Processors in EU Retail Channel Could Lose "Unnecessary Packaging," Possibly even Stock Coolers

[btarunr]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Triniplayer]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

 

[Chaitanya]

Up untill recently users could buy CPUs in tray option instead of boxed version.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

On one hand, that stock cooler is a great back-up and a perfectly acceptable cooler in a low cost build scenario.

On the other hand, depending on your upgrade cycle and after market cooking setup, you really don't need 2 or 3 of the things stacked up in a closet somewhere never seeing use.

Ultimately, I think the EU just made official what both AMD and Intel have been moving toward for a while now. Lower shipping and manufacturing cost to them, same price for the rest of us anyway.

 

[Prima.Vera]

When is the easy battery replacement law going to come in force for the mobile phones, next year?
Looking forward to see people finally being able to replace their battery on the phone without specialized tools or advanced services.

 

[Punkenjoy]

i always find it ridicule to buy a quite large box that contain just a tiny CPU. That is just a waste of resources but also, a waste of space when shipping stuff.

This move is a good thing.

 

[Dr. Dro]

As I understand, the EU PPWR directive would not prohibit stock coolers from being bundled:

(13)

An item which is an integral part of a product and is necessary to contain, support or preserve that product throughout its lifetime and where all elements of that item are intended to be used, consumed or disposed of together should not be considered to be packaging given that its functionality is intrinsically linked to it being part of the product. (...) Furthermore, if a given material represents only an insignificant part of a packaging unit, and in any event no more than 5 % of the total mass of the packaging unit, such a packaging unit should not be considered to be composite packaging. The definition of composite packaging in this Regulation should not exempt single-use packaging partially made of plastics, regardless of the threshold level, from the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council (8).

I doubt that the plastic casing on a boxed CPU comprises more than 5% of the packaging, regardless, it is intended to preserve the product. The rest... is just cardboard, which tends to be the preferred packaging method as it's highly biodegradable and easily recyclable. You may read the legal text in full at:

Regulation - EU - 2025/40 - EN - EUR-Lex

eur-lex.europa.eu

And learn more about this initiative from:

Packaging waste

Learn about EU law and policy to deal with the increase in packaging waste across the EU, including plastic bags.

environment.ec.europa.eu

BTW, the source tweet (from a satire account, no less) got community noted for being misleading, low-quality information on X, someone posted a similar interpretation there.

 

[AusWolf]

I never understood why CPUs without factory coolers had to come in gigantic boxes.

 

[kondamin]

If your upgrade cycle is low for things like gadgets that require a power brick not including one is worse waste wise As you need to Buy a new one that is up to the new standards which needs to be shipped and sold on its own.

nothing environmentally positive about it.

loads of things the eu can do to make a positive impact without screwing over the consumer like these measures that would have a far bigger impact, like prohibiting octuple packed mini snacks and the export of waste

 

[Visible Noise]

EU still hasn’t found a regulation it doesn’t like.

 

[AusWolf]

EU still hasn’t found a regulation it doesn’t like.

I'm sure you'd have to cut down more trees to print the EU's rule book in just one copy than for all the cardboard CPU boxes in the world.

 

[Frick]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

Yes they should create a seperate R&D department for computer component boxes. Really disrupt that industry.

 

[btarunr]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

The EU has arguably the safest food on the planet thanks to those regulations.

 

[tommo1982]

It is common these days to buy OEM versions of CPU's with full warranty and I saw plenty people buying them. Myself included. I recently bought Ryzen 5 5600 and I didn't consider the BOX version at all. I'd throw the package away anyway.

It is a good move.

 

[R0H1T]

The EU has arguably the safest food on the planet thanks to those regulations.

Arguably being the keyword, the flip slide of that is they're wasting a lot of "acceptable" produce which is consumed in most parts of the world. Lots of stuff destined for EU but not meeting their random regulations is discarded/trashed just as easily!

 

[tommo1982]

Arguably being the keyword, the flip slide of that is they're wasting a lot of "acceptable" produce which is consumed in most parts of the world. Lots of stuff destined for EU but not meeting their random regulations is discarded/trashed just as easily!

Let's not get distracted from the main topic.

 

[usiname]

I am fine will smaller simple package as long as it protect the CPU well, my concerns with theTRAY package was the fact that even small push can bend the pins of LGA and that is why I don't buy TRAY CPU

 

[R0H1T]

Let's not get distracted from the main topic.

That is an issue which people are starting to talk about now, admittedly this isn't just an EU problem with (excessive) packaging & the likes. A lot of e-tailers here are just sending products in paper bags/boxes without any bubble wrap or adequate protection & maybe half the time they're either damaging the outer packaging or the electronic items themselves

This is more of an issue with heavier stuff, like say a GPU, but you get idea. If you're concerned about the environment why the heck are you making regulations that "enable" perfectly fine goods to be damaged so easily!

 

[Shihab]

Perhaps we should somewhat standardise HSF mounting first?
Charger uncoupling worked because it was largely standardised, and there were regs in the work to force those who didn't follow the line. PC cooling is has absolutely no mechanical compatibility to speak of. A couple of generations being the same or aftermarket oems packaging half a dozen of mounts/adapters doesn't change the core issue. The latter is perhaps an even worse symptom. Trees grow back, metals don't.

Mechanical compatibility should be measured in decades. An ATX box from the 90s would work today, why shouldn't a lump of copper/aluminium with a fan attached to it do the same?

 

[azrael]

Up untill recently users could buy CPUs in tray option instead of boxed version.

It is common these days to buy OEM versions of CPU's with full warranty and I saw plenty people buying them. Myself included. I recently bought Ryzen 5 5600 and I didn't consider the BOX version at all. I'd throw the package away anyway.

It is a good move.

You can still buy tray versions of most CPUs. I usually tend to steer away from them, though, since only boxed versions are under warranty from AMD and Intel. And more often than not the boxed version do not even cost much more than the tray version. Sometimes they're even cheaper. Add to that that boxed versions are often sealed, which tray versions are not.

I wouldn't mind cutting down on the packaging for boxed versions, though. A little sealed package with the tray inside would do the trick for me.

 

[Tek-Check]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

What a fart comment! Had manufacturers and vendors been using reasonable packaging to product size, the regulation would not have been necessary in the first place.
Amazon packaging is well documented to be absurdly oversized. Look it up online and stop being ignorant. CPUs have slightly improved, but still current packaging needs to half in size, so that waste is reduced. Some Nvidia 5000 GPU packaging is stupidly oversized. This will have to change too, and many other products.

The EU has arguably the safest food on the planet thanks to those regulations.

This. Thank you.

Arguably being the keyword, the flip slide of that is they're wasting a lot of "acceptable" produce which is consumed in most parts of the world. Lots of stuff destined for EU but not meeting their random regulations is discarded/trashed just as easily!

What is your source and evidence for this?

 

[Bwaze]

Up untill recently users could buy CPUs in tray option instead of boxed version.

As others have said, these CPUs often didn't have AMD, Intel warranties but only store ones - they were bought for integration in pre-built PCs that had builder warranties, not individual part warranties. So bit of a grey area, and it was funny they weren't even that cheaper - but often they were available when other stores run out of their stock.

Apparently these kind if shenanigans are happening with other parts too, and it's often not communicated at all what warranty you do get. So your CPU, HDD has problems, manufacturer denies warranty based on a serial number and points you to the store -- which might not even be in business any more.

 

[csendesmark]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

Regulations like this are actually not even half bad,
Top of the line CPUs are dropped stock coolers for years, and tray CPU-s are cheaper by €30.
What argument you have to attack this decision?

 

[Vayra86]

EU doing what they do best, regulating rather than innovating.

Of course we have this niche because nobody else takes it seriously.

If you just view the world as something that doesn't revolve 100% around economic growth, it all starts to make sense quickly. In the end business and economy is a means, not an end. The EU is convinced the end goal of those means is to provide civilians with good lives, fair, with some degree of equality in opportunities. Happy people are productive, get in trouble less, cost less.

Clearly not bundling a cooler with your CPU is all part of the big plan. I can see how this looks But the premise is the right one. How do we make things better.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Up untill recently users could buy CPUs in tray option instead of boxed version.

Yeah, and funny enough tray is more expensive than boxed half the time, atleast here in the Netherlands.