With an aggressive mix of price and performance, AMD’s Ryzen will charge into the high-end PC processor space next week. Analysts say Intel may be forced onto the defensive.<\/b>
Ryzen is here. AMD said Wednesday that it plans a \u201chard launch\u201d of its first three Ryzen processors on March 2, outperforming Intel\u2019s high-end chips while undercutting its prices by as much as 54 percent.
AMD executives confidently unveiled the first three desktop chips to attack Intel\u2019s Core i7, supported by several top-tier motherboard vendors and boutique system builders. In many cases, executives said, AMD will offer more for less, as early Ryzen benchmarks prove. The top-tier Ryzen 7 1800X will cost less than half of what Intel\u2019s thousand-dollar Core i7-6900K chip does\u2014and outperform it, too. You can preorder Ryzen chips and systems from 180 retailers and system integrators today.
Like Intel, AMD\u2019s Ryzen offerings consist of three new chip families: the premium Ryzen 7, the midrange Ryzen 5, and the cheapest Ryzen 3. AMD is rolling out its fastest, premium Ryzen 7 chips first, including the Ryzen 7 1800X ($499), the Ryzen 7 1700X ($399) and Ryzen 7 1700 ($329). AMD\u2019s Ryzen 5 and the Ryzen 3 will ship later this year\u2014at the moment, AMD\u2019s not saying exactly when.
AMD will begin taking preorders for the Ryzen today for shipment next week.
Unlike Intel\u2019s massive January launch of more than 40 Kaby Lake chips, AMD\u2019s playing it slow. Here are more details on the three new Ryzen 7 chips:
AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7 1800X is the \u201cfastest 8-core processor in the market today,\u201d AMD\u2019s Lisa Su said.
AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7 1700X , a 95-watt, 8-core, 16-thread chip, runs at 3.4GHz and boosts to 3.8GHz. Using the multicore Cinebench benchmark, the $399 1700X scored 1,537, 4 percent faster than the $1,089 Core i7 6900K chip.
AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7 1700X is aimed at gamers and content creators, according to AMD.
AMD\u2019s Ryzen 7 1700 , consumes up to 65 watts and runs at 3GHz, boosting to 3.7GHz. It, too, includes 8 cores and 16 threads. According to AMD\u2019s own tests, it recorded a score of 1,410 on the multicore Cinebench test, a whopping 46 percent better than the $339 Core i7 7700K. Using the Handbrake video-encoding test, the R7 1700 finished in 61.8 seconds, AMD said, versus 71.8 seconds for the 7700K.
Though the cheapest Ryzen 7 AMD announced, the 1700 still packs a punch.
According to AMD, the Ryzen 1700 will be packaged with a new Wraith Spire cooler, which will run at 32 decibels. (The other two Ryzen chips will not.) AMD also confirmed the Wraith Stealth cooler, too.
\u201cWe not only beat our goal, we beat it by a lot,\u201d Su said.
All three chips will be supported by motherboards from ASRock, Asus, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI\u201482 different boards in all, AMD said. They’ll be based on the AM4 platform, and AMD’s X370 and B350 chipsets. At launch, 19 \u201celite builders,\u201d per AMD, are expected to debut Ryzen systems, with a total of 200 expected during the first quarter. PC towers designed for gaming from top hardware makers are also coming during the same period, AMD said. Next up: Radeon Vega , AMD\u2019s next-gen PC graphics solution, scheduled to launch in the second quarter.
Su reiterated that she believes AMD will have adequate supplies of Ryzen on hand to meet customer demand, a claim that Moor Insights analyst Pat Moorhead says he\u2019s confirmed.
\u201cSo far, talking to the partners here, it sounds pretty good,\u201d Moorhead said. \u201cThey\u2019re telling me that they\u2019re getting the volumes that they want to get when they expect to get them. And that\u2019s good.\u201d
AMD believes that Intel\u2019s rested on its laurels, delivering a series of minor improvements year in and year out. To its credit, however, Intel has maintained operating profits even as it negotiates a gradual shift away from a shrinking PC market by prioritizing profitable high-end PC processors. With Ryzen, AMD sees an opportunity to steal some of that high-margin share.
Intel, however, has several opportunities to respond, including simply lowering its prices. Intel\u2019s latest official processor price list remains unchanged since early January. Still, as Moor Insight’s Moorhead pointed out, AMD has a lot more to lose than Intel has to gain by a price move.
What does Intel have up its sleeve?
\u201cThe way that I think [Intel will] react is to say, \u2018let\u2019s see if this is for real,\u2019 and determine what Ryzen\u2019s performance actually is,\u201d Moorhead said. \u201cBut they might have two or three things in the hopper,\u201d he added, including pushing single-threaded chips like the Core i3, and adding additional cores to its existing lineup. The third option is Optane , Intel\u2019s super-speedy storage technology, which Intel could use to pooh-pooh CPU performance and push system-level improvements.
Adding cores seems most likely, however. With the exception of the 6900K\u2014as well as its eight- and ten-core Extreme Edition chips\u2014Intel\u2019s Core i7 chips top out at six cores, compared to eight for AMD\u2019s Ryzen. \u201cAMD has a core advantage, and eventually I am expecting AMD to layer in cores,\u201d Moorhead said.
A statement from Intel, meanwhile, provided a fourth alternative: sowing dissent via a tried-and-true PR strategy known as \u201cfear, uncertainty and doubt.\u201d
\u201cWe take any competition seriously but as we\u2019ve learned, consumers usually take a \u2018wait and see\u2019 approach on performance claims for untested products,\u201d Intel said in a statement. \u201cSeventh-gen Intel Core delivers the best experiences, and with 8th-gen Intel Core and new technologies like Intel Optane memory coming soon, Intel will not stop raising the bar.\u201d \u00ad
Until Ryzen chips become available for benchmarking, we won\u2019t know for sure how well the Ryzen will compete. For now, though, anticipation is running high.
A closeup shot of AMD CEO Lisa Su holding the Ryzen processor.
Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight 64, said Ryzen is \u201cclearly the most competitive chip they\u2019ve fielded in a decade,\u201d a statement that Moor Insight’s Moorhead, an AMD veteran, echoed. Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds noted that AMD has extended the single-core performance that Intel itself offers over eight cores, with high-memory bandwidth to boot.
AMD\u2019s Su had a simpler take: \u201cThe best starts now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n