AMD delays Ryzen 9000 series 'Zen 5' launch to August 15, 'QA issues' with first Zen 5 chips

AMD was all set to launch its next-gen Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" CPUs on July 31, but the company has just moved it up to August 15 over some QA issues with the first wave of chips.

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We can now expect AMD's new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs to launch on August 15, hitting retail shelves and online e-tailers like Amazon and BestBuy on that day, however the releases will be staggered. On August 15, AMD will launch its 6-core and 8-core Zen 5 chips with the releases of the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors on August 8.

The higher-end 12-core and 16-core Zen 5 processors in the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X chips will launch starting August 15.

• Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X pricing leaked: $499, 9900X for $399, 9700X for $299, and 9600X for $229

AMD PR told Wccftech: "We appreciate the excitement around Ryzen 9000 series processors. During final checks, we found the initial production units that were shipped to our channel partners did not meet our full quality expectations. Out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user, we are working with our channel partners to replace the initial production units with fresh units".

"As a result, there will be a short delay in retail availability. The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X processors will now go on sale on August 8th and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X processors will go on sale on August 15th. We pride ourselves in providing a high-quality experience for every Ryzen user, and we look forward to our fans having a great experience with the new Ryzen 9000 series".

• Read more: ASUS X870E mobo BIOS exclusive: Heavy Load Dynamic C0 Stabilizer for overclocking Zen 5
• Read more: AMD explains Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 OC: Curve Shaper for improved undervolting
• Read more: AMD's new flagship Zen 5-based Ryzen 9 9950X CPU: max frequency of up to 5.85GHz
• Read more: AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 9 9950X beats Core i9-14900K in Blender, just 120W power
• Read more: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X already overclocked to 6.6GHz on LN2, Zen 5 CPU hits 55K in Cinebench R23

The slight delay over QA issues and the initial production units shipping to AMD channel partners not meeting their "full quality expectations" is a tad worrying. In typical PR fashion, AMD says that it was "out of an abundance of caution and to maintain the highest quality experiences for every Ryzen user". Yet, we're seeing Intel's higher-end 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core CPUs have been plagued with issues lately.

AMD shipped out what it thought were ready-to-go Ryzen 9000 series CPUs to channel partners, yet somehow passed its own internal inspection checks on processors. The chips that were affected were from the first wave of retail Ryzen 9000 series processors, and now pulling back all Zen 5 processors shipped globally to replace them with fresh, unaffected issues.

• Ryzen 9000 Official Announcement - Computex 2024
• Ryzen 9000 Release Date Unveil - 15th July
• Ryzen 9000 Original Release Date - 31st July
• Ryzen 7 9700X & Ryzen 5 9600X New Release Date - 8th August
• Ryzen 9 9950X & Ryzen 9 9900X New Release Date - 15th August

There's no redesign or re-spin of the Ryzen 9000 series silicon, with no changes to specifications of the SKUs, with AMD re-screening the chips that were pulled from the market and then return unaffected chips back to retailers. This means that not ALL of the processors had the issues, but it is worrying that there are all of these issues with CPUs from both Intel, and now AMD.

Let's hope once the next-gen Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs launch, that there are no future issues once millions of them are installed into new systems.