- AMD’s Frank Azor has fired photographs at Intel’s Arrow Lake desktop CPUs
- He known as the Core Extremely 200S CPUs ‘horrible’ and mentioned this elevated demand for the Ryzen 9800X3D
- That increased demand has led to inventory woes, Azor claims, and stock points gained’t possible ease anytime quickly
An AMD government fired flak at Intel, calling Crew Blue’s newest Arrow Lake desktop chips ‘horrible’ no much less.
The quote got here from a roundtable with AMD execs at CES 2025, the place our sibling web site, Tom’s Hardware, requested in regards to the ongoing shortage of Ryzen 7 9800X3D stock (thought to be the very best CPU for gaming which you can purchase since its launch, and a processor that we gave a glowing review).
AMD noticed that demand has outstripped provide – clearly enough – and the total quote from Frank Azor, who heads up shopper and gaming advertising and marketing at AMD, will certainly go away Intel bigwigs suitably unimpressed.
Azor advised Tom’s {Hardware}: “We knew we constructed an awesome half [in the 9800X3D]. We didn’t know the competitor [Intel] had constructed a horrible one [Arrow Lake]. So the demand has been slightly increased than we forecasted.”
Ouch. You’ve most likely seen that Intel’s newest Arrow Lake desktop chips, which arrived in October 2024, skilled a rocky launch, with various problems that Crew Blue nonetheless hasn’t totally put to mattress.
We’ll come again to Intel’s misfortunes later, however what in regards to the Ryzen 9800X3D inventory scenario?
David McAfee, VP and GM of Ryzen channel enterprise at AMD, defined: “It’s loopy how a lot we’ve elevated [our monthly, quarterly output of X3D parts] over what we have been planning. I might say the demand we’ve seen for the 9800X3D and the 7800X3D has been unprecedented. So the demand has been increased than ever.”
McAfee notes that making chips takes a while – “it’s principally 12 to 13 weeks from while you begin a wafer to while you get a product out the opposite finish of the machine” – and that the 3D V-Cache stacking course of provides complexity and is much more time consuming. Which means it’s tougher to meet up with surprising spikes in demand.
The upshot? McAfee says: “I feel as we undergo the primary half of this yr, you’ll see us proceed to extend the output of X3D.” And the exec additional notes that sooner or later, AMD is “ramping capability to make sure we meet up with that demand for so long as clients need these X3D components.”
It’s the Ryzen 7 X3D processors which characterize a lot of the demand, you’ll be unsurprised to be taught – as the advantages of hopping as much as a Ryzen 9 X3D chip are marginal for PC players (if something, certainly, gaming efficiency could even dip). So the 9800X3D and its predecessor characterize the candy spot for gaming and worth.
McAfee mentioned the workhorse 8-core X3D components outsell Ryzen 9 X3D flavors by an enormous 10-to-1, all of which signifies that the introduction of Ryzen 9950X3D and 9900X3D CPUs (ushered in at CES 2025) isn’t going to ease any stress on the inventory ranges of the 9800X3D.
Evaluation: Damaged Arrow? Hardly…
In brief, don’t anticipate the Ryzen 9800X3D to develop into extra broadly obtainable for a while but, although as we head into the second quarter of 2025, issues ought to ease and the CPU could effectively populate the cabinets in better numbers.
Again to the flak fired by AMD at Intel, and it’s fairly harsh to make use of a time period like ‘horrible’ to explain a rival product. Is desktop Arrow Lake actually that terrible? Properly, the launch wasn’t a catastrophe, nevertheless it was disappointing, notably as gaming efficiency didn’t dwell as much as Intel’s guarantees attributable to a number of points.
That mentioned, Intel’s fixes – which have now been deployed for Arrow Lake, all however one ultimate measure – don’t assist a lot, or in any respect, at the least based on Tom’s {Hardware}’s (restricted) testing. One thing we’ll must confirm ourselves, thoughts you, so take that with loads of warning at this stage.
At any charge, Arrow Lake desktop has been troubled because it was pushed out, there’s no denying that, and the issue is that this occurred in opposition to a backdrop of extra critical instability points with Intel’s previous Core CPU ranges (thirteenth and 14th) on the desktop. These have been actually nasty gremlins within the works, and whereas Intel had them mounted by the top of final yr, that complete episode was a very dark cloud over 2024 for Crew Blue – with appreciable reputational harm achieved.
So, whereas that episode has nothing to do with Arrow Lake – which doesn’t undergo these instability woes – it nonetheless casts a deep shadow over Intel’s latest desktop vary and the separate points with these chips.
It’s a messy time for Intel within the CPU world, briefly, and AMD pulling no punches isn’t actually a shock. Though as we’ve mentioned, ‘horrible’ goes somewhat too far, and considerably gleefully taking part in on Intel’s different mishaps of late.
It must be famous that AMD is just not totally with out blemishes with its current-gen processors, as Ryzen 9000 launched to some disappointment with its generational uplift, once more notably for gaming – although the 9800X3D has gone a great distance in the direction of addressing that. The one downside is you may’t purchase the factor in the intervening time, a scenario which isn’t about to alter, clearly.
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