Monday 6 March 2017

Gaming becomes a lot cheaper with new AMDs

Posted by Unknown on 01:06:00 Gadget , Science , Updates , Windows No comments

source: PC world

For years, the only option for serious gamers has been Intel. AMD’s chips lagged far behind, to the point where the only question to be asked about desktop processors was i5 or i7.
With its latest generation of chips, called Ryzen (welcome Ryzen!) , AMD is changing all that. According to the numbers (although we don’t have real-world tests just yet), Ryzen will offer performance that matches the highest-end Core i7 processors, but for half the price. Time to get excited.

The top-end Ryzen 1800X costs $500, which is still not cheap. But it compares to Intel’s Core i7-7700K, and it compares favorably: 8 cores, 16 threads, and a power draw of just 90W, compared to the i7’s 140W. According to AMD’s numbers, that will all allow the 1800X to outperform the i7-7700K by about 10 percent on multithreading tasks. If true, that’s going to be a problem for Intel.

Preorders have only just begun, but these processors will be made available on March 2. There are three tiers to this processor: 1700, 1700X and 1800X. In terms of the stats, the breakdown came out as follows:

Model 1800X: Base clock 3.6 gigahertz (GHz) with a suggested price of $499.
Model 1700X: Base clock 3.4 GHz with a suggested price of $399.
Model 1700: Base clock 3.0 GHz with a suggested price of $329.

Dr. Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD, commented:

Four years ago we began development of our 'Zen' processor core with the goal to deliver unprecedented generational performance gains and return choice and innovation to the high-performance computing market. On March 2, enthusiasts and gamers around the world will experience 'Zen' in action, as we launch our Ryzen 7 family of processors and reinvigorate the desktop computing market.

High Performance and Low Power
High-performance is not the only title AMD is shooting for with the AMD lineup, though. While the 1800X will be the line's flagship processor, the 1700 will play a more niche role as the lowest-power eight-core desktop processor in the world, the company said.
That should prove welcome news to customers looking to keep a lid on power consumption and heat production. To help keep heat levels down further, AMD said the lineup will feature new thermal solutions based on the original Wraith coolers, which were first launched in 2016.

Source: AMD

We’ll have to wait just another week to know precisely how AMD’s chip fares in the real world. Full details, pricing and sales all start on March 2nd, but before then we should have some reviews to look forwards to. Some gaming and component publications already have samples of the Ryzen 1800X to test, so it shouldn’t be long until we have benchmarks to answer all your burning questions.