AMD Ryzen CPUs are riding a wave of popularity right now, and the latest best seller charts show them completely annihilating the competition from Intel. What’s more, most of the Intel chips that are being bought are now over a year old, with its new Core Ultra CPUs sitting a long way down people’s shopping lists.
As we found in our Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, AMD’s latest CPU architecture is an absolute beast for gaming, especially when it’s equipped with 3D V-cache. It’s unequivocally the best gaming CPU you can buy right now, and it’s proving incredibly popular. I’ve just tracked the best seller charts at a number of retailers, and they all point to the same picture – AMD is selling loads of its CPUs, particularly when it comes to X3D, while Intel chips are a long way down the charts.
Let’s start with Amazon, where the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D are the top two best sellers, with the Ryzen 7 7800X3D coming third. Gaming CPUs are clearly big business right now. You have to drop all the way to number 15 before you see an Intel CPU, and that’s the last-gen Core i9 14900K, with Intel’s new flagship Core Ultra 9 285K flailing at number 42 (it’s listed at number 44, but two of the entries above it are erroneous AM5 contact frames, rather than CPUs).
Now let’s look at Newegg, where the 9800X3D is at number one, followed by the budget-friendly Ryzen 5 7600X at number two, and the 7800X3D at number three. The first Intel CPU appears at number seven, and again it’s a last-gen chip, the Core i7 14700K. You have to drop all the way to number 19 before the first Intel Arrow Lake CPU appears, the Core Ultra 7 265K, with the Core Ultra 9 285K at number 20.
Meanwhile, Best Buy has a very different picture, with the new X3D chips nowhere to be seen at the top (possibly because they’re out of stock). Again, though, AMD owns the top four places, with the first Intel CPU appearing at number five, and again it’s a last-gen Core i5 14600K. The first Arrow Lake CPU, the Core Ultra 7 265K is out of the top 10 at number 11, while the 285K is languishing at number 30.
Finally, let’s look at the CPUs with the most units sold at Overclockers in the UK, where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D rules the roost at number one, with the 9800X3D at number three. This time, the first Intel chip to appear is the Core i7 12700K at number 11.
The Core Ultra 9 285K doesn’t appear until the second page at number 57. Now, this page tracks most units sold ever, rather than recently, and the site also says that 50 people have viewed the 285K page today, so it’s still getting interest, but AMD’s latest CPUs are clearly selling in much bigger numbers than Intel’s ones.
What interests me about most of these charts, though, is that it’s AMD’s X3D CPUs that are really winning. PC gamers are clearly big business when it comes to people building their own PCs, and as I found in my Core Ultra 7 265K review, AMD’s latest X3D CPUs are substantially more powerful than Intel’s new Arrow Lake CPUs when it comes to churning out frame rates.
This trend also follows a number of issues with Intel Raptor Lake CPUs crashing in games based on the Unreal Engine in 2024, with some CPUs even becoming damaged after use. The company had to roll out a number of BIOS updates before a proper Intel CPU fix was established.
There are still good reasons to consider Intel’s new CPUs if you’re not a gamer – they’re really power-efficient, and they handle multi-threaded work really well too, but that’s clearly not enough when it comes to selling CPUs at retail, where gamers are pulling the shots.
If you are planning a new processor purchase, check out our CPU upgrade guide to see how to install your new chip, as well as our guide on how to apply thermal paste, where we take you through the process.
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