Determined to make the most of its current advantage, AMD is putting even more pressure on Intel.
It's no coincidence that just as Intel is about to launch its new range of processors - the famous Arrow Lake - it's AMD that's pulling out all the stops, with two announcements in quick succession that have all the hallmarks of open commercial warfare. The first was a review of the price of Ryzen 9000X processors, the models launched last summer and whose performance has been something of a disappointment. Not that they're bad, but enthusiasts were hoping for a little more from their new Zen 5 architecture, particularly in the field of video games.
Ryzen 9000X price drop © AMD
First benefiting - a little over a month ago - from Microsoft's update work on the Windows scheduler, Ryzen 9000X processors will now be able to show themselves more attractive thanks to a small price cut by AMD. We're not talking about any major discounts, but depending on the processor, we can expect a reduction of between $30 and $50. Unfortunately, we don't yet have the result in euros, but we're betting it'll be in the same ballpark. Of course, AMD can't force the hand of resellers, and so specifies that the drop remains at their discretion: logically, it's the Ryzen 9 9950X that benefits from the biggest drop, " up to $50 ", while for the other models - from the Ryzen 5 9600X to the Ryzen 9 9900X - AMD mentions a drop of " up to $30 ". That's something, isn't it?
Ryzen 9000X3D to be unveiled soon © AMD
The other important piece of information - and here it's an outright thumbing of the nose at Intel - is that AMD is announcing the Ryzen 9000X3D. AMD doesn't hesitate to speak of a " new generation game " with these processors, which will of course take advantage of the Zen 5 architecture of the 9000X, but will be combined with 3D Vertical Cache technology, which literally stacks cache memory chips within the processor to multiply its capacity: rumors speak of 104 MB of combined cache for a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, while the Ryzen 7 9700X has to make do with 40 MB. The Ryzen 9000X3Ds are not yet detailed by AMD, which simply confirms AM5 compatibility and PCIe Gen 5/DDR5 support. We'll know more on November 7 when they're unveiled.
