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After chipmaker Intel Corporation and chip designer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD) announced their decisions to stop selling products in the Russian Federation in the aftermath of the United States Department of Commerce sanctions against the country, reports from the Russian press are indicating that products from both companies are being sold by online retailers. These reports have been shared by the Chinese news outlet ITHome in a brief report which also surfaces alongside a report by the Russian publication CNews which claims that AMD's latest processors are being used with older motherboards.
AMD, Intel CPUs See Prices Drop In Russia After E-Commerce Stores Seemingly Resume Sales
The report from ITHome is quite brief and it only quotes the Russian press to indicate that AMD and Intel's processors are available in Russia through e-commerce retailers. These include AMD's Ryzen 5000 series products that were launched in 2020 and Intel's Tiger Lake-H processors launched last year. According to ITHome, the prices of these products have dropped since the levels seen in January.
Additionally, the publication also mentions Intel's 12 generation processors, commonly referred to as Alder Lake. These have been built with the company's latest chip manufacturing technologies and were introduced in January. The Alder Lake products and "high-end Ryzen" are also seeing prices lower than previous highs, suggests ITHome.
The publication adds a brief analysis from Russian sources outlining that retailers have plenty of incentives to inflate prices due to the rapid depreciation of the Ruble and supply uncertainty due to Intel and AMD's decision to stop supplying their products to Russia.
The report of AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors being available in Russia comes as the Russian news outlet CNews shares that buyers of these chips can use older motherboards with them. Board manufacturers such as ASUS have also stopped selling their products in Russia, and CNews shares that users that have managed to get their hands on a Ryzen 5 product can simply plug it in on an older motherboard courtesy of backward compatibility.
Additionally, CNews also provides details about the channels through which Intel and AMD products are being sold in Russia. It outlines that while the prices of AMD's products are inflated due to supply pressure, they are still affordable to some consumers. The publication then adds that while Western trading platforms have suspended operations in Russia, the country still has access to Chinese and Kazakhstani retailers, along with its borders being open with both countries.
Therefore, consumers in Russia wishing to get their hands on an AMD product can buy one through these platforms, and when combined with backward compatibility, they do not have to worry about buying new motherboards for the products. Crucially, CNews mentions the A320, B350 and X370 chipsets as being particularly helpful for the AMD products, and AMD opened support for those boards with the Ryzen 5000 just earlier this week.
The U.S. government's sanctions against Russia are aimed at preventing the country's military from further developing its capabilities. They also leave room for users such as non-governmental organizations to be able to access products that are otherwise sanctioned. Following the sanctions announcement, the world's leading contract chip manufacturer, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) confirmed that it would comply with the new regulations. Russia also uses its homegrown processors, dubbed as the Baikal lineup. These use designs from the British design house Arm Ltd. and are fabricated locally. However, the country does not have the capabilities to manufacture leading edge semiconductors, with the United States, Taiwan and South Korea being the only three regions in the world that are capable of doing so.
