AMD Ryzen 9 3900 and Ryzen 5 3500X: announcement of OEM processors

Unfortunately, this news brings more disappointment than excitement. Both new CPUs — the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 3900 and the 6-core, 6-thread Ryzen 5 3500X — are exclusively for the OEM market.

No sugarcoating it: you won't be able to walk into a store or visit an online retailer and buy these processors separately from pre-built systems.

What's more, the 3500X will only be sold in China. However, there's a silver lining: you can already find the Ryzen 5 3500X on AliExpress right now:

Yes, the price is currently inflated, but within a few weeks of its release, it should drop to its official $160 mark.

Let's get to the official details.

The Ryzen 9 3900 processor is essentially a full copy of the Ryzen 9 3900X, aside from its lower clock speeds and reduced TDP.

Ryzen 9 3900X: 12 cores, 24 threads, 3600MHz base clock, 4600MHz turbo, 105W TDP.
Ryzen 9 3900: 12 cores, 24 threads, 3100MHz base clock, 4300MHz turbo, 65W TDP.

The Ryzen 5 3500X processor differs more significantly from its six-core older sibling, the Ryzen 5 3600X. Beyond just a lower clock speed, the Ryzen 5 3500X has SMT (Simultaneous Multithreading) disabled, making it a standard 6-core CPU.

Ryzen 5 3600X: 6 cores, 12 threads, 3800MHz base clock, 4400MHz turbo, 65W TDP.
Ryzen 5 3500X: 6 cores, 6 threads, 3600MHz base clock, 4100MHz turbo, 65W TDP.

AMD's decision to sell the 3500X exclusively in China is incredibly puzzling. This processor could have easily defeated the Core i5 9400 in the budget segment and dominated the market, but now its destiny is to be smuggled out of China by resellers.