AMD is the CPU and graphics card people go when Intel and Nvidia are too expensive. But all these are going to change thanks to AMD's major announcement regarding their latest Ryzen CPU line which supposedly has the same performance as Intel's top i7 chips at half the price. Could you really have your cake and eat it too?
The AMD Ryzen chips will officially have a "hard launch" on March 2. And people are all hyped up about it, probably due to "leaks" proving this might be as powerful as Intel's. These highly anticipated chips could undercut Intel prices by as much as 54 percent, promising to outperform their high-end ones.
"On March 2, enthusiasts and gamers around the world will experience ‘Zen’" - Dr. Lisa Su, who has more on Ryzen. https://t.co/nHiJp1JVFP pic.twitter.com/Q0uNBk3LYQ
— AMD Ryzen (@AMDRyzen) February 22, 2017
Let's recap a little bit, first. AMD Ryzen is the new brand name for their new CPU series. This is supposedly going to be 3 tiers: Ryzen 7 (premium), Ryzen 5 (midrange), and Ryzen 3 (cheapest). Surely enough, this was done on purpose as these are similar to Intel's CPU tiers: i7, i5, and i3. Within each tier, there will be several CPUs to choose from.
Focusing on the most powerful of the group, Ryzen 7, AMD recently had a press con announcing their highest processors. AMD did announce 3 CPUs, 1700, 1700X, and 1800X, all have 8 cores and 16 threads. But what's more exciting is that all of these either match or exceed some of Intel's highest-end chips at much lower price points.
For example, the top dog in the AMD Ryzen 7 lineup is 1800X which clocks at 3.6 GHz with a 4.0 boost at 95 watts. Compared with Intel Core i7 6900K when running a single-thread benchmark, they actually tie.
But when running in a multi-thread benchmark, AMD Ryzen 7 1800X punched Intel's 6900K by 9%. Price-wise, Intel's chip costs more than $1000, while the 1800X rolls at $499. This is literally half the price for the same or better performance.
Note that a special cooler is needed to keep the 95-watt chips from exceeding 60 degrees Celsius, according to DigitalTrends. Listed as HS81, this helps provide better overclocking potential.
Meanwhile, 1700X is priced at $399 and 1700 at $329. But for AMD Ryzen 5 and 3, as of this writing, the company only noted that they will ship later this year, reports PCWorld.
Now, what do these all mean? It's simple really, or so it seems. Basically, things are heating up. AMD has been relatively been labeled as the "budget" hardware manufacturer. Now, it seems AMD made a major disruption to the market, solely governed by Intel's overpriced yet powerful chips.
With the upcoming AMD Ryzen chips, Intel's prices might seem laughable. But the overall winner in the epic battle between Intel and AMD are of course, the consumers and of course manufacturers, who might think to increase their profits by getting the same performance at half the price.
Can you not feel the revolution in computing? But until the AMD Ryzen chips officially become available for third-party benchmarking, we would not actually know for use how they will fare against Intel's very own line of chips. So, stay tuned for more updates!
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