Wednesday, February 12th 2025
Processors in EU Retail Channel Could Lose "Unnecessary Packaging," Possibly even Stock Coolers
The EU could influence the mobile phone industry to ditch bundling wall chargers with their phones, and got them to standardize the USB-C connector, with the goal of minimizing the number of wall chargers people would have to own, which could last years, spanning many phones. It even got Apple to ditch its proprietary Lightning connector in favor of USB-C. The European Commission could be turning its attention to the way products such as desktop PC processors are sold in the retail channel. In the OEM channel, things are golden—processors are sold by the 1,000 units in trays that aren't all that different from the way eggs are sold to restaurants. In the retail channel, these processors put on elaborate packaging material that includes boxes that are about 20 times the size of the processor itself, and include stock cooling solutions that can run the processors at stock settings.
This could change, as the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) came into effect on February 11, 2025. This regulation gives manufacturers an 18-month grace period for compliance, and it affects desktop processor packaging in the retail channel. The first casualty will be special edition or flagship SKUs that come with swanky acrylic packaging, like Intel's large dodecahedron that shipped with the Core i9-9900K. Intel has already made the switch, and its current flagship, the Core Ultra 9 285K, comes in much simpler paperboard boxes. AMD's flagship processors also comply, as they come in compact paperboard boxes even for the top Ryzen 9 9950X. Then there's the issue of stock CPU coolers included in these boxes, at least for the 65 W processor models.
Enthusiast-segment processor SKUs, such as Intel's K/KF/KS series, and AMD's X-series (TDP 105 W or higher) already lack stock coolers. The 65 W SKUs from both brands, however, tend to include coolers. PPWR could force processor manufacturers to unbundle this cooler. The cooler could be sold separately at a nominal price for those who really want a no-frills cooling solution to run their chips at stock settings, but it will no longer be in the box. This doesn't affect the vast majority of the DIY gamer/enthusiast user-base that leaves these coolers in the box untouched, and uses aftermarket coolers.
Both Intel and AMD have made conscious efforts to ensure that CPU cooler compatibility outlasts CPU sockets. Intel's LGA775 and LGA115x sockets have been legendary examples of this. You could have bought an LGA775 cooler way back in 2003, and used it all the way till 2009. You could then have bought an LGA1156 cooler, and used it well into 2021, spanning LGA1155, LGA1150, LGA1151, and LGA1200 along the way. LGA1700 and the current LGA1851 share cooler compatibility. AMD has cooler compatibility between sockets AM4 and AM5, so your cooler from 2017 can be used in a current platform from 2025. All this presents Intel and AMD with the perfect opportunity to unbundle stock coolers.
EU regulations tend to reach far beyond European borders, as has been the case with smartphones unbundling chargers or standardizing USB-C, and we could see the trend of simpler desktop processor packaging and unbundling of coolers, similarly spread.
Source:
NikTek (Twitter)
This could change, as the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) came into effect on February 11, 2025. This regulation gives manufacturers an 18-month grace period for compliance, and it affects desktop processor packaging in the retail channel. The first casualty will be special edition or flagship SKUs that come with swanky acrylic packaging, like Intel's large dodecahedron that shipped with the Core i9-9900K. Intel has already made the switch, and its current flagship, the Core Ultra 9 285K, comes in much simpler paperboard boxes. AMD's flagship processors also comply, as they come in compact paperboard boxes even for the top Ryzen 9 9950X. Then there's the issue of stock CPU coolers included in these boxes, at least for the 65 W processor models.
Both Intel and AMD have made conscious efforts to ensure that CPU cooler compatibility outlasts CPU sockets. Intel's LGA775 and LGA115x sockets have been legendary examples of this. You could have bought an LGA775 cooler way back in 2003, and used it all the way till 2009. You could then have bought an LGA1156 cooler, and used it well into 2021, spanning LGA1155, LGA1150, LGA1151, and LGA1200 along the way. LGA1700 and the current LGA1851 share cooler compatibility. AMD has cooler compatibility between sockets AM4 and AM5, so your cooler from 2017 can be used in a current platform from 2025. All this presents Intel and AMD with the perfect opportunity to unbundle stock coolers.
EU regulations tend to reach far beyond European borders, as has been the case with smartphones unbundling chargers or standardizing USB-C, and we could see the trend of simpler desktop processor packaging and unbundling of coolers, similarly spread.
58 Comments on Processors in EU Retail Channel Could Lose "Unnecessary Packaging," Possibly even Stock Coolers
Basic user won't buy procesor anyway these days as phones and laptops completely replaced everyday use PCs, so there doesn't need to be large box or box cooler for this either.
To me the most surprising thing is that Intel and Amd is still packaging it like that, despite absolutely no benefit and only adding costs to them, the fact that some government body has to push them to it seems a bit laughable to me, on the other hand it can show that for large companies like this, the added cost of packaging/accessories means nothing to them and efforts to reduce environmental impact is done more for marketing than practical purposes and it should be the other way around imo.
And third-party power bricks were already being shipped across the world when phones were bundled with bundled with one. They've always been readily available in physical stores, and it's not like you could realistically forbid them from being manufactured :D. That would have been an even worse decision, making it unnecessarily harder to replace a faulty/lost power brick, or preventing the creation of convenience like a power station.
The problem is that we do not regulate enough, so we just travel the highway into the abyss anyway.
I would say "be better", but given the TPU "news" section's continual slide towards clickbait journalism and posting unverified rumours from extremely questionable sources, I think it's pretty clear there's no desire to be better.
The 3700x which i got from a work collegue in not the proper box was not to my liking.
I think the EU should focus on more important tasks.
I have send back several times online ordered M2 NVME because it was mechanically damaged the product box by the official austrian post office courier. Very small packaging. Monitors and big speakers because the transport box was too small. Packaging has a purpose. Those EU guys needs more work practise in logistics because they can decide on certain things. Sorry - but they are not educated enough.
It hurts me when I get a new SAMSUNG M2 NVME for 200€, lots of money, to see the packaging mechanical ruined. Like a dog has bitten in it several times. Packaging has a purpose. You can reuse it. Most of the packaging is paper. We have good paper recycling at least in central europe.
seems to me like unnecessary legislation, someone has way too much free time
And many of the EU retailers that I'm shopping from like to go overkill on the shipping packaging : order an SSD from them, and they will ship it in a 12 liters box filled with paper. It seems that this part isn't concerned by the regulation. The worst exemple was when I ordered a portable 15'6 screen. It was in a hard carboard box, who was into a bigger cardboard who was into an even bigger cardbox probably around 70 liters.
Amazon is the only retailer that I know who's being cheap on that aspect. If they don't use a small box, they will just ship it in the product box. If the retailers are doing their jobs right, and hardcarbox becomes the norms for anything fragile, this can work, with the benefits of making the shipping packaging smaller. I'm glad that wasn't on an Island when I ordered that screen, because a 70 liter box would have costed me so much in shipping. It might contribute to lower the living cost of people who rely a lot on oversea importation. The price in physical stores is often very close from the total that one would pay with the shipping oversea.
Ditch the coolers and overly huge plastic parts, go with recycled/bio-friendly cardboard....easier to make, easier to ship/store, easier to dispose of, reduce costs/prices...
sounds like a win-win-win-win to me....
A plain box that fits all the needed components inside is just fine. That companies won't pass any savings to the consumer is their choice. But at least there's less waste, and it even comes at less effort than before. Cheaper and easier to manufacture and transport, and with generally less waste.
I mean look at that Intel box. Or the metal boxes AMD was shipping some of the Bulldozer CPUs. That box isn't collectible or home decoration, it's generally destined for the trash.
That sound like a stupid thing to say, but hear me out. Somebody has to make a box. Said box is usually made by taking paper, printing, adding the fluting (the wavy bits), gluing, shearing out the form, and then shipping hundreds of flat boxes on a pallet. The two largest expenditures are the printing and the shearing, because the hardware doing it is complicated and needs to be manufactured. As such, their goal is to make as few types of packaging as possible, to minimize the huge financial outlay. So, you might have a half dozen SKUs of processor, but you want to minimize the cost of packaging because it's not considered value add to the customer but must be present.
For example, we had a customer decide that they were going to change the placement of a barcode label on the box. They said this was absolutely necessary to make it easier on their staff, and my company handed them the bill to do it. They laughed at the number, and we had to explain that the MOQ was about 6 months of product, that they had vastly overestimated sales figures on and was actually closer to 8 months of packaging. They then asked why the supplier had such a huge associated fee, and we broke down the machinery cost of rebuilding the screen printer that they had specified be used...because the cost per unit was so low. Once they'd consumed all of the box inventory, and had the screen print rebuilt, it was over $100k to move two labels 6". That's why the boxes are the same...because the wasted space without a cooler is much cheaper to them than the frankly silly amount of cost wasted on customizing packaging to account for minor differences.
It sounds silly, but by the powers that be it's actually much more expensive to have a slightly cheaper box that introduces a new SKU versus simply using the boxes already made and shipping empty air.
It's a similar story with food grains and chemicals although I largely agree with that.
Measurements taken with ruler: 72mm x 132 mm x 135 mm - that's not huge - considering how austrian official post office service and UPS germany transport my bought stuff to my home.
Driving 15 km in one direction to the next post office and send back the bought stuff also costs my money, time, more time to order stuff and more transports
Ryzen 5 7600X box
Measurements taken with ruler: 35 mm x 125 mm x 125 mm (I'm well aware of that 35 x 125 x 125 mm is the correct way to write measurements, but I wanted to leave out comments which imply it is not clear 100%)
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Just for arguing against. Let's only consider the Ryzen 5 7600X box. How much smaller do you want to make it - without protection? AM4 is kinda obsolete anyway.
I'm talking about that packaging has a purpose.
BTW whataboutism: Those mainboard boxes from MSI B550 gaming edge wifi / Asus prime X670-P prime are much too large. I store all my other stuff in those boxes. Could be at least 10 mm or more less in heigth. Graphic cards also. When you do not want to protect properly processors, than also mainboards and graphic cards should suffer more. Much more. I love my hardware - let's focus on more important questions. First fire 70% of all EU legislation people. That would make the world really better. Less rules for bananas, light bulbs, hoovers with wattage and other very important stuff they decided
-- The ryzen 5 7600x box is barely big enough - to just read what it has in it. I want to see who is happy to pay more for the same processor because they had to change the packaging. I doubt that extra cost will be less than 15€ per processor sold
My 5950X arrived with the packaging crushed (purchased from the AMD webstore btw). So if the EU or anyone else wants to slim down wasteful packaging sizes, fine, but whatever they come up with had better be able to withstand simple shipping. In my case the excess packaging wasn't wasteful at all, and instead probably saved AMD from scraping/replacing a perfectly fine CPU.