After releasing the extensively reviewed 8-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 CPUs last month, AMD marked April as the month of the Ryzen 5 processors. This tier of the Zen microarchitecture-based CPUs includes 4-core and 6-core hyper threaded processors, in a price range of $169-$249.
Today, we will compare the Ryzen 5 1600X ($250) and 1600 ($220) to their price equivalents from Intel: the i5-7600K ($240) and i5-7500 ($200).
Here it is… The Ryzen 7 update. This is going to be a long one.
AMD has released the first three CPUs in its Ryzen lineup: The Ryzen 7 1700, 1700X, and 1800X. Currently, you will find all three CPUs occupying our Enthusiast tier.
Now, read on to get our full impressions and explanation for our placement of the Ryzen 7 chips.
AMD have a new player in the game…
With the AMD Press Event details now available to the world, with videos and articles confirming the many (oh so many!) performance and price leaks to be correct, we take a look at the first big leap forward from AMD in five years with the shiny new Ryzen 7 series. On March 2, the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 will challenge Intel’s 6- and 8-core CPU lineup at very competitive price points. Now we wonder: Is Intel worried?
[Edit: Since writing this article, Intel has announced price drops of their CPUs in response to Ryzen. So, in short: Yes, they are worried! Now read on to understand why.]
Build a PC or buy a console? The debate rages on…
With the release of the PlayStation 4 Pro over the holidays, the debate over the performance needed for 4K gaming on PC has been fierce. With games like Last of Us Remastered running in the PlayStation 4 Pro’s 4K 60 FPS mode, it is a testament to the level of optimization that can be achieved when working to a single specification. Yet what sort of performance can a PC builder get for the same $400?
Kaby Lake continues its takeover our CPU recommendations.
Kaby Lake has now replaced all of the Skylake CPUs except for some low-end Skylake Celerons in our Minimum tier. (Since H210 motherboards are not out yet, we cannot find suitable motherboards for Kaby Lake Celerons.)
Kaby Lake is the first CPU series under Intel’s new Tick-Tock-Tack strategy (a.k.a Process, Architecture, Optimization). Previously, Intel would shrink it’s last generation’s CPU (a Tick), and then introduce a new microarchitecture at that size in the next generation (a Tock). Now Intel shrinks a CPU (Tick), makes a new microarchitecture (Tock), then “optimizes” it. What does “optimize” mean? That is left up to the reader to decide, as “optimize” is not defined by Intel.
So sad to see you go!
The day has come for even more AMD CPUs to be removed from our PC parts guide, to be replaced with Core i3 alternatives. We do not want to see AMD represented less and less on our guide, but we have no choice until they have a new release. Our Good and Very Good tiers have been updated to recommend Intel Core i3 builds, replacing AMD’s Vishera CPUs in that price range.
What is the best high-end CPU? The 3 best consumer-grade options are the Broadwell-E i7-6900K and i7-6950X, and the older Haswell-E i7-5960X. We previously recommended the i7-5960X over the newer i7-6900K in our build guide for NVIDIA’s GTX 1080, because of the older CPU’s superior overclocking potential. Here we will compare the pros and cons of these CPUs in more detail, so that you can make the best choice.
Intel’s Skylake Pentium G4400 has been added to our Modest tier.
New PC hardware releases (and falling prices on older hardware) have caused a lot of small updates to our PC parts recommendations. This update focuses on improving our recommendations in the mid-range tiers. There are a lot of small updates, so let us take them category by category.
Intel has launched its latest set of high-end CPUs, the Broadwell-E series. This is a set of 4 CPUs, at $450, $650, $1100, and $1750 price points.
We have added the following CPUs to the Logical Increments parts list: