Posts Tagged Under: CPU

The Threadripper 2 Launch (a.k.a. AMD Flexes its Muscles)

TR 2990WX

AMD launched two CPUs today. The first is the 2990WX, a gargantuan 32-core/64-thread CPU $1800 ubermonster that will give every Intel board-member nightmares for the next ~2 years. Yes, you read that right: Thirty-two cores! Barely 2 years ago, a quad-core was the standard, recommended CPU for most people, and this 2990WX behemoth does not double or triple or even quadruple that: It octuples it! Maybe “octuples” is not a proper verb, but this is not a proper launch either.

The second CPU is the 2950X, a more modest 16-cores/32-threads $900 affair, but make no mistake: That makes it on par with Intel’s best consumer CPU, for half the price. In fact, if you took the time to read the reviews linked below, you will find that most reviewers enjoyed the 2950X more than the 2990WX.

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Christmas 2017 PC Hardware Buying Guide: What to Know

The Founder’s Edition GTX 1080 Ti

Christmas is just around the corner, and incredible sales are undoubtedly coming. If you haven’t been following the PC building scene for the past year or two, then some things may seem daunting at first. For instance: What’s up with crazy high RAM prices? And why are some CPUs and graphics cards out of stock?

If you’re planning to build a new PC this Christmas, then there are some important things to know about. Consider this your Christmas 2017 PC hardware shopping guide.

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Logical Increments Intel Coffee Lake Update

In early October, Intel launched its new Coffee Lake lineup of CPUs. In many ways, it’s a very exciting launch, with the entire range of CPUs receiving a core count upgrade for the first time since 2009.

However, the launch has also been plagued with some issues. Namely, availability has been extremely limited, with the most desirable CPUs selling out faster than most people can snag them.

As a result, we have been intentionally slow to add the new CPUs to the main computer parts list on our homepage. We don’t like recommended hardware that people cannot reliably buy.

That said, we are past due for addressing Coffee Lake, so this post should fully inform you of our thinking. Read all the gory analysis below:

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Intel Core i3-8350K vs. i5-8400 vs. Ryzen 5 1500X

Intel’s Coffee Lake CPU stack

Intel’s new Coffee Lake processors have been very competitive with AMD’s Ryzen, as we previously pointed out in our i7-8700K and i5-8600K comparisons against the competition.

Finally, we turn our attention to the 4-core 4-thread i3 line. In this article, I’ll be comparing what we know about the i3-8350K against AMD’s price equivalent, the Ryzen 5 1500X. Intel’s segmentation has gone quite out of hand though, and the 6-core 6-thread i5-8400 falls into the same price category, costing only around $10 more than the 8350K and 1500X.

So, how do these sub-$200 processors compare in gaming and some light productivity work?

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AMD Ryzen 3 1300X & 1200 vs Intel Core i3 7300 & 7100

The Ryzen logo

Ryzen 7 released nearly half a year ago in March, with Ryzen 5 coming out a little while later. AMD has finally unleashed their lowest tier Ryzen 3 processors: the Ryzen 3 1300X, coming in at $140, and Ryzen 3 1200 at $110. Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 are considered the better buy for the general user, unless their desire is gaming and only gaming, in which case an i7-7700K is the better choice. It is now Ryzen 3’s turn to face off against Intel’s similarly priced dual-core hyper-threaded Core i3 CPUs.

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Ryzen 5 CPUs Released, Added to Logical Increments

This week, AMD launched their exciting Ryzen 5 CPUs, which include two 6-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1600X and 1600) and two 4-core hyperthreaded chips (the 1500X and 1400). These CPUs are now among our recommendations on the Logical Increments homepage, marking a welcome return for AMD to the mid-range CPU space.

Long story short: We have added the the R5 1500X and 1600 to our Great tier, while the R5 1600 and 1600X now appear in our Excellent tier. As a result, the Ryzen chips have shaken up our once Intel-dominated mid-range CPU recommendations, and knocked the Intel i5-7400 completely off our list.

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