While AMD’s new Ryzen 9000 processors aren’t expected to be released until the end of July, one of them has already appeared for sale on Amazon, which may give us an indication of pricing. The new six-core processor AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is listed on the Canadian version of the site for $475.51 CAD, which works out to about $347 if you do a direct currency conversion.
This new processor’s predecessor, the Ryzen 5 7600X, currently holds a spot in our best gaming CPUs guide, but only because its price has dropped. When it launched, it cost $299, which is a lot of money for a six-core processor. This AMD chip is now just $184.99, which means the 9600X at Amazon Canada’s price represents an 87.6% price increase, and we doubt it’s anywhere near 87.6% faster.
The announcement was spotted by momomo_us, an eagle-eyed tech leaker, who shared the link in a job on X (formerly Twitter), and it was still available on Amazon at the time of writing, as seen in the screenshot below. The listing also shows the correct release date for the Ryzen 9000, with a link for buyers to pre-order the processor.
However, the price of goods in Canada is often not the same as in the US, even when you convert the currency. The two countries have different sales taxes, and PC enthusiasts in Canada (and the UK) often end up paying a higher markup for hardware than Americans.
We’d be surprised if the Ryzen 5 9600X ended up being $347 at launch, but $299 isn’t out of the question, especially considering the initial launch price of this CPU’s predecessor. It would raise some questions about AMD’s pricing strategy, though. Even AMD is saying that its early Zen 5 processors won’t outperform its current X3D processors, such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, in gaming, and you can currently get a 12-core Ryzen 9 7900X3D for just $327.98.
Pricing the new Ryzen 5 9600X at $300 would be a mistake for AMD, even at launch. It should be faster than the 7600X, but not by much, and that needs to be reflected in the price. Seriously, who’s going to pay $300 (or more) for a six-core CPU in 2024? For comparison, the Ryzen 5 7600X is currently $274.99 on Amazon Canada, which means the 9600X would cost $200 more at that price.
Hopefully this is just a mistake in an early listing and the Ryzen 5 9600X will be much more competitively priced when it launches at the end of July. In the meantime, check out our AMD Zen 5 guide for everything you need to know about the new processors right now.