Technology company AMD took many by surprise this year when it unveiled its new line of Ryzen processors. Because these were not only competitively priced as has been the case with AMD’s offering in the past, but benchmarks showed that they did pack some serious horsepower too.
And although it can be argued that both the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processor lines are not such a big threat to Intel, it seems that AMD is now absolutely determined to become performance king of the CPU world. To this effect, the company has now unveiled its new “Threadripper” CPUs, which are part of its upcoming Ryzen 9 processor line.
As reported on ExtremeTech, these processors will feature up to 16 cores and will make their debut on a completely new motherboard platform. And although AMD has not yet revealed a price for the part, it’s likely it could be cheaper than Intel’s high-end Core i7-6900K which retails for about $1100 US dollars. This is something that could give the US company something to worry about, as AMDs more powerful Threadripper processors are likely to outperform Intel’s high-end offerings.
But it appears Intel is not resting on its laurels though, and recently leaked information published on PC Gamer suggests the technology giant could soon launch new processor models to respond to AMD’s threat. The most high-end of these is the Core i9-7920X, a processor boasting 12 cores which could be Intel’s new top of the line offering.
Aside from this model, Intel would also be planning to release another three i9 processors according to this leaked information, having between 6 and 10 cores and boasting clock speeds of up to 4.3 GHz. All these would be based on Intel’s Skylake-X processor architecture, and support the latest and hottest DDR4 memory too.
Of course, while AMD’s powerful Threadripper CPUs have now been confirmed and will be hitting shelves this summer, Intel is yet to officially announce its i9 processor line. And it’s clear that these upcoming processors won’t be suitable for those looking to upgrade their PCs on a budget, as they will be aimed at the high-end and even luxury segment of the market. But it’s still great to see AMD challenging Intel’s performance leadership, meaning there could be plenty of bargains available this year for those looking to build or buy a more modestly-specced PC.