- The AMD Zen 5-based EPYC 9965 is on sale on eBay for just under $6,000
- With 192 cores and 384 threads, AMD’s offering can handle up to 6TB of RAM per processor for AI-centric workloads.
- The processor not only offers the highest core count of any x86 processor to date, but it also stands out from the competition.
When AMD unveiled its new EPYC processors in June 2024, one chip in particular caught everyone’s attention, given its outrageous power compared to the competition.
The AMD EPYC 9965 processor was also the company’s most ambitious server offering to date, and one that held off the competition with relative ease thanks to its still-unmatched 192-core, 384-thread x86 configuration.
With a suggested MSRP of $14,813 (now $11,988) at launch, it’s also one of AMD’s most expensive products across the board, with only a few of its server-grade GPUs pushing noticeably higher.
Why eBay Listings Are Somewhat Difficult to Digest
Despite being unveiled over two years ago, the EPYC 9965 processor remains largely unchallenged by the competition, beating most benchmarks with relative ease. It remains the flagship server chip for AMD systems worldwide, with Team Red shipping it worldwide, including to China.
The chip itself is a real monster. The EPYC 9965 packs 192 Zen 5c cores and 384 threads on a single SP5 package, with a 2.25 GHz base, 3.35 GHz all-core and 3.7 GHz max boost, 384 MB of L3 cache, twelve channels of DDR5, 128 lanes of PCIe 5.0, and a default TDP of 500 W, the highest from AMD to date. This is the densest part of AMD’s 9005 stack, designed for cloud providers wanting to pack the maximum number of virtual machines into a rack.
Overall, it is designed primarily to serve hyperscalers and cloud providers, with a focus on the efficient, low-power cores that dominate these configurations.
Even at its discounted reference price of just under $12,000, eBay listings selling the same processor for just under $6,000 seem inexplicable, offering less than 50% off current listed prices and more than 60% off its original launch price.
That’s still lower than the last time we tracked this processor in 2025, but there could be some sort of explanation for what would otherwise be considered an anomaly. Most server-grade processors trade below MSRP, with OEM and negotiated discounts that quickly translate into significant savings for large-scale deployments.
The other explanation that often applies to older server processors that are often decommissioned or decommissioned by data centers, however, does not apply here; The EPYC 9965 doesn’t yet have a successor, and it’s hard to imagine any currently available processor replacing AMD’s most capable chip in a data center just yet.
Other reasons for low prices could include excess inventory, canceled orders, or simply someone liquidating hardware in an industry increasingly focused on GPUs and memory to meet their AI needs.
Most in the industry prefer a direct OEM solution, especially considering AMD’s support for PSB (secure boot) locking on their CPUs for some vendors, making them reluctant to purchase from third-party sellers. This also increases the risk profile for buyers, who might unwittingly end up purchasing a vendor-locked processor, making the testing and returns process rather annoying.
As spending on GPUs and memory becomes cost-prohibitive, which hardly helps, while mainstream companies are still buying the EPYC 9965, the prices might reflect a market reality: They’re unlikely to be scouring eBay for their next monster 192-core CPU purchase, even assuming they have a compatible motherboard and memory modules.
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