AMD could finally pull away from Intel with Ryzen. Read the latest news on the AMD Ryzen features, specifications, price and UK launch date.
AMD’s new Ryzen processors are coming in a matter of days now. Ryzen s is the official brand name for the chips which are based on the ‘Zen’ core architecture. They’re aimed at gamers and PC enthusiasts who want a high-performance CPU, and AMD reckons it’s better than Intel’s Skylake. Ryzen processors will be available for desktop PCs, laptop and servers.
You can rewatch the launch below, and we’ve summarised the release schedule along with Ryzen’s main features below. See also: AMD vs Intel
Update 2 March: On the launch day of the three Ryzen 7 chips, AMD has announced two new ones. The pair of Ryzen 5 chips are cheaper, and will go on sale in a couple of months.
Clearly the big news is that the flagship eight-core Ryzen 7 1800X is only £499 ($499) – half the price of Intel’s eight-core i7-6900K.
However, it’s the mid-range chips which are likely to be the big sellers, and the Ryzen 5 1600X is claimed to outperform the Intel Core i5-7600K by almost 70 percent.
It’s obvious how the naming scheme is designed to help buyers: Ryzen 7 = Intel Core i7, and Ryzen 5 = Intel Core i5. There will be a Ryzen 3 coming, but AMD hasn’t said anything about this lower range apart from that it will release 3-series CPUs in the second half of 2017.
Here are some of the other highlights:
AMD is co-ordinating a worldwide launch on 2 March, and you’ll be able to buy a Ryzen-based PC – or just the chip – on that date.
Laptops with Ryzen processors will launch in the second half of the year, and these have the codename Raven Ridge.
Sever versions will also launch sometime between July and December 2017. They are codenamed Naples.
Right now, Ryzen is just a CPU, but AMD will also launch Ryzen APUs (accelerated processing unit – a CPU with a built-in graphics processing unit in one chip). The APUs are essentially made for those who don’t have or intend to buy a separate graphics card. Rumour has it that the Ryzen APU processors will have comparable graphics performance to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles – not bad going.
Ryzen will require a new motherboard because it is compatible with the new AM4 socket which includes DDR4 memory support.
Also read: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 & 1070 vs AMD Radeon RX 480 .
AMD has been making processors for a long time and Zen is the name of the new ‘core architecture’ around which a whole family of products will be based.
