Ryzen; Windows churns ever-faster; 16-core Atom; Google sues Uber.
All we had hoped for is true: AMD has raised the bar for processors with its new architecture
IT’S HERE FOR REAL. AMD’s new processor architecture is available, and it’s just as fast and as competitive as we’d hoped. AMD has started at the top, by releasing three eightcore chips: the $329 3.0/3.7GHz (base clock and boost) 1700, the $399 3.4/3.8GHz 1700X, and the $ 499 3.6/4.0GHz 1800X. The “X” stands for eXtreme. Performance is very strong, and at those prices, Intel’s Core i7s are starting to look woefully poor value.
Initial benchmarks put Ryzen on a par with or better than Intel’s finest (see our review of the 1800X on page 76). The overclockers have already been at play, and one bright spark has produced a world-record Cinebench R15 score of 2,449, achieved at 5.2GHz, with the help of some judicious cooling.
Pre-orders have been huge; currently, the best-selling processor on Amazon is the Ryzen 7 1800X. This has been the most hotly anticipated launch since Intel unleashed the Core 2, in 2006.
Alongside the processors, we have motherboard chipsets for the new AM4 boards— three initially. The A320 is a mainstream chipset, while the B350 is where things get interesting, as it offers overclocking and better USB support. However, the one all eyes will inevitably swivel toward is the X370, which has everything thrown at it, including SLI and CrossFire support, four DDR4-3200 slots, two 16-lane PCIe, and more. Later on, we will see A300, B300, and X300 chipsets all aimed at small form factor builds, with the latter offering overclocking goodness.
Some small wrinkles have emerged. Asus has discovered that there are issues with high-frequency DDR4 memory, making it unstable above 2,400MHz if you use four sticks (although with two sticks, 3,200MHz is fine). BIOS and memory controller fixes are due shortly. Also, despite initial hopes to the contrary, Ryzen is a Win 10-only affair. Face it, you’ll have to upgrade eventually.
The more mainstream Ryzen 5 chips are expected in the spring, with the Ryzen 3 family planned for later in the year. These will similarly undercut Intel Core i5 and i3 offerings in price and performance; Intel is facing pressure across the range.
What can Intel do? In the short term, not a lot. There’s precious little room to crank up clock speeds on the current Core i7 chips. Most obviously, it can cut prices; at the time of going to press there have been no official price cuts yet, but we suspect you won’t have to wait long. Retailers are already discounting like crazy. At Microcenter, the Core i7-6950X has dropped $300, and the i7-6900K by $200. The price cuts run right through the Intel range. Intel’s people will be out there now trying to cut deals. The company has an unflattering history here, and has picked up fines for anticompetitive practices in the past, under the guise of counter rebates and such. Let’s hope it can keep things clean this time.
For any real response, we have to wait until August, and the launch of Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X. These are branded as Core i7-7000 series chips, and use a new 2,066-pin socket and X299 chipset. The range will include 10-core versions; rumor has it that Intel is developing a 12-core version, but this is highly speculative. What is clear is that Intel will have to do something. This is not a company that enjoys coming second. It will respond.
Meanwhile, AMD is enjoying a well-deserved moment in the sun. So far, Ryzen has lived up to our expectations—it’s hugely fast, and priced to sell. AMD has put itself right back in the game, and caused high-power CPUs to tumble in price. And for that, we can all be thankful.
One bright spark produced a world-record Cinebench R15 score of 2,449 at 5.2GHz.