AMD’s Plan to Fix RAM Costs: Bring Back Bygone CPUs

The next generation of AMD gaming CPUs is the last generation of AMD gaming CPUs. With astronomical RAM prices gatekeeping gamers from upgrading, the chipmaker has released its former best-in-class AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D for a price better than whatever you’ll find on eBay. You can nab one of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D rehashes starting June 25, starting at $350. To put that price tag into perspective, it’s $100 less than the card cost at launch in 2022. A current-gen Ryzen 7 9850X3D—the chipmaker’s current best gaming CPU for AM5 motherboards—has a suggested list price of $500. The 5800X3D first launched in 2022, just a few months before AM5 socket motherboards hit the scene. Old is new again in other ways, too. AMD is preparing to launch the Ryzen 7 7700X3D, another eight-core, 16-thread previous-gen chip for the AM5 socket, priced at $330, on July 15. AMD called the chip its “entry point” for AM5. You may be wondering: why does a 4-year-old chip cost more than a more recent Ryzen 7000-series CPU? You can blame memory prices and the abusive resale market. That price may not seem like a bargain—unless you’ve hunted for one of these out-of-production chips yourself. I personally have first