AM4 CPUs have a near 34 per cent market share at Mindfactory, and they have also grabbed four spots on the Amazon US top 10 best-sellers list.
With DDR5 RAM costs climbing, more users are sticking with DDR4, and it is not hard to see why, when a memory kit can cost more than a midrange CPU.
It has been clear for a while that DDR5 pricing and availability are not going to calm down soon, so AM4 is enjoying a proper second life. AM4 was doing fine despite its age, but it is now climbing fast enough to threaten AM5’s bragging rights as the default AMD platform.
A list of processors has the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D (AM5 WOF) leading with '390 (18.2%)', followed by the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D (AM5 WOF) with '170 (7.9%)', and the Intel Core i7-14700KF.
We have been watching major retailers and the shift in CPU sales is getting spicy, particularly in Germany, where Mindfactory is now selling nearly one in three CPUs from AMD’s AM4-compatible lineup.
Compared to the sales stats just two weeks ago, AM4 CPU sales have jumped from around 24 per cent of shipped units to nearly 34 per cent.
That sort of jump is not normal, but it was always coming once DDR5 prices started going appropriately feral in many places.
The claim is that DDR5 RAM prices have tripled and quadrupled in most places, which is precisely the sort of market “innovation” only a spreadsheet could love.
AM5 CPUs, which were around 70 per cent of total shipments two weeks ago, have fallen below 60 per cent as builders chase cheaper memory and boards.
In Mindfactory’s top 10 best-selling CPUs, there are now three Ryzen 5000 parts, and in the top 20, there are nine, which is a lot of “old” kit for something supposedly replaced.
This pattern is showing up elsewhere, too, and the latest Amazon US top 10 best-selling CPUs list includes four chips from the AM4 platform.
On that same Amazon US list, nine AM4 CPUs sit in the top 20 best-sellers, and they keep turning up across the rankings, like the platform refuses to take the hint.
A grid displaying best sellers in computer CPU processors, featuring models such as AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Ryzen 5 9600X, and Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with prices and star ratings visible.
The Ryzen 7 5800XT is the best-selling CPU on Amazon US, and the Ryzen 5 3600 has also waddled into the top 10 at sixth place.
The charts would look very different if AMD had not discontinued Ryzen 5000X3D parts like the 5800X3D and 5700X3D, which were practically designed for gamers who prefer frames over debt.
You would likely see them trading blows with the 7800X3D and 9800X3D, but instead the range has been trimmed, as if someone got nervous about cannibalising shiny new platform sales.
It is hard not to think AMD should revive those older X3D chips, because people clearly want the performance without paying for a complete DDR5 rebuild.
Nobody knows how long Ryzen 5000 will keep hanging around before it goes end-of-life, but for now, it is still the cheap escape route for gamers who refuse to pay hundreds of dollars extra just to stand still.