AMD rumored to delay next-gen Ryzen 4000 cos Ryzen 3000 is too good

Well this sucks... according to new rumors, AMD has been selling so many Ryzen 3000 series CPUs that it might be delaying the launch of its next-gen Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 series processors.

AMD was originally meant to launch its next-gen Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 series processors in September 2020, but now DigiTimes is reporting that Team Red has pushed that out until early 2021. There is zero competition from Intel that is hurting AMD, and Ryzen 3000 chips are pretty damn kick ass right now -- so there's kind of no reason to launch the Ryzen 4000 series just yet.

I haven't heard much about the delay from my sources, but it makes sense. Coronavirus has smashed the entire world and supply chain, so if I can't get things from the shelves of K-mart... how are they going to pump out some of the most incredibly hard to make products on Earth?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Wccftech translated @chiakohua (AKA RetiredEngineer on Twitter) who said:

According to motherboard manufacturers, due to the pandemic and competitive reasons, Intel and AMD kept changing their 2020 desktop roadmap and launch schedules, causing major headaches for the supply chain. In addition, NVIDIA and AMD are also keeping the launch schedules for their next-gen GPUs secret, to avert pricing manipulations by their opponents.

Judging from the way things now look on both sides, AMD's Ryzen 3000 series, launched since July 2019, will continue to be hot-sellers. Refreshed models coming in June/July are the motherboard manufacturers' important products for stimulating sales in the second half. In contrast, the earliest Intel will officially launch 10nm desktop processors is at the end of 2021. If Intel does not have any secret weapons during the intervening one-and-a-half years, it's desktop market share may touch new lows, and AMD can be expected to hit the 30% mark in one fell swoop.

Riding on hype and advantages of TSMC's 7nm and below advanced process, AMD's Ryzen 3000 series, launched since July 2019, has been able to deliver excellent price/performance overall and continues to be a hot-seller, outshining Intel's Comet Lake.

Following the launch of the B550 chipset on June 16, motherboard makers are now in full ramp-up mode, with the A520 chipset soon to follow. Three new models of Ryzen 3000 series processors codenamed Matisse Refresh, previously not on the roadmap, will be added to the line-up on July 7, including Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT and Ryzen 5 3600XT, replacing the current 3900X, 3800X and 3600X respectively. In addition, low-end APUs codenamed Renoir will follow on July 21.

According to motherboard manufacturers, sales for Ryzen 3000 series are hot. Accordingly, AMD is extending its life cycle, and definitely will not be launching the next-gen Ryzen 4000 series, based on Zen3 architecture and using TSMC's 7nm EUV process, in Sep. The earliest Ryzen 4000 series will enter mass production is end of 2020, and launch in Jan 2021 at CES. Whether it will be changed to 5nm EUV process is unclear at the moment.

This strategy also shows that the desktop battle has clearly reversed. Due to the mediocre performance of Intel's Comet Lake and new products coming at the end of the year still staying on the 14nm node, [AMD] decided to adjust the schedule for transitioning from old to new platform.

As understood, following Comet Lake, Intel will launch Rocket Lake at the end of 2020, at the earliest. But it will still stay on the 14nm process. The first 10nm desktop processor Alder Lake will only be released at the end of 2021 at the earliest, which is to say Intel is yet to fully enter the 10nm era for another one and a half years.

Current observations indicate that motherboard makers such as ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI and ASRock, along with HP, Dell, Acer and Lenovo have continued to increase shipments and the proportion of new projects for AMD platforms quarter by quarter. AMD's market share for desktops can be expected to reach 30% by the end of this year soonest, making a new high for the DIY channel in more than 10 years.

....market condition has futher reinforced AMD's momentum and pushed up sales for notebook and server platforms. If Intel fails to amend its roadmap or start a price war in the second half, market share loss in 2021 will be even more severe. Not just for PCs, but also servers, which might see AMD grabbing 10% share, constraining [Intel's] growth momentum.

In addition, it is worth noting that NVIDIA and AMD are also very secretive about the launch schedule of their next-gen graphics chips. NVIDIA has already released the A100 GPU based on Ampere architecture, developed for AI and HPC applications. Consumer-grade GeForce GPUS are rumored to launch in August. AMD, on the other hand, will be waiting for NVIDIA to launch its new products before revealing this year's new product Big Navi, currently expected to launch in Q4.

With AMD and NVIDIA launching new products successively and increasing orders for TSMC's 7nm, 7nm EUV and 5nm processes, the two large manufacturers have become key customers for TSMC, helping to fill the demand gap left by Huawei.