AMD's 16-Core Ryzen 9 3950X Chip Gets Delayed to November

PC gamers waiting for AMD's 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X chip will need to hold out a little longer. The company is pushing back the processor's release date from this month to November.

On Friday, AMD said it's currently preoccupied with "meeting the strong demand" for third generation Ryzen processors already in the market. The Ryzen 9 3900X, for instance, was launched in July to rave reviews, but retailers have struggled to keep the product in stock. What should be a $499 processor can now be found on sale for over $880 via online third-party dealers. To manufacture the silicon, AMD relies on Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC.

There is some good news though. The company officially confirmed a third-generation Threadripper chip is in development, and will arrive in November as well. However, it won't be a 32-core behemoth that some leaks previously suggested it might be. Instead, the upcoming Threadripper processor will run only on 24 cores.

The chipmaker teased the new Threadripper in a photo, but refrained from offering any other details such as pricing. "We are confident that when enthusiasts get their hands on the world's first 16-core mainstream desktop processor and our next-generation of high-end desktop processors, the wait will be well worth it," AMD added.

AMD has dubbed the Ryzen 9 3950X as the "world first 16-core gaming CPU." It will feature 32 threads, a base 3.5 GHz clock speed, which can boosted to 4.7 GHz, and 72MB of total cache. Expect it to arrive for $749.

Meanwhile, the company's second-generation Threadripper chip line was priced from $649 up to $1,799 when it launched a year ago.

1 Cool Thing: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Gen Chip