THE NEWS
Ryzen 5 arrives, with 3 following soon after—plus a small bug
Ryzen family grows; Switch is a hit; Windows updates blocked by chips.
WE’VE HAD A WHILE to evaluate AMD’s Ryzen 7, and some have been a little harsh; expecting it to beat the best gaming processor ever at its first attempt is asking a lot. Game optimization for Ryzen has barely started, either. It’s about performance for the price, and here it hasn’t disappointed. AMD has now expanded the range with the Ryzen 5.
Initially, we have four versions. The 3.2GHz 1600 and 3.6GHz 1600X have six cores and 16MB cache, while the 3.5GHz 1500X and the 3.2GHz 1400 make do with four cores and 8MB of cache. Initial prices run from just $169 for the 1400 to $249 for a 1600X. We also get snazzy new coolers: the Wraith Spire and Stealth. The Ryzen 7 significantly undercut Intel’s i7, while Ryzen 5 is a more direct price comparison with rival i5s.
The 1600X looks to be a sweet spot here. It’s up against the $242 Core i5-7600K, but packs two more cores and three times the threads. Although single- thread power lags slightly, it tops out at 4GHz on boost, behind the 4.2GHz possible with the 7600. Anything that loves lots of threads really thrives.
Later this year, we’ll see the Ryzen 3: four-core but without SMT. The 3.4GHz 1200X comes in at $149; drop to 3.2GHz and there’s the $129 1100. These go against Intel i3s, with dual cores and HT, which should make for interesting comparisons.
ONE SMALL FLY
So far, the Ryzen has proved capable, but not completely fault-free. A bug has emerged that can potentially lock the system completely. The problem occurs when the chip runs single-precision 128-bit FMA3 operations, Fused Multiply Add. It’s not an instruction that gets much use, and the bug only surfaced during benchmarking designed to stretch the floatingpoint performance from every angle. A BIOS update cures the problem. If you have a Ryzen, there’s little cause to worry—to date, no mainstream application has proved vulnerable.
Ryzen’s performance under some conditions proved less than expected, or hoped for by some testers, and rumors started that it was down to SMT problems (Simultaneous MultiThreading). More specifically, it has been claimed that Windows 10 wasn’t spreading the workload properly across the cores, not identifying primary and virtual threads properly. However, it transpires there’s nothing in this one; AMD has investigated, and went as far as issuing an official denial, along with helpful tips on building Ryzen rigs, including quite a bit on matching memory carefully.
Expecting a fault-free design for something as complex as a new processor architecture is asking a lot. Intel’s Skylake suffered a similar FMA3 problem last year. These bugs are nothing, though. The original Pentium had a fundamental bug in the FPU that could return the wrong answer. That led to Intel recalling chips, writing off $475 million, and making some very expensive key rings.
Ryzen is going to put Intel under pressure across the price range. They even use the same basic numbering system, just so it’s all perfectly clear. Much mileage can, and certainly will, be made of differences under specific tests, games, and conditions. Intel, as ever, looks to have a slight edge on singlethread grunt, where clock speed is all. To some, an extra frame rate on their favorite game is all that matters, but Ryzen’s core and thread count, efficiency, and price continue to impress. The fight is moving to mainstream and budget rigs now, and we suspect it’ll be even keener here.
Ryzen’s core and thread count, efficiency, and price continue to impress.