Feed: AnandTech
Feed Link: https://www.anandtech.com
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Title: AMD Delays Ryzen 9000 Launch 1 to 2 Weeks Due to Chip Quality Issues

Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:00:00 EDT
Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/21489/amd-dela...

AMD sends word this afternoon that the company is delaying the launch of
their Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors. The first Zen 5 architecture-
based desktop chips were slated to launch next week, on July 31st. But citing
quality issues that are significant enough that AMD is even pulling back
stock already sent to distributors, AMD is delaying the launch by one to two
weeks. The Ryzen 9000 launch will now be a staggered launch, with the Ryzen 5
9600X and Ryzen 7 9700X launching on August 8th, while the Ryzen 9 9900X and
flagship Ryzen 9 9950X will launch a week after that, on August 15th.

The exceptional announcement, officially coming from AMD's SVP and GM of
Computing and Graphics, Jack Huynh, is short and to the point. Ahead of the
launch, AMD found that "the initial production units that were shipped to our
channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations." And, as a
result, the company has needed to delay the launch in order to rectify the
issue.

Meanwhile, because AMD had already distributed chips to their channel
partners - distributors who then filter down to retailers and system builders
- this is technically a recall as well, as AMD needs to pull back the first
batch of chips and replace them with known good units. That AMD has to
essentially take a do-over on initial chip distribution is ultimately what's
driving this delay; it takes the better part of a month to properly seed
retailers for a desktop CPU launch with even modest chip volumes, so AMD has
to push the launch out to give their supply chain time to catch up.

For the moment, there are no further details on what the quality issue with
the first batch of chips is, how many are affected, or what any kind of fix
may entail. Whatever the issue is, AMD is simply taking back all stock and
replacing it with what they're calling "fresh units."

AMD Ryzen 9000 Series Processors
Zen 5 Microarchitecture (Granite Ridge) AnandTech Cores /
Threads Base
Freq Turbo
Freq L2
Cache L3
Cache Memory Support TDP Launch Date Ryzen 9 9950X 16C/32T 4.3GHz 5.7GHz 16
MB 64 MB DDR5-5600 170W 08/15 Ryzen 9 9900X 12C/24T 4.4GHz 5.6GHz 12 MB 64 MB
120W Ryzen 7 9700X 8C/16T 3.8GHz 5.5GHz 8 MB 32 MB 65W 08/08 Ryzen 5 9600X
6C/12T 3.9GHz 5.4GHz 6 MB 32 MB 65W

Importantly, however, this announcement is only for the Ryzen 9000 desktop
processors, and not the Ryzen AI 300 mobile processors (Strix Point), which
are still slated to launch next week. A mobile chip recall would be a much
bigger issue (they're in finished devices that would need significant labor
to rework), but also, both the new desktop and mobile Ryzen processors are
being made on the same TSMC N4 process node, and have significant overlap due
to their shared use of the Zen 5 architecture. To be sure, mobile and desktop
are very different dies, but it does strongly imply that whatever the issue
is, it's not a design flaw or a fabrication flaw in the silicon itself.

That AMD is able to re-stage the launch of the desktop Ryzen 9000 chips so
quickly - on the order of a few weeks - further points to an issue much
farther down the line. If indeed the issue isn't at the silicon level, then
that leaves packaging and testing as the next most likely culprit. Whether
that means AMD's packaging partners had some kind of issue assembling the
multi-die chips, or if AMD found some other issue that warrants further
checks remains to be seen. But it will definitely be interesting to
eventually find out the backstory here. In particular I'm curious if AMD is
being forced to throw out the first batch of Ryzen 9000 desktop chips
entirely, or if they just need to send them through an additional round of QA
to pull bad chips.

It's also interesting here that AMD's new launch schedule has essentially
split the Ryzen 9000 stack in two. The company's higher-end chips, which
incorporate two CCDs, are delayed an additional week over the lower-end units
with their single CCD. By their very nature, multi-CCD chips require more
time to validate (there's a whole additional die to test), but they also
require more CCDs to assemble. So it's a toss-up right now whether the
additional week for the high-end chips is due to a supply bottleneck, or a
chip testing bottleneck.

The silver lining to all of this, at least, is that AMD found the issue
before any of the faulty chips made their ways into the hands of consumers.
Though the need to re-stage the launch still throws a rather large wrench
into marketing efforts of AMD and their partners, a post-launch recall would
have been far more disastrous on multiple levels, not to mention that it
would have given the company a significant black eye. Something that arch-
rival Intel is getting to experience for themselves this week.

In any case, this will certainly go down as one of the more interesting AMD
desktop chip launches - and the chips haven't actually made it out the door
yet. We'll have more on the subject as further details are released. And look
forward to chip reviews soon - just not on July 31st as originally planned.

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.
-AMD SVP and GM of Computing and Graphics, Jack Huynh

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