AMD Surprise Ryzen 9000 Delay Due To Simple Heatspreader Typo?

AMD appears to have delayed the Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 processor launch due to a typo on the CPU itself. Model names can be confusing, especially when you have several new Ryzen 9000-series processors under three product ranges, but it seems even the manufacturers themselves can get confused with their own products sometimes.

In this case, the Ryzen 7 9700X appears to have been mislabelled as a Ryzen 9 model, with resulting name, Ryzen 9 9700X, spotted in a review by regular eagle-eyed spotted @9550pro.

To any keen followers of AMD’s highly anticipated launch, that definitely doesn’t sound right as the X700X model has always been a Ryzen 7 and not a Ryzen 9, with Ryzen 9 being introduced on desktop CPUs with the Ryzen 9 3950X, having topped out at Ryzen 7 previously with the likes of the Ryzen 7 1800X. Thankfully, (although whoever slipped up is probably having a very bad time right now), it means that there’s likely not anything physically wrong with the CPUs under the heatspreader, which is more than can be said for Intel at the moment.

ForbesAMD Delays Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 Processor LaunchBy Antony Leather

AMD delayed its July 31st Ryzen 9000 launch last week, curiously confirming there were no issues with the manufacturing process or CPUs themselves. Left wondering what the actual issue was for a move as significant as delaying a major product launch, which it should be said is also extremely rare for products of this caliber, rumors have been rife of social media and forums since the announcement of the delay came last week.

It was ironic that Intel was suffering from a potentially huge stability issue at the same time, potentially affecting millions of owners of its 13th and 14th Gen CPUs. However, AMD was at least scrambling to fix things before the actual launch, but you can’t really ship a product with a huge typo. In fact, that’s probably even worse than shipping a faulty product with a fix released for it later – a lot of people would be none the wiser.

It remains to be seen if this will affect availability of the new CPUs at launch given the company is recalling everything that was impacted by the typo and presumably needs to reprint the heat spreaders. It’s also possible packing may have been affected if the same incorrect details were passed along the same channels.

However, the company seems to be confident enough to simply bump the launch by a week, at least for the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, which now launch on 8th August. These will be followed by the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X on 15th August.

ForbesIntel Confirms Fix For Unstable Processors: Follow These Steps NowBy Antony Leather

The only bad thing to have come out of this fiasco, then, if it is indeed why AMD delayed the launch, is whoever made the mistake is probably very sleep deprived, and enthusiasts who planned to by the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs this week, will instead have to wait till 8th August for the lower to models and middle of August for the two Ryzen 9 models.

I’ll be reviewing the new Ryzen 9000 CPUs next week so follow me here on Forbes using the blue button below, Facebook or YouTube to get the latest news, analysis benchmarks.