A 20% increase in Ryzen 5000 desktop CPU supply could be on the way

You’re probably tired of reading about hardware shortages at this point. And trust me, I’m tired of writing about them. If it’s not a console, it’s a GPU, or a CPU, or a PSU, or something else. But until the causes of these shortages — a semiconductor drought, the pandemic, bots, etc. — end, there will still be work to be done. But shockingly, there’s actually some good news on this front for once. According to a report from Channel Gate, AMD may actually be beefing up its supply of Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs soon.

Now, we can’t confirm the report from Channel Gate, but if it’s true, we’re about to get more high-end CPUs on store shelves. According to the report, AMD will be increasing its stock of Ryzen 5000 CPUs by around 20% “relative to Q1.” That’s a sizable increase in the supply of AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs, and it’s sure to have a visible effect for consumers.

More CPUs, lower prices

If you’ve taken a basic economics course, you know the rules of supply and demand. As demand goes up, supply will almost always go down. But, as supply goes down, something else skyrockets — prices. In the hardware markets right now, that effect is blatant. Let’s look at AMD’s Ryzen 9 5950X, its current flagship processor. AMD’s MSRP for the 5950X is $799 USD, which is admittedly a ton of cash to drop on a processor. But while AMD says it should cost just $799 USD, that isn’t what’s happening.

Usually, I’d go to Newegg to find prices for hardware, but since the retailer had none in stock, I had to turn elsewhere. Amazon had two listings for a 5950X. Neither listings are from AMD, but rather third-party vendors, and both have jacked up the price. One is currently selling the Ryzen 9 5950X for a whopping $1,219.99 USD, while the other is priced at $1,199.95 USD. That is a massive increase over the MSRP, and it’s likely driven by the scarcity of these products.

If the report from Channel Gate is true, we won’t just see a higher supply of AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processors, they’ll be cheaper too. Now, processors being cheaper could lead to them all being bought up, and the cycle repeating again. But it’s entirely possible that some lucky folks will actually be able to pick up hardware at a reasonable price. I think we can all get behind that idea.