Litterally never seen a Ryzen 3300X or 1600 AF offered in the UK

[Rikmeister]

Okay, so I've only recently been looking into building a new system but a couple of CPUs that when reviewed appeared to offer amazing price to performance ratios, namely the Ryzen 3300X and 1600 AF I havent' seen in the UK. Why is that?

 

[The_Arbiter]

IIRC the newer 1600 is a failed to pass as a 3600, so with the 3600 being likely not produced anymore that'll be that for those.
I don't remember the info behind the 3300x, think it was just a new line.

Prices are iffy for AMD CPU right now. Poor stock have kept prices up, with covid purchases not helping there. We can only hope Zen 3 is fairly cheap as i'm starting to think Zen 2 prices aren't really going to drop much at all now. But i can't imagine that the XT line sold loads, so hoping there at least.

 

[Journey]

The problem you have with CPU's when they offer such price to performance, they sell out fast. Also with such small margins on offer from a manufacturing and retailing perspective, having non in-stock and completing the up-sell is a great deal. I've had so many people ask about 3300X builds, only for them to end up with an R5 3600 as the cost was so close, and stock could be bought freely.

 

[Rikmeister]

IIRC the newer 1600 is a failed to pass as a 3600.

I think it was either that or a 2600 on a different wafer. Could be wrong.

Prices are iffy for AMD CPU right now. Poor stock have kept prices up, with covid purchases not helping there.

Prices seem to be rising. When I started looking the 3600 was touching £140 in places, now it's nearer £200.

 

[Rikmeister]

The problem you have with CPU's when they offer such price to performance, they sell out fast. Also with such small margins on offer from a manufacturing and retailing perspective, having non in-stock and completing the up-sell is a great deal.

I think you must be right. Some of these releases don't appear to fit comfortably into any roadmap you can imagine the company developing. Especially the 1600AF - it even sounds like a first gen Ryzen.

 

[Journey]

I think you must be right. Some of these releases don't appear to fit comfortably into any roadmap you can imagine the company developing. Especially the 1600AF - it even sounds like a first gen Ryzen.

They ran out of 14nm wafers with GF/repurposed them for X570 chipset for Zen2, so they moved the R5 1600 to the 12nm node, in other words they took the R5 2600 and renamed it 1600AF, and kept the same low price as the then outgoing R5 1600, making it a Zen+ part in all but name.

 

[Rikmeister]

They ran out of 14nm wafers with GF/repurposed them for X570 chipset for Zen2, so they moved the R5 1600 to the 12nm node, in other words they took the R5 2600 and renamed it 1600AF, and kept the same low price as the then outgoing R5 1600, making it a Zen+ part in all but name.

That makes sense. So availability of the CPU depends on (in part) the availability of the wafer.

 

[Journey]

That makes sense. So availability of the CPU depends on (in part) the availability of the wafer.

To some extent yes, but AMD have been in a funny position as they are using two manufacturers TSMC/Global Foundries, and they started at 14nm, moved down to 12nm, then went to 7nm with TSMC for Zen2 and now Zen3. If they had a supply agreement for 14nm that was not fulfilled then they need to use it up, or indeed once it was used buy a new one.
It is like any supply chain, you need to predict your requirements long in advance of an item going on sale, and sometimes things don't work out as expected. This is why Intel have had to buy fab space from TSMC/Samsung etc. as they produce their own products in their own fabs, but the 10nm node turned out to be a real issue, so they ran out of 14nm capacity due to planning on moving certain product lines to 10nm a long time ago now which still hasn't happened.

 

[Rikmeister]

Thanks Journey, really learning a lot.

BTW, just seen this on YouTube that backs up everything you said https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRO_AUdmfis

 

[Rikmeister]

Thanks Journey, really learning a lot.

BTW, just seen this on YouTube that backs up everything you said https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRO_AUdmfis

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A few retailers had the Ryzen 5 1600AF so you could get it for a while. The Ryzen 3 3300X seemed to run out immediately after launch!!