AMD's Ryzen 9000 processors are reportedly experiencing the 'worst debut since Bulldozer,' due to 'disastrous sales'

AMD's new Zen 5 based Ryzen 9000 processors have been criticized by the broader community of reviewers. They weren't all that bad. They were more underwhelming than broken in terms of gaming. Nick, our own chip-fancier, is a little more positive than most (despite his own struggles during testing), and points out that the Ryzen 9 9950X is particularly good for productivity apps and other software that uses a lot of threads.

Reports continue to mount that AMD's newest CPUs are a complete failure on the sales charts. These reports are largely based on the DIY market and not on chips that go into fully-built rigs. The DIY market is a mere speck in comparison.

However, DIY sales can be used to gauge sentiment, rather than volume. These indications are bad. According to Hardware Unboxed on YouTube, the mixed reception of Zen 5 has "had a disastrous impact" on sales in Australia.

The channel claims that sales of the chips are so bad in Australia, "figures hard to believe", with retailers and distributors painting the picture of "worst Ryzen release since the very beginning of Ryzen as a entire."

Hardware Unboxed has also cited sales figures from German retailer Mindfactory. To cut a very long story short, Mindfactory has published publicly available figures that show Zen 4 sold twice the number of units in its first week following its launch two year ago than Zen 5 managed in a full month.

Zen 4 and Ryzen 7000 required the new AM5 socket, and therefore a completely new motherboard and memory platform. This made the upgrade more expensive and complicated than Zen 5, which can be installed directly onto existing AM5 boards. Some DIYers may be waiting for new chipsets that have not yet arrived, but this is a niche.

On another YouTube channel called Moore's Law is Dead you can find similar reports. The headline claims that Zen 5 and Ryzen 9000 is the "worst release since Bulldozer", according to the channel's retail sources.

Bulldozer was released in 2011 and is arguably AMD's worst mistake in CPU design. Zen 5 is nothing like Bulldozer in architectural terms--it's a far superior chip and microarchitecture--but that's somewhat academic if it's not selling.

Newegg's and Amazon's "Best Sellers Lists" of CPUs seem to support the same general narrative. Newegg lists the Ryzen 9 9700X as the 28th best seller, while Amazon lists the Ryzen 9 9950X as the 32nd.

A new AGESA firmware for Zen 5 chip reportedly reduced inter-core latencies from 180ns to 75ns. This update addresses one of the most obvious shortcomings of Zen 5 that have been uncovered in reviews, while also adding to the narrative of an rushed, possibly botched launch.

Why was the inter-core latencies issue not fixed before launch? It's not like Intel was trying to pressure AMD to release Zen 5 as quickly as possible. Intel is fighting its own PR battle, with its crashing 13th and 15th Gen chips, and its next-generation Arrow Lake desktop processors that are not expected to be released for another month.

Zen is not a disaster from an architectural standpoint. It's not a massively broken system that requires widespread RMAs. (Eh, Intel?) It's definitely a bit more advanced than its predecessor. It's not a big step forward, and it's a poor value for existing users.

As an example, the new Ryzen 5 9560X sells for around $280. The old Ryzen 7600 is available for about $180. You'd have a hard time telling the difference between them in terms of subjective computing experience, as opposed to raw benchmark numbers--whether in games or any other application. It's not surprising that customers aren’t lining up to buy the new CPUs.