AMD Surprise: Ryzen 9000 Delayed Due to Simple Heat Sink Typing Error?

AMD appears to have delayed the launch of the Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 processor due to a typo on the processor itself. Model names can be confusing, especially when you have multiple new Ryzen 9000 series processors under three product lines, but it seems that even manufacturers themselves can sometimes get confused with their own products.

In this case, the Ryzen 7 9700X appears to have been mislabeled as a Ryzen 9 model, with the resulting name, Ryzen 9 9700X, spotted in a review by regular eagle eyes spotted @9550pro.

For any fans of AMD’s highly anticipated launch, this certainly doesn’t seem fair, as the X700X was always going to be a Ryzen 7 and not a Ryzen 9, with Ryzen 9 having been introduced to desktop processors with the Ryzen 9 3950X, after reaching the Ryzen 7 tier with processors like the Ryzen 7 1800X. Fortunately (although whoever made the mistake is probably having a really bad time right now), this means that there are likely no physical issues with the processors under the heatsink, which is more than can be said for Intel at the moment.

ForbesAMD delays launch of Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 processor

AMD delayed the launch of its Ryzen 9000 last week, which was scheduled for July 31, curiously confirming that there were no issues with the manufacturing process or the processors themselves. One wonders what the real problem was behind such a major change as to delay the launch of a major product, which is extremely rare for products of this caliber, with rumors pouring in on social media and forums since the delay was announced last week.

It’s ironic that Intel is also suffering from a potentially massive stability issue, potentially affecting millions of owners of its 13th and 14th generation processors. However, AMD has at least gone out of its way to fix things before the actual launch, but you can’t really ship a product with a massive typo. In fact, it’s probably even worse than shipping a broken product with a fix released later – many people wouldn’t notice.

It remains to be seen whether this will affect the availability of the new processors at launch, given that the company is recalling everything affected by the typo and likely has to reprint the heat sinks. It’s also possible that packaging was affected if the same incorrect information was passed along through the same channels.

However, the company seems confident enough to simply push the launch back a week, at least for the Ryzen 5 9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X, which will now launch on August 8. They will be followed by the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X on August 15.

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The only bad thing that came out of this fiasco, if this is indeed the reason AMD delayed the launch, is that whoever made the mistake is probably very sleep deprived, and enthusiasts who were planning to buy the new Ryzen 9000 processors this week will instead have to wait until August 8 for the lower models and mid-August for the two Ryzen 9 models.

I’ll be reviewing the new Ryzen 9000 processors next week, so follow me here on Forbes using the blue button below, Facebook Or Youtube to get the latest news, analysis and benchmarks.

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