This autumn's flagship processor is already hard to find anywhere in the world.
On November 7, AMD launched a processor eagerly awaited by many tech specialists and even more gamers. On paper, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D was supposed to combine the strengths of the Ryzen 9000X range - their Zen 5 architecture - launched over the summer, with those of the Ryzen 5 5800X3D/Ryzen 7 7800X3D - their 3D Vertical Cache to boost the amount of L3 cache - from previous generations. If most of the international press reviews are to be believed, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D lives up to AMD's promises: it combines the production power of the latest Zen 5 chips and takes advantage of 3D Vertical Cache to boost gaming results. To add insult to injury, AMD has repositioned the 3D Vertical Cache so that, now beneath the CPU, it no longer acts as a brake on heat dissipation.
One small disappointment, however, was that AMD allowed itself a price adjustment with the release of this Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which ended up costing $30 more than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D at launch, $479 versus $449. In Europe, this meant a recommended retail price, including taxes, of 529.99 euros. Unfortunately, it's virtually impossible to find the processor at this price!
Ryzen 7 9800X3D out of stock everywhere © VideoCardz
It's all down to a problem that AMD probably didn't see coming, and that we'd become a little unaccustomed to: scalpers seem to be making a comeback. The scalping phenomenon can be traced back to the expectation generated in the tech world by a particular product. Anticipating that the product will be in great demand, and that production will be insufficient to satisfy this demand, some "smart guys" do their utmost to buy as many as possible, and resell them at significantly higher prices in the process. Ryzen 7 9800X3Ds are already available on eBay at prices in excess of $700, $800 and even $900! To make matters worse, these scalpers are buying up this highly sought-after product en masse, reducing the number of units still available to a trickle, and whether we're talking about French, American or Japanese resellers, not a single one has a Ryzen 7 9800X3D left for sale... worse, some are even refusing reservations, as their next deliveries have already all been allocated.
Let's just hope that this despicable practice will stop on its own: all you have to do is not buy from these loan sharks and, even if you have to bite the bullet, wait for the processor to gradually come back into stock. It's only a matter of time.
