Although AMD had been lagging behind tech rival Intel for years, it made a starting comeback last year with the release of Ryzen, a new line of processors offering performance comparable to Intel’s Core series.
Of course, it wasn’t long before Intel hit back with its 8th gen Coffee Lake CPUs, with some models like the Core i5-8400 being hailed by the tech press as one of the best processors for gaming in a very long time.
However, AMD has been undeterred by Intel’s counter-offensive and by a recent security scare involving its Ryzen CPUs too, and has released new processors this year including the Ryzen 2200G and Ryzen 2400G, the first in the series to feature built-in graphics (which according to reviews are actually fit for gaming unlike Intel’s…).
And today sees the launch of more Ryzen 2000 series processors, giving gamers looking to buy or upgrade their rig even more options. These processors include the Ryzen 5 2600, successor to AMD’s popular six core 1600 model, which is priced at $199 US dollars, and the Ryzen 5 2600X which comes at $230. There’s also the Ryzen 7 2700, an 8-core CPU priced at $300, and the Ryzen 7 2700X, currently AMD’s highest-end offering in the Ryzen 2000 series, which can be had for $330.
These processors all feature higher clock speeds across the board, being able to reach a maximum clock speeds of up to 4.3 GHz in the case of the Ryzen 7 2700X model, while these processors are also all unlocked and can be overclocked by the end user. Actually, reports have revealed these can reach speeds of almost 6 GHz when overclocked, suggesting the new Ryzen 2000 models are AMD’s most overclockable processors yet, which is great for those who like to extract maximum performance from their gaming rigs.
Another point of interest here is that all these processors come with a cooler in the box, unlike the earlier X models such as the Ryzen 5 1600X and Ryzen 7 1700X which lacked one. This is something which should make the Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 7 2700X an even better deal.
The Ryzen 2700X also appears to be a beast out of the box, with early benchmarks revealing it can beat the old Ryzen 7 1700 in gaming without much trouble.
It remains to be seen, though, what Intel’s response to this will be. The Santa Clara company recently put out new 8th gen processors in its Coffee Lake range (including one very powerful Core i9 laptops) but will likely want to press forward with future processors series to do battle with AMD.
This means that its next-gen CPUs, codenamed Cannon Lake, could be just around the corner. It’s very likely this new batch of processors will feature an 8-core model, as Intel currently is not offering a consumer-grade model with this many cores, giving AMD the advantage here, plus improved performance across the board.
But regardless of whether you are the sort of gamer who traditionally goes for Intel or AMD, the good thing is that there are plenty of options in the market now from either camp, meaning these are certainly exciting times for those who game on PC no doubt.
Ryzen logo (Advanced Micro Devices)