Friday, November 18th 2016
AMD's Zen Rumored for January 17th Launch; 8 Cores With 16 Threads for $300
As we inch ever closer to AMD's Zen launch, more and more information seems to be slipping through the cracks. This time, MAXSUN, an AMD China partner (poised to provide customers with AM4 platform motherboards) is the source of the proverbial leak, with information that, if true, is sure to stir the pot of bubbling Zen excitement even more.
According to MAXSUN, Zen's initial release date is pegged for January 17th, which, if true, would probably mean a product announcement around CES 2017 (scheduled from the 5th of January through the 8th) - at the same time as Intel is expected to fully unveil their Kaby Lake parts. The company also reports a second release window at March 2017, which lends further credence to AMD's expected staggered launch of Zen-based processors, first for the High-Performance-Desktop (HEDT) market, and trickling down from there. MAXSUN also confirms the pricing scheme we reported yesterday, with regards to the companies' SR7 processors (the top-of-the-line parts in the Zen line-up, and whose naming scheme I think isn't the final one) - the company states these are expected to be priced at around 1500-2000 Yuan SKU ($250-$300).
Performance levels for the price are reported to be not too shabby - that AMD's best performing offerings (8 core, 16 thread chips) would be competitive with Intel's $1089 i7-6900K, an equally 8 core, 16 thread offering (like AMD demonstrated with it's Blender test on-stage, though clock-speeds for the Intel processor were normalized at Zen's 3.0 GHz engineering sample). Taking those performance levels with a grain of salt, the value proposition does seem to be considerably high, especially if Intel's Kaby Lake performance improvements do end up being as rumored.
MAXSUN also seemingly confirmed expected, finalized clocks for AMD's next processors, quoting an improvement from the 3 GHz on Zen's engineering samples, at 3.15-3.30 GHz base clocks and 3.5 GHz boost; the company also reports that Zen can be easily clocked to 4.2 GHz on conventional means, and up to 5 GHz with LN2. All in all, rumors being worth what they are, it is definitely an exciting time to be a PC enthusiast. Let's just see if AMD will deliver, or crash and burn like it has done in the past.
Source:
MAXSUN
According to MAXSUN, Zen's initial release date is pegged for January 17th, which, if true, would probably mean a product announcement around CES 2017 (scheduled from the 5th of January through the 8th) - at the same time as Intel is expected to fully unveil their Kaby Lake parts. The company also reports a second release window at March 2017, which lends further credence to AMD's expected staggered launch of Zen-based processors, first for the High-Performance-Desktop (HEDT) market, and trickling down from there. MAXSUN also confirms the pricing scheme we reported yesterday, with regards to the companies' SR7 processors (the top-of-the-line parts in the Zen line-up, and whose naming scheme I think isn't the final one) - the company states these are expected to be priced at around 1500-2000 Yuan SKU ($250-$300).
102 Comments on AMD's Zen Rumored for January 17th Launch; 8 Cores With 16 Threads for $300
If they can pull this off, Intel is going to have to up their game a couple of steps at least, even if the per core performance is slightly lower than Intel's.
Course there is more than that. Board cost also needs to be considered. AMD ones tend to run less but new product and launch...likely premium as less competition.
Makes me more curious for the sr3 and sr5s. A 6c/12t Zen in the sr5 bracket might be a nice deal. If so, sr3 might just be a 4c/8t. AMD has always touted more cores. Can't see them launching a dualie with their new flagship. Maybe in APUs but flagship line for sure, start with Quads.
Ah well, one way or another, competition will be good! Let the price war come!
but it does all depend on how good the zen is..
trog
They can out fast 6 and 8 core CPUs for mainstream socket with very tamed TDP and price within months.
Not that hard when top-of-the-line gaming CPUs like the 6700K have such low actual-TDP.
That said, i do hope AMD's product would provide some need to do that
300 sounds about right for this.
AMD is rolling out with a new gen CPU who knows what will happen. Either way Intel's new gen CPU give not much of an improvement. They tend to release so-called new gen every year almost giving questionable performance boosts. Might be that the Intel's "new gen" CPU will come like magazines every month :P Although that would have been something. Maybe after 12 months when you subscribe they would actually offer noticeable improvement :P
One quad core is not the other and there has been plenty of progress.
I see it more then possible to see a Dual Core in the future that is faster and better then a 6 core Intel Extreme cpu today.
Not that a 95W TDP 8-Core CPU for $300 isn't attractive