AMD’s Ryzen 5000 CPUs have finally taken the gaming crown from Intel, beating Team Blue across all workloads from gaming to content creation. Even the cheapest Zen 3 part, the Ryzen 5 5600X performs mostly on par (or faster) with the Intel 10th Gen flagship, the Core i9-10900K. However, it’s not the 5600X which is the most sought-after Ryzen 5000 part among gamers and enthusiasts at the moment.
As per stats provided by Scan, one of Britain’s most popular computer hardware stores, the Ryzen 9 5900X is the most popular Zen 3 CPU, and by a long shot. Till now, the store has 1,538 outstanding orders for the 5900X, followed by 551 for the 5950X, 329 for the 5800X, and just 280 for the 5600X.
On Amazon US, the Ryzen 5 5600X is the best-selling Ryzen 5000 part, followed by the 5900X, but the two often exchange places, as the listing is updated on an hourly basis.
At OCUK, another of the UK’s largest retailers for computer hardware, the Ryzen 9 5900X as once again the best-selling CPU, followed by the 5950X, with the 5600X at the third spot, figures very similar to what was observed at Scan.
With the Ryzen 3000 CPUs, the Ryzen 5 3600 was easily the most popular part, outselling the other by nearly 2-3x. With Ryzen 5000, the cheapest chip is the 5600X which costs $299, 50% more than the 3600’s launch price of $199. As a result, despite being a good deal faster than the latter, it’s neither that appealing to the budget segment nor the enthusiast audience. The 5900X, on the other hand, with a price-tag of 559 British Pounds, offers roughly 50% more performance than the Intel Core i9-10900K which costs 100 bucks more. AMD already had the lead in content creation workloads with Zen 2, Zen 3 only extends it while also begrudging Intel of its precious gaming crown.
Another major factor that explains why the 5900X is the leading Ryzen 5000 CPU is the lack of official support for Zen 3 on the older B450/X470 boards. AMD plans to release a beta BIOS for the same in Jan, but for the time being most of the mainstream users who own a B450 board are forced to wait. The enthusiast gamers who bought the 5900X either already had a 500 series board or bought it along with the CPU, as no one would shell out that amount of money and then pair the chip with a $200 board.
