AMD's Zen Rumored for January 17th Launch; 8 Cores With 16 Threads for $300

[Raevenlord]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[TheLostSwede]

Unlikely, but let's see. If you'd read the source better, you would also have seen that it's high-end overclockable part(s) is expected to sell at over $500 and launching in Q1 (March?). The $250-300 part is said to compete with the i7-6850K, admittedly at half the price though.

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.

 

[NC37]

$300 would be a nice sweet spot as it would undercut Kaby Lake for sure, but the sr7 seems more apt to face off against the X99s. Guess it just depends on how greedy AMD is and if they pull a Fury again on the price.

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!

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Can't wait to see if this one will be a success or just another AMD "mistake" , I would love to be able to buy a really good competitive AMD platform for a decent price. Otherwise I will have to wait another 1-2 years for the next gen.

 

[trog100]

with only two players agreeably collusion is more likely that real competition..

but it does all depend on how good the zen is..

trog

$300 would be a nice sweet spot as it would undercut Kaby Lake for sure, but the sr7 seems more apt to face off against the X99s. Guess it just depends on how greedy AMD is and if they pull a Fury again on the price.

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!

 

[Raevenlord]

Unlikely, but let's see. If you'd read the source better, you would also have seen that it's high-end overclockable part(s) is expected to sell at over $500 and launching in Q1 (March?). The $250-300 part is said to compete with the i7-6850K, admittedly at half the price though.

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.

Actually, you're referring to WCCFTech as a source; while it was from there that I got the link, the source is MAXSUN, not WCCFTech. The first has the credibility of being an AMD partner in China distribution; nowhere else besides WCCFT (or quoting other sources than WCCFT) have I seen reports of those high-end overclockable parts for $500. For the other info, there's a credible (if lone) source; for that one, not so much. Hence why I didn't refer it.

 

[RejZoR]

$300 = 300€ meaning it's actually not priced that bad for a high end CPU. If performance will actually be as rumored, it'll certainly bring nice option to PC segment.

 

[P4-630]

It'll probably run up to just 60 degrees reaching the max temp the chip can handle and throttle....

 

[Easo]

Please be success, please be success.

 

[Melvis]

17th of January? nice, $300? yeah...naaaa I cant see there top tier CPU priced that low when its meant to perform close to a 6900K thats priced at $1500 AUS, im guessing they will be priced between $600-$900AUS.

 

[dj-electric]

Intel Has a (pull in dire situations) lever in those cases.

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

 

[natr0n]

Just 3 days after my bday

 

[Ubersonic]

17th of January? nice, $300? yeah...naaaa I cant see there top tier CPU priced that low when its meant to perform close to a 6900K thats priced at $1500 AUS, im guessing they will be priced between $600-$900AUS.

Not a chance, they know from the FX-9590 that people will not pay Intel prices for an AMD CPU.

300 sounds about right for this.

 

[ratirt]

17th of January? nice, $300? yeah...naaaa I cant see there top tier CPU priced that low when its meant to perform close to a 6900K thats priced at $1500 AUS, im guessing they will be priced between $600-$900AUS.

Maybe its top for now during the release. Who knows what zen+ will bring to the table and who knows exactly when. Maybe at the end of 2017 we will be reach of the knowledge about it or maybe with the CPU
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 Although that would have been something. Maybe after 12 months when you subscribe they would actually offer noticeable improvement

 

[Raevenlord]

Intel Has a (pull in dire situations) lever in those cases.

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

This, I believe, is the gist of the situation. Intel's pricing as it is gives them huge margins on each processor sold. That, and the fact that they already produce processors with more than 6 cores, means that Intel can, in a relative time-frame, strengthen their lineup by moving it a little down the scale and accommodating 6-core and even 8-core CPUs at the same pricing as AMD, should the need arise.

 

[qubit]

Let's hope that IPC and power consumption are competitive with Intel. Been so long since we had competition and decent generational gains.

 

[alucasa]

In other wordsl, it's looking sweet. I hate quad cores. Just not good enough.

 

[ZoneDymo]

In other wordsl, it's looking sweet. I hate quad cores. Just not good enough.

cant really say that, times would be bleak if the only way to increase power would be adding more cores...
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.

 

[Frick]

Let's hope that IPC and power consumption are competitive with Intel. Been so long since we had competition and decent generational gains.

IPC won't be. Maybe Haswell.

 

[alucasa]

cant really say that, times would be bleak if the only way to increase power would be adding more cores...
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.

I am perfectly fine with 100 cores at 2.0ghz.

 

[eidairaman1]

Maybe its top for now during the release. Who knows what zen+ will bring to the table and who knows exactly when. Maybe at the end of 2017 we will be reach of the knowledge about it or maybe with the CPU
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 Although that would have been something. Maybe after 12 months when you subscribe they would actually offer noticeable improvement

Plus forced socket changes which blow

 

[Blueberries]

I predict IPC just under Intel with competitive pricing. If Zen falls 5-10 points in IPC compared to Sky/Kabylake while being no more than 80% of the cost, that would level the playing field. I doubt Zen is going to be tempting enough to interest myself or most enthusiasts but the market needs competition with AMD falling behind for the last half-decade. I need less hype and more real-world testing.

Not that a 95W TDP 8-Core CPU for $300 isn't attractive

 

[fullinfusion]

Oh AMD please pull it off this time! I need change already and the pricing is right too imo..

 

[eidairaman1]

Oh AMD please pull it off this time! I need change already and the pricing is right too imo..

Im moving this rig to my wifes other than gpu, sc, psu, case. I will just buy another cpu cooler lol.

 

[fullinfusion]

Im moving this rig to my wifes other than gpu, sc, psu, case. I will just buy another cpu cooler lol.

and ill be moving this system to the F/S thread