AMD Sees Record Desktop Processor Sales, Thanks to Ryzen 9800X3D

(PCMag/Michael Justin Allen Sexton)

AMD’s gaming desktop processor, the Ryzen 9800X3D, is so popular it helped the company’s PC chip business reach record revenue.

“We had record desktop channel sell-out in the fourth quarter in multiple regions as Ryzen dominated the best selling CPU lists at many retailers globally,” the company’s CEO Lisa Su said in an earnings call on Tuesday.

AMD also captured over a “70% share” in the chip sales at Amazon, Newegg and Germany’s Mindfactory retailer during the holiday period, she said. In addition, the company's laptop-focused chips, including the Ryzen AI 300 series, saw a record "sell through share" to PC makers during the same period. Combined, the chip sales drove AMD’s PC “client segment” revenue to achieve a record $2.3 billion sales in Q4 —a 58% increase year-over-year.

The news arrives when sales of the Ryzen 9800X3D have been so hot that the chip remains hard to find at the normal $479 pricing, despite the product launching back in November.

“On the desktop side, we saw our highest sell out in many years as we went through the holiday season,” Su added during the earnings call. The high demand has “constrained” supply for AMD”s gaming CPUs, so the company has been working to ship more units through January.

Consumers can also expect AMD to launch two more gaming-focused desktop chips in the 9950X3D and 9900X3D, which will arrive later this Q1 for $649 and $499 respectively. But in some bad news for AMD, the company saw a significant drop in its Q4 chip sales for gaming consoles, which include Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.

This resulted in AMD’s gaming segment revenue falling to $563 million in the quarter, for a 59% year-over-year decrease. Su attributed this to Microsoft and Sony "reducing inventory” following earlier customer demand for the PS5 and Xbox Series One when they initially launched.

“Looking forward, we believe channel inventories (for video game consoles) have now normalized, and semi-custom sales will return to more historical patterns in 2025,” she added.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
Xbox 360 FTW
The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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