AMD's latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D is sold out, scalpers drive prices to $1,500

[midian182]

What just happened? AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched yesterday, and it's proving popular – perhaps too popular. The excellent CPU is sold out almost everywhere in the US and across Europe, a situation that's led to scalpers charging almost $1,500 for the $480 processor.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D arrived like a breath of fresh air for consumers disappointed with AMD's underwhelming Zen 5 chips and Intel's Arrow Lake processors, which we rated poorly. Team Red's new chip, on the other hand, earned the title of The New Gaming CPU King in our review. Not surprisingly, all the praise means that finding one right now is like trying to get hold of a graphics card in 2021.

Newegg, Best Buy, Amazon, B&H Photo, Walmart, and most Micro Center locations are currently showing AMD's latest processor as sold out.

It's the same story in Europe. 3DCenter wrote on X that most of Germany's big computer hardware retailers were sold out of Ryzen 7 9800X3D chips, often before deliveries had arrived. This led to Mindfactory no longer accepting pre-orders.

According to 3DCenter forums, Mindfactory now has so many pre-orders for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D that even the subsequent delivery from AMD tomorrow is already sold out. As a result, Mindfactory is currently no longer accepting pre-orders.https://t.co/MUUkY6MAt9

– 3DCenter.org (@3DCenter_org) November 7, 2024

In the UK, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is out of stock and awaiting delivery around the end of the month at Scan and Overclockers UK. Other retailers also show the chip as sold out and awaiting delivery.

As we've seen many, many times before when a product's demand vastly outweighs supply, multiple listings for the Ryzen 7 9800X3D have appeared on eBay with inflated prices.

The greediest scalper is charging $1,500 for the CPU, a 212% increase over its MSRP. This is followed by listings priced between $645 and $999, the vast majority of which are confirmed pre-orders not yet in the sellers' hands.

Why scalping should be illegal

The 9800X3D positions the large 64MB L3 cache below the cores rather than on top, as was the case with previous models, enabling cooler operating temperatures and higher clock speeds.

The chip's gaming performance is fantastic: it outperforms Intel's 14900K by an impressive 27% margin, and the Core Ultra 9 285K by 33%. We called it excellent value even at its $480 MSRP, but you probably shouldn't pay eBay prices for one.

Yesterday, CPU benchmarks for the Ryzen 9 9950X3D leaked online. The flagship is expected to be unveiled alongside the Ryzen 9 9900X3D at CES in January.

Permalink to story:

AMD's latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D is sold out, scalpers drive prices to $1,500

 

[Achaios]

Imagine what they are gonna do with the 5090 when it launches.

There's a lot of scalpers who made good money from the whales with Ampere and evidently they have got itchy fingers and they are easy to pull the trigger.

I can almost see $5K 5090 listings on Ebay.

 

[redgarl]

Pre-orders are still up at memoryexpress in Canada.

 

[Dreadcthulhu]

Scalpers are a sign that the product is priced too low; AMD should have released this chip with a higher price, would have rather they & their retail partners get more money than the scalper. For that matter, for highly anticipated releases like this I wonder if online stores might look into the auction format more, for the first week or two, and then sell it normally.

 

[yRaz]

Scalpers are a sign that the product is priced too low; AMD should have released this chip with a higher price, would have rather they & their retail partners get more money than the scalper. For that matter, for highly anticipated releases like this I wonder if online stores might look into the auction format more, for the first week or two, and then sell it normally.

Probably one of the dumbest things anyone has said on here. Scalpers bought them expecting to turn a profit, they didn't. Instead, AMD sold all their inventory to scalpers and there is still plenty of demand from consumers.

I also don't see this release as "highly anticipated". The 9000 series has generally been considered a disappointment over the 7000 series. The amount of people who will actually benifet from a 9800X3D are few and far between. 99% of gamers can get a 7700X and have a fantastic experience for several years. It takes a significant amount of work in generating unrealistic scenarios to find meaningful data points in benchmarks. Unless you own a 4090 and play at 1080P, you will not be able to notice any difference between the X3D and normal variants of this chip.

And there is something else these scalpers don't know. Due to how AMD manufactures these using chiplets, they can just make more easily. Yields are not an issue. There are a lot of 9900 and 9950Xs on the market right now, they might slow production of those down to make more X3D chips.

And, one final point. **** the scalpers. They ruin a good thing. I hope they all lose money

 

[BabaYaga]

Scalpers must not have read the reviews. Most will wait until it's in stock than overpay to get it now. AMD just dropped prices on the rest of the lineup which tell you something. Scalpers are really looking for things to scalp.

 

[BbN48]

Mine is on the way.

 

[brucek]

Here's hoping buyers have the sense to not overpay and the scalpers take a bath. This is not like Crypto where more power more faster directly equals more money. For buyers seeking production applications, $1,500 is the start of Threadripper territory. And for gamers, the pool of people for whom this chip directly translates into $1,500 worth of gaming performance is tiny - for many gamers who are primarily bottle-necked on the GPU it may make little immediate difference at all.

I suppose one wrinkle, for US consumers at least, is Trump's proposed 60% tariff on parts from China. I don't know when or if that will actually happen, but if it were to take place on day one of his administration, this might soon be a ~ $750 part in the US anyway. That justifies at least a small scalper premium to get one sooner I guess. (I'm also unsure how much of Intel's supply this would impact - if they have new parts that avoid it their chips might soon look better for the price...)

 

[godrilla]

Those scalpers will make a killing on the Intel consumers.
Currently on Ebay it is being scalped for as low as $669.99


The only way to fight scalpers is for AMD to oversupply the market and have the scalpers holding the bag last!

Also the 7800X3D is selling used low as $300 on Ebay.

 

[BabaYaga]

I suppose one wrinkle, for US consumers at least, is Trump's proposed 60% tariff on parts from China. I don't know when or if that will actually happen, but if it were to take place on day one of his administration, this might soon be a ~ $750 part in the US anyway. That justifies at least a small scalper premium to get one sooner I guess. (I'm also unsure how much of Intel's supply this would impact - if they have new parts that avoid it their chips might soon look better for the price...)

TSM is in Taiwan. Intel is in the US. TSM built a 5nm fab in Arizona as well. China imports high-end chips and exports low-end and midrange chips.

 

[Yppah]

Imagine what they are gonna do with the 5090 when it launches.

There's a lot of scalpers who made good money from the whales with Ampere and evidently they have got itchy fingers and they are easy to pull the trigger.

I can almost see $5K 5090 listings on Ebay.

Can you share with us the base price? Or is that just fantasy nonsensical twaddle? I mean I can also most see $6K 5090 listings on eBay. And fairies and gnomes in my garden.

 

[Eldrach]

This will even out soon - AMD didn’t overproduce this as they did with the initial 9xxx series, but they’ll ramp up now. There is no «chip shortage» for AMD atm

 

[Cocojambo13]

Here's hoping buyers have the sense to not overpay and the scalpers take a bath. This is not like Crypto where more power more faster directly equals more money. For buyers seeking production applications, $1,500 is the start of Threadripper territory. And for gamers, the pool of people for whom this chip directly translates into $1,500 worth of gaming performance is tiny - for many gamers who are primarily bottle-necked on the GPU it may make little immediate difference at all.

I suppose one wrinkle, for US consumers at least, is Trump's proposed 60% tariff on parts from China. I don't know when or if that will actually happen, but if it were to take place on day one of his administration, this might soon be a ~ $750 part in the US anyway. That justifies at least a small scalper premium to get one sooner I guess. (I'm also unsure how much of Intel's supply this would impact - if they have new parts that avoid it their chips might soon look better for the price...)

your 2nd paragraph has no sense whatsoever. this has nothing to do with tariffs, especially chips that are made in US or TW. Also if the only source of chips were China and US had to import only from there with a 60% tariff that would still not translate the insane price you provided. Nobody would buy them is also another factor.

 

[brucek]

your 2nd paragraph has no sense whatsoever. this has nothing to do with tariffs, especially chips that are made in US or TW. Also if the only source of chips were China and US had to import only from there with a 60% tariff that would still not translate the insane price you provided. Nobody would buy them is also another factor.

My second paragraph is referencing potential future retail MSRP, not scalper prices today. While future tariffs are certainly not the direct cause of scalpers trying to see what they can get for an limited-supply item today, claiming future price increases have "nothing to do" with acceptable market price for buyers today is pushing it. Anyone who believes the price may increase post-tariffs next year may factor that increase into what they are willing to pay a scalper today.

As to how much the price will increase, I admit I am not an expert on either the global supply chain or politics. I have no idea if the new administration is serious about these plans; if they will succeed in implementing if them if they try; what fractions of the supply & logistics chain will be impacted by the 60% China rate or the lesser 20% non-China rate; and when those overseas portions of the supply chain will be successfully relocated to the US or a non-tariff country.

However, I will say that whatever percent tariff is applied, is likely to raise the price to retail customers in some direct proportion. Are you under the impression businesses would eat this cost or sacrifice their margins? I certainly wouldn't take that as a given. I do agree that the likely impact of raised prices is lower volume, which is another challenge for pricing, because fixed costs divided over an assumed volume are a non-trivial part total costs.

If there is anyone who does have direct knowledge or expertise on these matters, I'd appreciate an informed take on them. Feels like it could make for a good TechSpot article.

 

[brucek]

TSM is in Taiwan. Intel is in the US. TSM built a 5nm fab in Arizona as well. China imports high-end chips and exports low-end and midrange chips.

Thank for you for this info but I'm not sure it represents the whole picture. Intel has fabs both inside and outside the US. TSM's fab in Arizona is not yet operational afaik, nor do I know if it will be able to offer the same pricing as their other fabs once it is. There are separate packaging steps that occur post-fab. I think I've read that AMD is now doing most packaging in Malaysia but I believe they've used other countries including China in the past. I'm certainly no expert, just have been given the impression that tariffs are likely to disrupt many products including electronics.

 

[BabaYaga]

Thank for you for this info but I'm not sure it represents the whole picture. Intel has fabs both inside and outside the US. TSM's fab in Arizona is not yet operational afaik, nor do I know if it will be able to offer the same pricing as their other fabs once it is. There are separate packaging steps that occur post-fab. I think I've read that AMD is now doing most packaging in Malaysia but I believe they've used other countries including China in the past. I'm certainly no expert, just have been given the impression that tariffs are likely to disrupt many products including electronics.

TSM fab is Arizona is operational. Although, not fully ramped up yet. Significant portion of post-fab packaging is still done in Taiwan but I'm sure they will expand the Arizona fab to include those locally as well. Otherwise, you can't gain chip security if there are still steps to be done outside of the country.

There are also sorting houses that AMD and Nvidia use when they discover an issue with production. Nvidia sorts 100% of their chips. AMD only when they find a batch with problems. These are mostly in Asia.

https://www.techpowerup.com/328123/...marking-progress-for-us-silicon-manufacturing

More factories in the US. There are just the ones that got grants.

The companies that benefited from the CHIPS Act
Company Amount Factory locations
Intel $8.5 billion Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Ohio
TSMC $6.6 billion Arizona
Samsung $6.4 billion Texas
Micron $6.14 billion New York
Global Foundries $1.5 billion New York, Vermont
Microchip Technology $162 million Colorado, Oregon
Polar Semiconductor $120 million Minnesota
BAE Systems $35 million New Hampshire

Tarrif will be on Chinese made goods. It all depends on the wording but if it's just manufacture than final packaging and sorting might not be part of it. Definitely not sorting since it's just quality control.

 

[BabaYaga]

Just checked Microcenter and they have 11 in stock at one location.

https://postimg.cc/w1xqVTtJ

 

[brucek]

Thanks @BabaYoga for all the extra detail, that all sounds like cause for optimism.

 

[Rudyduu]

also don't see this release as "highly anticipated"

The 9800X3D sold out. It was highly anticipated which is why enthusiasts waited for it to launch before buying any 9000 series CPU. All the rumours about it made it sound like a much better CPU than all the other 9000 series CPU's.

 

[Rudyduu]

Tarrif will be on Chinese made goods.

Tariffs will be on all imported goods. Chinese goods supposedly will get a significant higher tariff. Either way it means companies will be able to raise prices over and beyond tariffs while blaming the tariffs for the increased costs.

 

[yRaz]

The 9800X3D sold out. It was highly anticipated which is why enthusiasts waited for it to launch before buying any 9000 series CPU. All the rumours about it made it sound like a much better CPU than all the other 9000 series CPU's.

To scalpers trying to sell them for $800. AMD has plenty of supply it'll be back in stock most places by the end of the week. If you want "sold out" then I'm expecting it to be basically unavailable for several months and the only place to buy them in on ebay for 2X MSRP