The scalpers are screwing themselves in this situation because, while the R7-9800X3D is an incredible product, it's still overkill for pretty much any gaming situation that I can think of. Like, it will take years before it would have a noticeable impact on gaming even when compared to the R7-5800X3D for over 90% of gamers. Here are the main categories of gamers that have little need for an R7-9800X3D:
Competitive gamers playing competitive multiplayer games:
These games are not the least bit hardware-intensive and already have insane performance numbers even with something as old as an R5-2600X. I used
pc-builds.com's performance calculator and paired the 2600x with an XTX. Here are the results:
Apex Legends = 273FPS
COD: Warzone = 315FPS
CS:GO = 1025FPS
Fortnite = 453FPS
League of Legends = 1170FPS
Overwatch = 404FPS
PUBG = 259FPS
Rocket League = 646FPS
Even gamers with ultra-fast 240Hz displays would be unaffected by a CPU upgrade.
Mid-to-low-resolution gamers playing AAA single-player titles:
This is another huge category of gamers and, while this is certainly more CPU-intensive, most games still work just fine with an R5-3600X or better.
High-resolution gamers:
I am personally in this category and I use an R7-5800X3D coupled with an RX 7900 XTX. Upgrading my CPU (well, my whole platform TBH) would have absolutely no effect on gaming performance for me because at both 1440p and 2160p I'm limited by my XTX. The same would be true for ANYONE using a CPU no older than an Ryzen 3000-series.
Those three categories (either exclusively or any mix of the two) comprise way more than 90% of gamers on Earth.
Therefore, only fools with money to burn would be willing to pay scalper prices on an R7-9800X3D because literally ANYONE else would be perfectly comfortable waiting for more to be available. Scalpers will end up losing their shirts because of this and I for one will be more than happy to sit back and watch the Schitt's show unfold. Unlike during the mining crazes, scalpers have ZERO leverage here because, while there's no question that the R7-9800X3D is a marvellous processor, but it's not like there aren't 1,001 alternatives that would be just as good in modern games available on both the new and used market. I build and sell budget gaming PCs (console fighters) and so I've done a good amount of research surrounding this topic. For the vast majority of gamers (those who play with a 1080p60Hz monitor), a Ryzen 5 5600 coupled with an RX 5700 XT or RTX 2070 is pretty much all you need for a fantastic gaming experience at 1080p.
Hell, using Hardware Unboxed's performance optimisation settings, a PC with an R5-5600, RX 5700 XT and 32GB of DDR4-3600 CL18 can achieve 70FPS in Black myth: Wukong's downloadable benchmark. I have personally done this and have taken screenshots to keep as records. I do this because I'm not one to mislead my customers. Any claim about the performance of one of my PCs is backed up with images of every performance test result. I'm at my day job right now and don't have access to these images but if anyone wants to see it, I'll post it when I get home tonight (usually around 9:30pm EST). Also keep in mind that this game is totally limited by the RX 5700 XT because, just for fun, I ran the same benchmark with the same settings on my RX 6800 XT and RX 7900 XTX with massive FPS gains (IIRC, well over 100FPS).
If a lowly R5-5600 can do over 100FPS in Black Myth: Wukong, there's nobody who is
in dire need of an R7-9800X3D, or at least, not dire enough to be willing to pay scalper-level pricing for it. The only people who would buy this from scalpers are probably the same people who had no problem paying $2300USD for an RTX 4090 (aka "More money than brains").
These scalpers are even more screwed than those who tried to scalp the RTX 4080 and I'm loving it!
REPLIES TO OTHER POSTS:
"or even go Intel with the i9-14900K."
Who says that Mods and Admins don't have a sense of humour?
(For some reason, the system wouldn't let me actually quote the original post.)
AGREED!
And it would take literally years before the gaming performance difference made ANY difference to anyone's gaming experience.
Well, they are getting pretty desperate and I wouldn't put it past them. Having said that, I really doubt it because they'd literally be handing over a tonne of $$$ to AMD.
Why?
The 5800X3D is easily enough for any game on the market today and the 7800X3D is just straight overkill for any game on the market so just what advantage would you be paying that extra money for?