If you're looking for a new PC with a Ryzen processor, beware: AMD is updating some of its older Ryzen processors with new branding and updated model numbers, passing them off as new processors.
AMD has released several “new” Ryzen 100-series chips, as well as a couple of new Ryzen 10-series models. However, the chips appear to be identical to a number of older Zen 2 and Zen 3+ processors announced years ago in 2022. The difference is that these new Ryzens have been “launched” in the last few weeks.
AMD calls these new chips the Ryzen 7 170, Ryzen 7 160, Ryzen 5 150, Ryzen 5 130, Ryzen 3 110, Ryzen 5 40, and Ryzen 3 30. This is reported by 3Dcenter.org.quoting a message from “Gray” on Twitter. The updated chips are simply renamed versions of the Zen 3+ (Rembrandt-R) and Zen 2 (Mendocino) chips released by AMD a few years earlier. The chipmaker calls them “10-series” and “100-series” chips.
As far as I can tell, the new processors are exactly the same as the old versions, both of which are listed on AMD's website. For example, “new” Ryzen 5 40 listed as a “Mendocino” core with four cores, eight threads, 2 MB L2 cache/4 MB L3 cache, and speeds up to 4.3 GHz. It's manufactured on TSMC's 6nm FINFET process, so it's not even a process reduction. It looks identical old Ryzen 5 7520Uwhich is also presented on the AMD website and has identical characteristics.
Well, except for one thing. The “new” chips were released in September and October 2025, and the old chips appeared in 2022.
At the time of publication, AMD had not responded to a request for comment.
To be fair, AMD is not the first to go down this path. How WCCFtech notedIntel quietly launched Processor Core 5 120 earlier this year, it's just a new “Raptor Lake” branded processor that the company released in the third quarter of 2025. Intel has been saying for some time now that customers prefer older processors in favor of the latest chips with artificial intelligence support.
However, the actions of both processor manufacturers are confusing at best and deceptive at worst. Of course, it seems unlikely that a single processor buyer wouldn't research what he's buying, but what about someone looking for a good deal on a “new” laptop? If someone buys a new car marketed as a “2026” model when it was actually a 2023 version, will they really be buying a “new” car?
You may not need it AMD decoder wheel to make sense of these new model numbers. But if these new processors appear in laptops and on store shelves, it will give new meaning to the phrase “buyer beware.” You may be buying legacy technology presented as AMD's latest and greatest offering.
