AMD RYZEN: THE NEW BEAST IN TOWN
The race for the fastest PC is never ending. Customers and fanboys love to get the fastest processor for their systems. The need for speed is ever growing as Softwares are becoming bulkier and need high-end configurations. Intel has been pioneering this field for a long time, but AMD has always managed to give a stiff race though falling away behind. But the latest AMD Ryzen is all set to give Intel a beating and seems like it is setting a new benchmark. As we near its release date, let’s check its features and how good it is.
AMD has announced that the first three Ryzen-based processor, the Ryzen 7 1800X, Ryzen 7 1700X and Ryzen 7 1700 will all be available to pre-order from today. This news comes as benchmark results get leakier and leakier as we learn ever more about how these chips will compare to Intel’s ultra high-end processors.
Product Line | Model | Base Clock (GHz) | Boost Clock (GHz) | TDP (Watts) | Included Cooler | Suggested Price |
Ryzen 7 | 1800X | 3.6 | 4 | 95 | N/A | $499/£480 inc VAT |
Ryzen 7 | 1700X | 3.4 | 3.8 | 95 | N/A | $399/£384 inc VAT |
Ryzen 7 | 1700 | 3 | 3.7 | 65 | Wraith Spire | $329/£316 inc VAT |
First, all the official information. Here’s AMD’s official table of specs for the first three high-end processors.Ryzen is AMD's newest brand of high-end processors, taking on Intel's own Core i5 and i7 chips at their own game. The technology is based on AMD's Zen architecture, which uses a 14nm process for manufacturing smaller and more power-efficient chips.
AMD has long struggled when it comes to so-called "instructions per clock" (IPC), and while its processors of old have all had high clock speeds (measured in GHz), they often ran hot without the same efficiency as Intel's finest.
There are some new benchmarks and this time they're for the Ryzen 7 1700X, which is due to go on sale this week and is already up for pre-order at $399. Once again, VideoCardz.com has come up with the goods and translated from the Chinese PCEVA forum some benchmarks pitting the 1700X against the Core i7-6800K - Intel's 6-core CPU for its X99 chipset platform, which costs the same price.
Interestingly, whoever benchmarked the CPUs has reduced the clock speed of the Ryzen CPU to match that offered by the 6800K, so it's a clock-for-clock comparison - the actual Ryzen CPU will be faster out of the box.
AMD Ryzen specs
Ryzen was designed by AMD to perform well at high loads and be compatible with the latest hardware in PC gaming. To that end, the firm had to develop a new chipset for the processors, the X370 and X300, and a new socket, the AM4.
Yes, that means you’ll need a new motherboard (and a newer OS than Windows 7 ) for your Ryzen CPU. Luckily, AMD Ryzen motherboards are already in the works for this very occasion. Here’s a list of the technologies that these motherboards will support:
Now, for the Ryzen processor architecture itself. AMD says that its goals with Ryzen were “maximum data throughput and instruction execution plus high bandwidth, low latency cache-memory support for optimal compute efficiency.” So, know that all Ryzen processors will enjoy these same traits:
Plus, we already witnessed an AMD Ryzen chip break a world record in benchmarks – albeit under extreme cooling. (Maybe that's why Intel's thought to be working on a 12-core beast of a chip .)
High-level capabilities aside, here are the highlights for each of the three new Ryzen 7 chips:
AMD has long struggled when it comes to so-called "instructions per clock" (IPC), and while its processors of old have all had high clock speeds (measured in GHz), they often ran hot without the same efficiency as Intel's finest.
There are some new benchmarks and this time they're for the Ryzen 7 1700X, which is due to go on sale this week and is already up for pre-order at $399. Once again, VideoCardz.com has come up with the goods and translated from the Chinese PCEVA forum some benchmarks pitting the 1700X against the Core i7-6800K - Intel's 6-core CPU for its X99 chipset platform, which costs the same price.
Interestingly, whoever benchmarked the CPUs has reduced the clock speed of the Ryzen CPU to match that offered by the 6800K, so it's a clock-for-clock comparison - the actual Ryzen CPU will be faster out of the box.
AMD Ryzen specs
Ryzen was designed by AMD to perform well at high loads and be compatible with the latest hardware in PC gaming. To that end, the firm had to develop a new chipset for the processors, the X370 and X300, and a new socket, the AM4.
Yes, that means you’ll need a new motherboard (and a newer OS than Windows 7 ) for your Ryzen CPU. Luckily, AMD Ryzen motherboards are already in the works for this very occasion. Here’s a list of the technologies that these motherboards will support:
- Dual-channel DDR4 memory
- NVMe
- M.2 SATA devices
- USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2
- PCIe 3.0 capability
Now, for the Ryzen processor architecture itself. AMD says that its goals with Ryzen were “maximum data throughput and instruction execution plus high bandwidth, low latency cache-memory support for optimal compute efficiency.” So, know that all Ryzen processors will enjoy these same traits:
- Two threads per core
- 8MB shared L3 cache
- Large, unified L2 cache
- Micro-op cache
- Two AES units for security
- High-efficiency FinFET transistors
Plus, we already witnessed an AMD Ryzen chip break a world record in benchmarks – albeit under extreme cooling. (Maybe that's why Intel's thought to be working on a 12-core beast of a chip .)
High-level capabilities aside, here are the highlights for each of the three new Ryzen 7 chips:
- AMD Ryzen 7 1800x – 3.6GHz (up to 4GHz); octa-core; Extended Frequency Range (XFR) with better cooling; 95 Watt TDP
- AMD Ryzen 7 1700x – 3.4GHz (up to 3.8GHz); octa-core; XFR; 95 Watt TDP
- AMD Ryzen 7 1700 – 3GHz (up to 3.7GHz); octa-core; AMD Wraith Spire cooler; 65 Watt TDP
