AMD calls Intel’s Arrow Lake ‘horrible’

Shots fired. Frank Azor, an AMD executive, just straight-up called Intel’s Arrow Lake line of CPUs “horrible.” Where did it all start? Why, with the ongoing shortage of AMD’s best gaming processors, of course. And surprisingly, AMD blames Intel for the fact that its X3D processors are hard to come by right now.

In a recent media roundtable reported by Tom’s Hardware, AMD admitted that it never expected the demand for its CPUs to be that high. In fact, it expected it to be lower because it thought that Intel would be more competitive — but since Arrow Lake turned out to be largely unimpressive, people turned to AMD for their next-gen CPUs even more so than before.

Azor told Tom’s Hardware: “We knew we built a great part. We didn’t know the competitor [Intel] had built a horrible one, so the demand has been a little higher than we forecasted.”

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a standout in AMD’s Zen 5 lineup with its innovative 3D V-Cache technology, has faced significant supply constraints since its launch. During the roundtable, AMD representatives said that the company is doing what it can to combat these shortages, but making a new 3D V-Cache chip from scratch is not a quick process.

Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

According to PC World, David McAfee, AMD’s corporate vice president and general manager of its Client Channel Business, said: “What I can say is that we have been ramping our manufacturing capacity — the monthly, quarterly output of X3D parts. That’s 7000X3D as well as 9000X3D. It’s crazy how much we have increased over what we were planning. I will say that the demand that we have seen from 9800X3D and 7800X3D has been unprecedented.”

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D shortages have frustrated buyers, leading to inflated prices and limited availability at retailers. Meanwhile, AMD has assured customers that it is working closely with TSMC to ramp up production volumes and address the shortages.

🔥 CPU Retail Sales Week 2 '25 (mf)

AMD with best performing week ever. 9800X3D back in stock. Only 20 Units of Arrow Lake sold.

ℹ️ Units
AMD: 8830 units sold, 95.41%, ASP: 434
Intel: 425, 4.59%, ASP: 275

ℹ️ Revenue
AMD: 3828323, 97.03%
Intel: 117081, 2.97%

ℹ️ By socket… pic.twitter.com/LSYqWhh4YY

— TechEpiphany (@TechEpiphanyYT) January 10, 2025

Intel, for its part, has not directly responded to AMD’s claims, though the semiconductor giant continues to face scrutiny over its production delays. Industry analysts agree that the strain on TSMC’s production lines could indeed have far-reaching effects across the tech industry.

Interestingly, X user @TechEpiphanyYT shared data from Mindfactory, a German retailer, suggesting the first week of 2025 saw AMD selling a total of 8830 processors compared to just 435 units sold by Intel. AMD dominates with over 95% of total sales, thanks in part to fulfilling 5,000 back-ordered Ryzen 7 9800X3D units in just one week. In stark contrast, Intel’s latest Arrow Lake CPUs managed to sell only 20 units, highlighting the strong preference consumers have for Team Red at the moment.