Sources on Reddit indicate that AMD’s Renoir debut might not be as groundbreaking as we think: the latest rumors indicate that Renoir will arrive first as an OEM-only option. This means that DIY PC builders: The section AMD has made the segment AMD has made the strongest gains in-will be left out in the cold.
The OEM approach makes sense, though, if AMD’s facing yield shortages on the enhanced 7nm process for Zen 2 cores. Much like what Intel’s been doing with Ice Lake, Team Red might be stalling for time by delivering Ryzen 4000 desktop APU exclusively to OEM markets.
If this is true, there will likely be some amount of backlash in the community. Interestingly, AMD’s shown a willingness to listen and change business decisions based on community opinion: they recently announced a BIOS upgrade path for AM4 B450 motherboard owners, enabling support for Ryzen 4000 processors. In any case, we’ll see in the months to come whether Ryzen 4000 sweeps Comet Lake away or whether it’ll languish for months as an OEM part that goes into exactly 5 computers.
