AMD just revealed its Ryzen 9000 CPU prices, and they’re disappointing

The lid has just been lifted on all the AMD Ryzen 9000 prices, with the CPU maker officially confirming how much you’ll have to pay for each one of its new Zen 5 CPUs. All of them are lower than the Ryzen 7000 prices for the equivalent chips when they first launched, but they’re also a fair bit higher than the cost of these Zen 4 chips now.

Indeed, with Intel CPU instability issues still raging on, arguably the main competition for these new Ryzen 9000 chips will come from the last-gen AMD Zen 4 lineup. That’s particularly the case when it comes to the battle for the best gaming CPU title, as none of the first Zen 5 CPUs out the door will be X3D chips with AMD’s 3D V-cache. Some of the prices are exactly the same as the ones we saw in the Best Buy AMD price leak, but a couple of them are a bit higher.

Let’s start at the bottom, with AMD’s six-core offering. The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X price is $279, which is $20 cheaper than the price of the Ryzen 5 7600X when it first came out, and is identical to the price seen in the Best Buy leak. However, the 7600X was seriously overpriced at launch, and it has since dropped to just $197 on Amazon. That’s a difference of over $80, which is significant at this price level, and it’s going to make life tough for the new 9600X unless it’s seriously fast.

Next up is the eight-core chip. The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X price is $359, which is a good $40 cheaper than the Ryzen 7 7700X when it first came out, and is the same as the price listed in the Best Buy leak. Right now, the 7700X goes for $290 on Amazon, meaning you’ll pay a $69 premium for the new chip. That’s not a bad price for the 9700X, which AMD says will outperform its Ryzen 7 5800X3D, but it’s unlikely to outpace the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in games.

The top two chips are both a bit more expensive than the Best Buy leak suggested. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X price is $499, which is $50 more than the price listed in the Best Buy leak, but still a good $50 cheaper than the equivalent 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X when it first came out. The 7900X currently goes for just $359, though, meaning you have to pay an extra $140 for the new chip. That’s going to be hard to justify unless the 9900X is massively quicker.

Finally, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X price is $649, which is again $50 more than the Best Buy leak price, but $50 cheaper than the Ryzen 9 7950X MSRP at launch. The 7950X now costs just $523, however, so you’ll need to hand over an extra $126 for the Zen 5 chip. If your top priority is getting the fastest multi-threaded performance possible, that may well end up being a price worth paying, however, as long as the CPU is significantly quicker.

Out of all the new prices, the Ryzen 7 9700X looks like it could be a solid option for $279, but otherwise, it looks as though AMD could have a struggle to shift these chips, with the biggest threat coming from its last-gen offerings. That’s not necessarily a bad situation for AMD, though. It means the company can shift its older inventory while charging a premium for its new CPUs, and then hopefully drop the prices of the new Zen 5 CPUs at a later date.

The AMD Ryzen 9000 release date is nearly upon us, and we’ll see the first proper performance results when the review embargo lifts. In the meantime, check out our full AMD Zen 5 guide to find out everything we know about the new processors.