AMD’s Ryzen 9 3900X CPU remains seriously difficult to find, for those looking to buy the 12-core processor, and as a result, in the very few places this CPU is available at all – and indeed where it isn’t, but has pre-order prices – retailers are jacking up the asking price.
This is the case in both the US and the UK, sadly, as we scan across online prices and availability levels this morning at the time of writing.
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In the US, the Ryzen 9 3900X launched with an official price of $499, but it’s now selling at $579.99 at Newegg – although it’s out of stock currently – and it was selling at $569.99 at Micro Center (although there, the price has actually been removed, and the CPU is now listed as ‘unavailable online’).
You can get the 3900X at Newegg from a third-party marketplace seller, but it will cost you an eye-watering $799.99. Similarly at Amazon.com, it’s out of stock with the retailer itself, and you can only get it from marketplace sellers with the cheapest option currently ready to ship being $739.99.
This is, as Tom’s Hardware clarifies, not anything to do with AMD, of course, but the decision of the retailers themselves to bump up prices knowing that there’s a (much) greater demand than supply.
Best Buy is a rarity in that it appears to have stuck to the official $499.99 price, although that’s somewhat meaningless right now as it is – surprise, surprise – out of stock. Still, all credit to this retailer for not hiking the price tag up.
So you might want to keep your eye on Best Buy for when the 3900X does come back in stock, if you’re after this 12-core beast. There’s no indication of when stock might be replenished, although interestingly, in the questions and answers section, there’s the following comment: “Word on the street is that October 1, 2019 is when Ingram Micro, a big distributor, will have the Ryzen 9 back in stock.”
Those are the musings of a punter, though, not a Best Buy employee, so take that with a very generous spoonful of caution.
Similar story
In the UK, it’s a similar story. When the Ryzen 9 3900X first emerged, prices were generally pitched around the £499 level, or that was certainly the asking price at Overclockers.co.uk.
However, at the time of writing, that retailer is asking £559.59, although naturally there’s no stock, and you can only pre-order.
Scan and eBuyer are both asking a few pennies under £532, so that doesn’t look quite so bad, but again, they’ve got no units to sell right now. However, the latter does state that stock should be available on October 4, so fingers crossed that pans out for those keen to get one of these new Ryzen 3rd-gen chips.
As for Amazon UK, it does actually have stock – at least via Amazon EU Sarl, but the bad news is the price is a staggering £788.34 (at the time of writing, as with all these prices). Third-party marketplace sellers do have the Ryzen 9 3900X available, with the cheapest being £548.40.
Stock levels of the 3900X have always been thin on the ground, right from the off. However, given the slight aforementioned indications that there could be an easing of the stock situation in both the US and UK next week, in early October, we can but hope the situation might change sooner rather than later.
But with AMD admitting to stock issues in terms of getting the incoming flagship Ryzen 9 3950X on shelves – it should have been out now, but has been delayed to November – that hope might sadly be overly optimistic.
If nothing else, we can certainly hope that AMD will be making sure stock levels are broadly more healthy and robust in time for Black Friday sales, which of course comes in November (to be precise, November 29).
