A new report from media outlet DigiTimes suggests AMD won’t launch the next-gen Zen 3 Ryzen 4000-series CPUs in September but instead plans to launch the chips at CES 2021 next year.
The report says that according to motherboard manufacturers, sales of the Ryzen 3000 are still so profitable that AMD is extending its life-cycle and is in no rush to launch the next-gen chips. DigiTimes says that the Ryzen 4000-series will enter mass production at the end of 2020 for a launch in January 2021.
Somewhat contradictorily, the report also explains that third-party motherboard manufacturers are in the dark about AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel’s release schedules. Intel and AMD have reportedly rejigged their desktop CPU release plans for 2020 due to the pandemic. AMD and NVIDIA are tight-lipped about their next-gen GPU plans for competitive reasons, specifically to avoid price manipulation.
How third-party manufacturers are simultaneously in the dark about upcoming plans, yet are aware that AMD is pushing the launch of the Ryzen 4000-series to January is unclear.
Further affecting the credibility of this new report, is the fact that AMD has confirmed on multiple occasions that its supply chain and distribution networks remain unscathed by the coronavirus pandemic.
As AMD senior VP Devinder Kumar explained no later than a fortnight ago, parroting similar optimism from CEO Lisa Su, ‘we remain on track to launch our next-generation Zen 3 CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs in late 2020 and believe we can deliver another year of strong revenue growth and margin expansion in 2020, based on the strength of the product portfolio, and the diversity of the markets we serve.’
Such a sudden u-turn, therefore, seems unlikely, and the specific naming of CES 2021 seems very optimistic given the ever-evolving crisis and signs that the pandemic is on the cusp on a second wave. There’s no guarantee CES will go ahead as planned this far in advance.