AMD has announced the launch of a new pair of Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000-series processors, but you may struggle to get your hands on them: One is OEM only internationally, and the other is available exclusively in China.
Launched back in July with the Ryzen 7 3700X and current-flagship Ryzen 9 3900X, at least until the delayed Ryzen 9 3950X launches next month, the Ryzen 3000 family has proven popular - despite a few teething troubles and questions about advertised boost clocks answered with the launch of an updated firmware. Now, it's also two processors bigger - but they'll not be appearing on shop shelves any time soon.
The new Ryzen 9 3900 is, as the name suggests, based on the Ryzen 9 3900X: It offers 12 cores and 24 threads (12C24T) running at a base clock of 3.1GHz and a peak boost clock of 4.3GHz - down from 3.8GHz base and 4.6GHz boost on the 3900X - while offering 768kB of L1, 6MB of L2, and 64MB of L3 cache. The trade-off for the lowered clock-speed: a 65W thermal design profile (TDP), compared to 105W for the 3900X.
Unfortunately, anyone looking at picking the chip up may find it a struggle: AMD is launching the part as an exclusive for its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners, meaning it'll appear in pre-built and custom-built systems from the usual suspects but never land as a processor-in-box (PIB) on retail shelves. The new Ryzen 5 3500X, meanwhile, is to be even harder to track down: The part is not only OEM-exclusive, but also restricted to sale in China.
Both parts are available now, AMD has confirmed, to its OEM customers - and, in the case of the 3500X, only those OEM customers producing systems for sale in China.
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