Typo Trouble: Mislabeled Chips Delay AMD Ryzen 9000 Launch

The original release date for AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors was July 31. However, last week they announced a delay: the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X have been postponed to August 8, and the Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 9900X to August 15. Officially, the delay is attributed to issues in the product testing process during packaging, but the actual reason might be far simpler – a typographical error on the processor lid.

According to a leaked test video of the Ryzen 9 9700X by the Bilibili user, the CPU lid mistakenly reads “Ryzen 9 9700X” instead of “Ryzen 7 9700X.” Similarly, Tom’s Hardware reported instances of Ryzen 5 9600X units being mislabeled as Ryzen 9. These printing errors on the lid necessitate correction.

It is reasonable to speculate that the printing labels on AMD’s retail packaging might also be incorrect. Although these errors are relatively minor compared to potential issues with the processors themselves, AMD still needs to recall and correct the mislabeled units.

AMD’s official statement earlier this week said, “We identified an issue with our packaged product testing process for Ryzen 9000 series processors that could result in a small number of parts reaching the market that do not meet our quality standards,” so it’s possible that the erroneous markings may not be the only issue. However, it is undoubtedly a contributing factor. It’s also possible that not all of the shipped units are impacted by the erroneous markings — this could only impact certain batches. However, it appears there are enough impacted units to have contributed to AMD’s delayed launch schedule.

In a prior announcement, AMD had already initiated a recall of Ryzen 9000 processors distributed to global retailers and OEM partners for re-screening, citing problems in the product testing process that might allow a small number of substandard parts to enter the market. The misprints on the silkscreen could be part of the issue, though not necessarily the only one, and not all batches might be affected. However, the volume of impacted products is significant enough to warrant a delay in the release schedule.

Interestingly, if the mislabeling is indeed the cause, the two Ryzen 9 processors should have been unaffected. Yet, they are part of the later release batch, which adds another layer of curiosity to the situation.