AMD Ryzen Lineup & Prices Confirmed, 8 Cores For As Low As $320

AMD Ryzen Lineup & Prices Confirmed, 8 Cores For As Low As $320

AMD’s entire Ryzen CPU lineup has been verified and pricing for its 8 core SKUs confirmed through various online retailers. Last week we took a look at 17 different Ryzen CPUs that AMD will be rolling out starting later this month. Thanks to comments by AMD’s President & CEO Lisa Su at the company’s last earnings call, we know that the company will officially launch Ryzen at the end of the month with expected on-shelf availability on March 2nd.

It’s not entirely clear yet whether the March 2nd launch will include all the previously leaked 17 Ryzen SKUs. However, what is apparent is that at least three different CPUs will be available on day one. These include the Ryzen 7 1800X, Ryzen 7 1700X and Ryzen 7 1700. All three of these have been listed for pre-order on a number of online retailers and feature 8 cores and 16 threads. The most affordable of which, the Ryzen 7 1700 is up for sale at less than $320.

The Ryzen Revolution – i7 6900K Class Performance For Nearly One 1/4th The Price & Less Than Half The Power

Of the several online retailers that have listed Ryzen CPUs one in particular stands out. It’s shopblt.com, the very same retailer that accurately listed pretty much every AMD CPU right before release. Including the Athlon X4 845 and the Kaveri A10 7850K and A10 7700K chips. Not only that, but its prices were also spot on, exactly matching the official MSRPs at launch. Perhaps it has proven accurate time and time again because it retrieves product pricing data from the database of one of the biggest channel suppliers in the world.

With that preface in mind, let’s dig into the details that you’ve all been waiting for. The three chips that have been spotted are all 8 core and 16 thread SKUs as previously mentioned. The 1800X and the 1700X are 95W chips and and the 1700 is rated at 65 watts. That’s right folks, AMD is launching an 8 core, 16 thread CPU with a boost clock of 3.7Ghz and a TDP of 65 watts. That’s less than half the TDP of Intel’s 140W 8 core 16 thread i7 6900K, which features the same 3.7Ghz boost clock speed.

As if thosse figures aren’t mind boggling enough, this chip is listed at less than $320. Which comes in at one fourth the cost of its Intel rival, which regularly retails for over $1100. To put the enormity of this into perspective, you would practically be able build an entire high-end gaming machine around the Ryzen 1700 for the same money that would cost you just to get an i7 6900K chip on its own.

AMD’s highest performing Ryzen CPU, the 1800X will retail for less than $499. A piece of information we made public nearly three months ago in our exclusive Ryzen report. So we know that much hasn’t changed since November. What was a bit of a surprise however is the fact that AMD’s 8 core flagship will boost to a whopping 4.0Ghz right out of the box despite a frugal 95W TDP.

The third Ryzen chip is the 1700X and it comes in between the 1800X and the 1700 in terms of pricing and clock speeds. What you’ll notice is that Ryzen chips with the -X suffix are rated at 95W whilst their equivalents without the X at the end are simply more energy efficient variants with a lower 65W TDP. However, all Ryzen CPUs without exception feature fully unlocked frequency multipliers. And because pretty much all AM4 motherboards support overclocking, with the exception of the low-end A series chipsets, you can rest assured knowing that no matter which Ryzen CPU you pick up you will be able to overclock it to your hearts content. That is if you choose to do so.

Ryzen In The Mid-range and Mainstream Segments

Considering that in a month’s time you will be able to pick up a Ryzen CPU for $320 with performance that’s confined to the ultra luxury one thousand dollars+ segment of the desktop market today, it’s suffice to say that mid-range and mainstream segments of the market are about to witness the most profound shift we have seen yet in the CPU market.

At less than $300 unlocked six core, twelve thread enthusiast Ryzen CPUs will compete with Intel’s unlocked and locked quad-core, four thread i5s. Quad-core 8 thread Ryzen CPUs will completely displace Intel’s lower-end i5s and the more expensive dual core i3s. Full quad-core Ryzen CPUs will go up against dual core Pentiums. At every given price point AMD’s Ryzen lineup is set to offer nearly double the cores and threads whilst maintaining similar single-threaded performance and power efficiency to the competition.

AMD Ryzen CPU	Cores/Threads	TDP	Base/Boost Clock Speed	Price
AMD Ryzen 7 1800X	8/16	95W	3.6/4.0Ghz	$499
AMD Ryzen 7 1800	8/16	65W	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X	8/16	95W	3.4/3.8Ghz	$389
AMD Ryzen 7 1700	8/16	65W	TBA/3.7Ghz	$319
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X	6/12	95W	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 1600	6/12	65W	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 1500	6/12	65W	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 1400X	4/8	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 1400	4/8	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 1300	4/8	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 3 1200X	4/4	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 3 1200	4/4	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA
AMD Ryzen 3 1100	4/4	TBA	TBA/TBA	TBA

AM4 And The X370, B350, X300 And A300 Chipsets

The company kicked things off at CES 2017 with a motherboard showcase featuring 18 different models from ASRock, ASUS, BIOSTAR, GIGABYTE and MSI. The motherboards on display ranged from high-end enthusiast class models with X370 chipsets in the heart of everyone of them to mid-range B350 based designs as well as entry level boards sporting the A320 and A300 chipsets.

• ASRock X370 Taichi, ASRock X370 Gaming K4, ASRock AB350 Gaming K4 & ASRock A320M Pro4
• ASUS B350M-C
• BIOSTAR X370GT7, BIOSTAR X350GT5 & BIOSTAR X350GT3
• GIGABYTE GA-AX370-Gaming K5, GIGABYTE GA-AX370-Gaming 5, GIGABYTE AB350-Gaming 3 & GIGABYTE A320M-HD3
• MSI A320M Pro-VD, MSI X370 Xpower Gaming Titanium, MSI B350 Tomahawk & MSI B350M Mortar
  

Ryzen compatible AM4 socket motherboards will come in four different chipset flavors. The X370 chipset is the high-end enthusiast focused contender with the latest and greatest technology and the most robust set of features. The B350 is the mid-range chipset where users will be able to get a lot of functionality and versatility at a more attractive price point. The A300 chipset is the entry-level chipset for more budget constrained computer builds.

Then we have the X300, which is a new kind of chipset for AMD. It’s the company’s high-end offering for small form factor motherboards i.e. Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX form factor boards. That’s right, you will be able to cram an 8 core monster ,i7 6900K class CPU, in a tiny mini-itx board and build incredibly powerful small-form factor PCs with Ryzen.

The Enthusiast X370 Chipset

We know that many of you reading this will have already seen the demos and read up on the speeds and feeds and are probably interested in learning more about AMD’s newly announced high-end chipset. We’re pleased to say that it does not disappoint. It’s a truly modern chipset with support for the latest memory and storage technologies.
Features of the X370 chipset include :

• Support for M.2 SATA SSDs
• NVMe
• 4 DDR4 memory slots (dual channel DDR4)
• 24 PCIe Gen 3 lanes (from the CPU).
  16 PCIe Gen 3 lanes dedicated for graphics with support for up to 3-way CrossFireX & 2-way SLI.
  4 PCIe Gen 3 lanes dedicated for storage (NVMe, SATA & PCIe storage)
  4 PCIe Gen 3 dedicated for LAN & USB3.1 Gen 2 ports.
• 8 PCIe Gen 2 lanes (from the chipset)
• 10 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (4 from the CPU and 6 from the chipset)
• 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports
• 6 USB 2 ports.
• 6 SATA3 6Gb/s ports (2 from the CPU and 4 from the chipset)

This is a huge improvement compared to the company’s current AM3+ and FM2+ stack. We’re talking DDR4 vs DDR3, native NVMe and M.2 support as well as USB 3.1 Gen2.


Ryzen has been one of AMD’s most eagerly anticipated products and arguably its most important one in a decade. The new CPU breaks new ground for the Sunnyvale California based chip maker in many ways. It’s the company’s first ever microarchitecture to feature simultaneous multi-threading. It’s built on a process technology that’s as close as ever to parity with Intel since the days of the original Athlon in the early 2000s. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, it’s incredibly competitive. Whether its performance, power efficiency or features, Ryzen easily holds its own against Intel’s best.