It just makes sense from the CPU side of things to launch in the new year. Clear out old stock on holiday discounts, grab the die-hards in the new year with full MSRP, then slowly decline the prices throughout the summer sales and such till you hit holiday again, rinse and repeat. Rarely is their an application that demands a platform upgrade, unlike GPUs that are timing to be out with the new holiday quarter launches.
Yes, however the big ticket item everyone’s gunning for is the fancy new GPU to play the fancy new game. If it’s a choice between the two it’s the GPU almost every time for consumers. E.g., Cyberpunk 2077, at launch people down to Haswell i7s could run the game, but anything below Pascal really struggled, leading to the first massive wave of shortages in Ampere and RDNA2.
It just makes sense from the CPU side of things to launch in the new year. Clear out old stock on holiday discounts, grab the die-hards in the new year with full MSRP, then slowly decline the prices throughout the summer sales and such till you hit holiday again, rinse and repeat. Rarely is their an application that demands a platform upgrade, unlike GPUs that are timing to be out with the new holiday quarter launches.
Typically you’d want new products on shelves for the holiday season to maximize hype/sales. Back to school is a better time to clear out inventory.
Yes, however the big ticket item everyone’s gunning for is the fancy new GPU to play the fancy new game. If it’s a choice between the two it’s the GPU almost every time for consumers. E.g., Cyberpunk 2077, at launch people down to Haswell i7s could run the game, but anything below Pascal really struggled, leading to the first massive wave of shortages in Ampere and RDNA2.