Do I really need... an AMD Ryzen processor?

What does it do?

Ryzen is a brand new processor design from AMD, which was always Intel’s big processor rival but has taken a bit of a back seat in recent years. It does the same thing as an Intel processor, such as a Core i5 or i7, but AMD’S architecture offers a different balance of price and performance.

Why would I want it?

There’s been a lot of excitement about the new Ryzen 1700X and 1800X processor (pictured) because their eight-core design potentially offers the advantages of Intel’s more expensive E series (pictured below) at similar prices to an i7. Not everyone needs a PC with high performance, but tasks like video editing, which anyone can have a go at nowadays, are actually very demanding. Games, too, use much more processing power to show higher-quality graphics.

What’s the catch?

It’s early days for Ryzen computers (high-end desktop PC processors have appeared first; laptop and budget versionss will follow), but the results may not be quite as startling as some had hoped. Tasks that can use all eight cores certainly benefit, outstripping current i7 processors by a third or more, but a lot of things you use a PC for still depend on single-core processing, and here the Ryzen chips fall behind. There are also issues with programs being optimised for Intel processors and not AMD, but developers are already releasing updates to fix this.

So can I do without it?

It’s not going to blow Intel out of the water, but Ryzen shows AMD is still a serious competitor. For ambitious users, a Ryzen desktop PC may be as good as a similarly priced Intel machine most of the time and noticeably better some of the time.