AMD's new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" processor is already for sale in China, where you'll be paying a premium to get the new Zen 4 silicon a week ahead of launch.
If you're in China then you can jump onto Taobao's Goofish platform, which is a second-hand and black market website that we usually see Intel engineering sample CPUs being sold ahead of launch. AMD's new Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" CPU is now the star of the show, available right now.
You're looking at 5999 RMB which works out to around $856 USD, which is a $157 premium on top of AMD's own $699 pricing on the Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" CPU. The new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X offers 16 cores and 32 threads at up to 5.7GHz with 80MB of cache in total with a 170W TDP (230W PPT) for $699, slotting into a new AM5-based motherboard and waiting for its X670E chipset goodness.
- Read more: AMD Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs: Everything You Need To Know
- Read more: AMD's new Ryzen 9 7950X 'Zen 4' CPU: 16C/32T at up to 5.7GHz for $699
- Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processor runs at toasty 95C at 230W power
- Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X: 5.85GHz only if under 50C, 5.7GHz for AIO coolers
The new listings aren't just in China but also in France, where AMD's other Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors are found. This includes the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X processors. We don't know how you're going to go with the warranty, or how the retailers acquired the Zen 4 processors themselves.
As always be careful, but I wouldn't be buying from these types of sellers, we only have a few days left for the official Zen 4 launch. Even if you did buy one of the new Zen 4 processors, there's no X670E or X670 motherboards available just yet, so you might need to find one of those on a black market somewhere, too.