900X3D. According to leakers, their launch date is merely a week away, as the CPUs are said to come out on March 12. Today, we got a peek at the pricing for the top chip in the lineup, the 9950X3D, and it looks like it might cost a hefty amount at launch.
The beastly gaming CPU was spotted by 9550pro on X (Twitter). The leaker used a price plugin to uncover how much it'll cost. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D was shown with a 5599 RMB (Chinese yuan) price tag, which translates to roughly $772 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the 9900X3D is said to cost 4599 RMB, which means $634 — nearly $140 less.
Comparing these prices to the recommended list price (MSRP) for the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which was the previous gen flagship, shows an increase. The CPU launched at $699 and it received multiple price cuts since then, dropping to as low as $530 at times. However, as production slowed down, it slowly became harder to come by and the price went up accordingly. It now costs $734, which is just under the upcoming 9950X3D. Needless to say, at that price and with a new version coming out soon, it's no longer worth buying.
Circling back to that rumored $772 price tag for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, it is quite worrying — but keep a couple of things in mind. For one, this is just one leak from a Chinese retailer that may or may not be true. Even if it is, prices in the U.S. might be different. We've seen the Ryzen 9 9950X3D briefly leaked on Newegg in February and the flagship cost $699, which is the same price as the 7950X3D at the time of release. So, it may not be as bad as all that after all.
AMD is yet to officially announce the release date or the price of the new Ryzen CPUs. It has, however, revealed their specs during its CES 2025 keynote.
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