With AMD’s Ryzen 9000 Series CPU release date now pushed back to the first couple of weeks in August, the brand has also confirmed the main reason why reviewers haven’t received their samples yet.
In a statement made by AMD last night, the brand stated that several of their samples didn’t meet the testing & QA process standards – leading to a full recall. This was met with mixed emotions from fans of the brand, but overall, it was more positive than negative.
Senior Vice President and GM, Jack Huynh, said the following about the delays:
We appreciate the excitement around Ryzen 9000 series processors. During final checks, we found the initial production units that were shipped to our channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations. Out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user, we are working with our channel partners to replace the initial production units with fresh units. As a result, there will be a short delay in retail availability. The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors will now go on sale on August 8th, and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X processors will go on-sale on August 15th. Apologies for the delay. We pride ourselves in providing a high quality experience for every Ryzen user, and we look forward to our fans having a great experience with the new Ryzen 9000 series.
Jack Huynh, X
AMD confirms units didn’t meet testing & QA process
Initially, AMD’s next-gen CPU launch was set for the 31st of July – with review samples expected a couple of weeks prior. However, when news of review samples still not being in the hands of tier-1 publications, many started to question whether a delay was imminent. Well, those questions have now been answered, with AMD confirming it’ll be taking this launch with “caution”.
Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen instability issues have seemingly softened the blow of this news, with that saga still causing users issues today.
An initial news piece was published by VideoCardz, stating that Asian and European media outlets were being affected. The site also suggests that at least two American reviewers had confirmed that there hasn’t been a distribution of Zen 5 samples, and that there have now been at least 8 confirmations globally.
Additionally, it seems that coverage will start with 12, 8, and 6-core variants as some accounts claim to be informed that 9950X samples aren’t available. We can still expect 9950X reviews, however, as some reviewers access engineering samples via board partners.
In the past, AMD has carried out BIOS updates right before launching, posing an issue for reviewers who have to start tests from scratch to account for these late updates to firmware. Now, reviewers are holding their breath for samples to arrive, which is creating frustration as the reviewing process is lengthy and time is running out.
