Saturday, February 25th 2017
The Power of Marketing - AMD's Ryzen Hype Train Hyperloops On
AMD did it again: building-up such a tremendous speed on its new products' hype train that the Ryzen 7 1700X, Ryzen 7 1800X, and Ryzen 7 1700 managed to jump straight to first, second, and fourth spots of Amazon's list of best-selling CPUs, respectively, dethroning even Intel's mighty i7 7700K. Granted, it isn't hard for the processors from one or the other manufacturer to quickly jump and wrangle about the spots on retailer's best seller lists - there Are only two manufacturers of consumer-grade, high-performance x86 CPUs. But keep in mind: this is a pre-order we're talking about, with nothing but leaks and marketing maneuvering for consumers to base their purchase on.Caveats in knowledge on Ryzen's performance and real-world displays of prowess notwithstanding, the promise of 8-core, 16-threaded high-performance chips with a traditional x86 design and a promising SMT approach (at tears-of-joy-inducing price points) have been enough to entice consumers. At least, judging by how some retailers have already run out of stock on the new Ryzen processors. Amazon and Newegg, arguably the two most relevant retailers of PC hardware in volume, have burned through their 1800X stocks already, only three days after the pre-order floodgates were opened.
While AMD plans on shipping one million pieces of Ryzen silicon for launch, it would seem that either demand was underestimated, production isn't at the level it should be, or there was a miscalculation on the needed inventory for such powerhouses as Amazon and Newegg. TigerDirect, NCIX and MicroCenter still carry some Ryzen 1800X stock though, so if you must, by all means, put your hands on a sample of AMD's prodigal son, jump straight to it.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, DigiTimes
While AMD plans on shipping one million pieces of Ryzen silicon for launch, it would seem that either demand was underestimated, production isn't at the level it should be, or there was a miscalculation on the needed inventory for such powerhouses as Amazon and Newegg. TigerDirect, NCIX and MicroCenter still carry some Ryzen 1800X stock though, so if you must, by all means, put your hands on a sample of AMD's prodigal son, jump straight to it.
89 Comments on The Power of Marketing - AMD's Ryzen Hype Train Hyperloops On
As some have said I'm more worried I'll have to pay more because I'm skint and Have to wait then this disappointing me.
And in many ways for people like me it's a safe bet ,it's not likely to be anything less than way better than an old platform like mine.
Its much like latest iteration of whatever unnamed FPS game.. hype, pre-orders, delivers same shtako as last year. And people still do buy that, millions of them.
Its not power of marketing, its using naturally occurring resource pool of idiots for your own benefit. Roughly 50% of mankind or so.
Im not saying Ryzen isnt as good as hypetrain believes it is. It might be, also might be not, since there are no real tests yet. But I wouldnt buy it without tests. And a lot of them. And OC results.
So, if you exclude the Extreme Edition processors, the Pentium D line wasn't really overpriced compared to AMD's offerings. I don't really understand where people are saying that Intel was massively overpriced, or stuck to their price points, when the X2s were beating them. Yes, if you just look at the few EE processors, that can be true, but if you look at the whole line of processors, that really isn't.
Oh, and then when they Core 2 Duo line was finally released, Intel didn't exactly jack up their prices. Even though the E6600 easily beat the AM2 X2 4800+(which AMD has just released a month before at $670), Intel priced the E6600 at $320 at launch. Hell, Intel only charged $530 for the E6700 at lauch, even though the E6700 handed the 4800+ its ass on a silver platter with all the trimmings.
I for one am just glad that AMD seems to have finally catched up since that'll only be healthy for the market and the consumer.
Then again I'm not an Intel fanboy...
From some of the comments on here it is obvious that some of you don't care about reality and you will continue to buy Intel chips regardless of their price or performance compared to AMD. One poster even admits to wanting to by a second 7700K when the price comes down. Lol
Fortunately, I think most CPU enthusiasts go for performance/dollar more than brand loyalty and this bodes well for a shift in the dynamics of the enthusiast desktop segment.
As for those still putting all of their Intel loyalty behind the 7700K's current single core advantage you need to keep in mind that in two months AMD will have better yields and higher quality yields that will allow for higher clockspeeds that will take down the 7700K just like all other Intel offerings have been bested in multi core comparisons. After all, AMD has already matched single core performance of Intel on chips with similar clockspeeds.
Then again, AMD hasn't even released their four core offerings yet. They may have a SKU that runs at 4.2 with a 4.9 boost out of the box. They may be binning for a higher clocked four core chip right now which is why they are waiting to release four core chips until they build up sufficient inventory. If so, I guess that 7700K will drop out of the top five CPU sales list on Amazon and other sites rather quickly.
It is a great time to be a high end CPU user. Especially those that use software that takes advantage of multiple cores. As for gamers, the four to five frames that a 7700K currently might give you over an equivalent AMD offering isn't worth whatever premium you are required to pay. It isn't unlike that guy that buys a Titan X to play on his 1080p monitor that runs at 60hz. Sure your FPS are running at 135, but you can still only see 60 FPS on your monitor. Your friend with a GTX 970 is thinking "Hmmm, I wonder why my game play at 68 FPS looks identical to his at 135 FPS. Maybe he made a bad choice on his spending of funds."
I have a feeling that with the larger clockspeed, Intel will maintain an advantage in 4 core parts. However, with IPC looking identical, and being honest the pretty small difference between 4Ghz and 4.5Ghz in fps if your running at any meaningful resolution (i.e. your GPU bound), I have no idea why you wouldn't take the extra performance from the extra cores for the price. I don't know if I'll shift from my 5960x (if I do, I'll be waiting for more boards to come out anyway), but if I was on any lower core part, I think Ryzen is a no brainer.
Nvidia gets the top spots: Great products
AMD gets the top spots: Great Marketing
I'm not saying I have that education either, but the fact of the matter is that actual journalists, the ones that went to school to get that job, aren't talking about anything AMD, because they weren't really excited by this event. :P Actual news journals have very little to say about AMD< and are too busy with other "topics".
If you honestly believe that Ryzen isn't worthy of news then I have no respect at all for your opinion any longer. It's been a long time since the cpu market had a shake up, this is the first time I've actually been excited about a new product launch, because until now it's all been the same companies and minor improvements.Edit: and keeping it in context of your comment about Linus.. Yep, I think you are a dick for making that comment. Jealousy is an ugly emotion.
I screwed up, misread cadaveca's post. Please ignore.