Enthusiast claims to have obtained an early Ryzen 7 9700X — warehouses stock AMD’s latest Zen 5 CPUs in preparation for distribution to brick-and-mortar retail stores

Reddit user ElectricalEmployer22 just posted on r/pcmasterrace a photograph of two AMD Ryzen 9000-series processors, which will compete with the best CPUs , in official retail packaging with the caption, “Just got them in store!!” A couple more boxes of similar shape and size are in the background, plus another box that looks like a motherboard or GPU, suggesting that the image was taken inside a stock room.

The caption and the image make it easy for the casual viewer to assume that the Reddit user bought AMD’s latest processors. However, the official sale date for these chips isn’t until two weeks later. So, as another Reddit user pointed out, the photographer is “either an employee, someone made a mistake, or this is a hoax.”

AMD announced that it will launch its first Zen 5 processors in July, with the Ryzen 9000 series chips heavily rumored to hit store shelves on July 31 . If that were true, these chips might be too early to get into retail stores, as we still have over two weeks before those dates. So, unless AMD moved up the sale date of its latest processors, the Reddit user is likely working at a store that stocks computer parts for several other retail shops and that the Ryzen 7 SKUs he photographed are being prepared for distribution later.

We can understand the excitement of the Reddit user, especially if he’s a computer and tech enthusiast. However, he could also put himself, his employer, or his business in trouble, especially as most prominent tech companies would like to keep their products close to their vest until after the official launch date.

Nevertheless, we’ve already seen some benchmark leaks for the Ryzen 9000-series processors. The Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X dominate previous-gen AMD and Intel CPUs in single-core performance, although they still fall short in multi-core when compared to 14th-gen Intel Core CPUs. These leaks are likely from final testing before these chips go on sale, though.

With just a few more days before the Ryzen 9000 and Ryzen AI 300 processors go on sale, many users are likely excited to get their hands on these devices. However, we still recommend waiting a few days after reviewers have received these chips and running retail samples through their paces so that you’ll know what you’re getting into.