Price pressures in building PCs 'aren't going away anytime soon' warns AMD exec — but new budget CPU could be in the works | Tech Radar
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Price pressures in building PCs 'aren't going away anytime soon' warns AMD exec — but new budget CPU could be in the works
AMD Ryzen 5 9600X3D is a possibility for later in 2026, perhaps
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AMD's David Mc Afee has hinted that a Ryzen 5 9600X3D could be in the cards for later this year
This follows the launch of the Ryzen 7 7700X3D as a response to pricing pressures
Mc Afee said that "we know the pressures that are there in building systems aren't going away anytime soon"
AMD appears to be considering making a new addition to the family of current-gen Zen 5 CPUs in the form of a wallet-friendly 3D V-Cache (X3D) processor.
Tom's Hardware spoke to AMD's VP and general manager of Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics, David Mc Afee, at Computex, and questioned the exec on why the company decided to release a past-gen X3D chip rather than one from the Zen 5 (Ryzen 9000) range.
The backdrop here is the launch of the Ryzen 7 7700X3D, which has just happened, and Tom's is essentially wondering why Team Red didn't go for a Ryzen 5 9600X3D.
Mc Afee responded that the launch of such a contemporary CPU "may be something that we look at doing… later this year."
The exec elaborated: "I think as we go through the rest of this year, I mean we're always looking for ways to, you know, create as many options as we can, and that may become… maybe something that we look at doing as a runway product later this year, simply because you know we know the pressures that are there in building systems aren't going away anytime soon."
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Obviously this is far from a confirmation that AMD will produce a new budget X3D chip for Zen 5, but the admission that it's possible the CPU maker could start rolling such a product off the assembly lines is a hopeful nugget that Team Red is still looking to further ease the pressure on PC builders.
Right now, building a new computer is a depressing task consisting of shopping for various components, most of which have had substantial price increases applied. (And the price hikes for certain parts, notably RAM and storage, are positively astronomical in some cases). A wider choice of more affordable processors obviously won't hurt for those carrying out a DIY build, and for that matter, it'll help with pre-built computers too, as another option for PC makers looking at building cheaper gaming rigs.
Of course, Mc Afee's comments don't come without an element of concern, namely the casual acknowledgement that "we know the pressures that are there in building systems aren't going away anytime soon". In other words, don't expect PC component pricing pressures to ease for quite some time, and that's a prediction that has been widely made elsewhere. Most notably in recent times by the major RAM chip manufacturers – with one especially bleak forecast.
Indeed, AMD's CEO, Lisa Su, recently predicted that demand is going to wane on the consumer and gaming side for Team Red due to "higher memory and component costs" in the second half of 2026. Adding to that is further uncertainty around the global shipping situation, as continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is now affecting the RAM supply chain in other ways.
All in all, it's not a pretty picture, and we'll take what relief we can in terms of the prospect of more affordable components.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for Tech Radar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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