PC Canada has drawn first blood in registering pricing for AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 series, the successor to the successful 5000 series. As spotted by renowned leaker momomo_us and shared on Twitter, the specialist retailer based in Canada listed pricing for the Ryzen 7 7600X, 7700X, 7900X and 7950X CPUs. The pricing, if representative, shows an average increase that averages to 10%-12% across SKUs when compared to the previous generation Ryzen. The prices could be placeholders based on the retailers' own expectations, so this information should be taken with a grain of salt (or two).

After conversion from CAD to US dollars, pricing settles at $340 for the Ryzen 7 7600X ($299 for the 5600X at launch, for a 13% premium); $494 for the Ryzen 7 7700X (against the later-released, $299 Ryzen 7 5700X for a 65% premium); $625 for the Ryzen 9 7900X ($549 for the launch Ryzen 9 5900X, for a 13% increase) and finally, the Ryzen 9 7950X for $906 (against the Ryzen 9 5950X's $799 asking price, for another 13% premium).The Ryzen 7 5700X pricing is an outlier. As can be seen, the rest of the lineup seems to be carrying a pretty constant price hike. It's also strange that AMD would lead its launch with the Ryzen 7 7700X instead of the Ryzen 7 7800X - the company famously elected to only release the Ryzen 7 5800X at the time of the lineup's launch. If we compare the Ryzen 7 7700X's pricing against the 5800X's introduction, we end up with a price hike of around 10% instead - much more in-line with what we'd expect to materialize.

The price hikes have to be taken into the context of inflation, however; as the retailer is based in Canada, we have to look to Canada's inflation rate (8.1% as of June 2022) to see what the actual increase in pricing is. Adjusting for inflation, we're looking at a theoretical average price increase of 5% for AMD's CPUs. It could be said that that's the real increase in Average Selling Price (ASP), as the rest of it is absorbed by the higher inflation rates.

But of course, mathematics doesn't always work out that way. While AMD has the benefit of launching its new CPU family and adjust prices accounting for inflation, most consumers are unlikely to see their paychecks rise by the same amount. This will lead to scenarios where consumers are actually paying a 10-13% premium for their new hardware with the same monthly budget - while inflation pulls its weight on the price of everything else, including basic necessities.

This increased processor pricing will certainly play into the added platform costs for AMD's Zen 4 CPUs and the AM5 platform. With a new socket, support limited to the still pricier DDR5 memory, and the added cost of PCIe 5.0, platform costs as a whole for AM5 are climbing before our eyes. And we must remember that inflation is likely to hit these ancillary products as well - not just the CPUs themselves.

It seems like the best way for savvy enthusiasts and system builders is to simply invest into the heavily-discounted Ryzen 5000 parts and AM4 platform, which will still provide enough performance for at least four additional years, rather than risking a costly and so very significant system upgrade. Consumers will, as always, vote with their wallets.