With the arrival of its 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors, AMD cut prices of the socket-compatible first-generation parts. A highlight of this move is the availability of the 12-core/24-thread Threadripper 1920X at $399. This chip trades blows with the Core i9-7900X in multi-threaded tasks, and considering stores are still listing Intel's 6-core/12-thread Core i7-7800X at $390 and the 8-core/16-thread i7-7820X at $469, could make for a better alternative, with more PCIe lanes. The 8-core/16-thread Threadripper 1900X is now down to $299, or less than the SEP price of the Ryzen 7 2700X. The 1900X still gives you 64-lane PCIe and quad-channel memory.

PC enthusiast "TSAIK" with access to AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600X chips put them through rigorous overclocking to achieve speeds as high as 5.88 GHz on both, with all cores enabled, demonstrating the improved overclocking headroom AMD achieved by switching to the newer 12 nm process. The 2700X achieved 5884 MHz with a 58.25X multiplier on a 101.02 MHz base clock, and a scorching 1.76V core voltage. The 2600X, on the other hand, reached 5882 MHz riding on the same 58.25X multiplier with 101 MHz base clock, and a slightly higher 1.768V. Both chips have all their cores and SMT enabled. The 2700X was overclocked on the MSI X470 Gaming M7 AC, while an MSI X470 Gaming Plus powered the 2600X overclock. A single 8 GB G.Skill Trident-Z DDR4 module was used on both feats. As expected, a liquid nitrogen evaporator was used on both chips.

BIOSTAR unveils RACING X470GT8, a full ATX motherboard with the AMD X470 chipset for the second generation AMD Ryzen processors, Pinnacle Ridge and Raven Ridge. The BIOSTAR RACING X470GT8 offers performance and aesthetics for today's overclockers and gamers. It has a premium black RACING themed PCB design, Digital Power+, Hi-Fi zone design, integrated USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type A + C), Iron Slot Protection, and Advanced VIVID LED DJ for more RGB lighting control.

The BIOSTAR RACING X470GT8 motherboard is the flagship model for the 2nd generation Ryzen processors featuring the new AMD X470 enthusiast chipset. It features an ATX form factor with three PCI-E 3.0 x16 slots and supports two dual-channel memory up to DDR4-3200MHz (OC). The RACING X470GT8 has a 12-digital power phase design to harness the power of the new Ryzen 7 2700X 8-core, 16-thread processor. The motherboard also packs 6x SATA III ports, 1x M.2 32Gb/s port with the BIOSTAR M.2 Cooling heatsink and integrated USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type A and C).

Ahead of its 19th April formal launch, AMD opened up pre-orders to its 2nd generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" processors, and compatible motherboards based on AMD X470 chipset. AMD is launching this series with four SKUs, the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 7 2700 eight-core chips, and Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 5 2600 six-core chips. The pricing of the four is surprisingly lower than expected. The top-dog 2700X has an SEP price of just USD $329, while the 2700 (non-X) goes for $299. The six-core parts aren't too far behind. The Ryzen 5 2600X has an SEP price of $229, and the Ryzen 5 2600 is $199. Pricing of the chips in the EU is along expected lines. The Ryzen 7 2700X is priced at 319€, followed by the Ryzen 7 2700 at 289€, Ryzen 5 2600X at 225€, and the Ryzen 5 2600 at 195€.

Based on the new 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon, the Ryzen 7 2700X comes with higher clock speeds than the previous-generation flagship 1800X, with 3.70 GHz core, 4.30 GHz boost, and XFR boosting frequency beyond the max boost frequency. You get 8 CPU cores, and SMT enabling 16 logical CPUs, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The 2700 is clocked at 3.20 GHz, with 4.10 GHz boost. The 2600X and the 2600 are 6-core/12-thread parts, with the full 16 MB L3 cache available on-die. The 2600X is clocked at 3.60 GHz with 4.20 GHz boost and XFR; while the 2600 is clocked at 3.40 GHz, with 3.90 GHz boost. All four models include stock cooling solutions, including the 2700X and the 2600X. Availability in brick and mortar stores will commence on the 19th, it's also the day the first pre-ordered chips will start getting delivered.

Ahead of their mid-April launch, AMD's second-generation Ryzen 7 2700X, 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600X processors allegedly began surfacing in Russian brick-and-mortar stores, with enthusiasts already being able to buy them, and put them through popular benchmarks online. This thread on Russian PC enthusiast community Overclockers.ru shows several users claiming to have retail 2700X and 2600X chips, and are putting them through benchmarks such as Cinebench R15, AIDA64 benchmarks, etc. Increased performance aside, these benchmark screenshots seem to confirm that AMD has reworked its cache and memory sub-system to be faster on 2nd generation Ryzen chips, with users reporting lower CPU cache and DRAM latencies on AIDA64 latency and bandwidth tests.

AMD is preparing to launch its first wave of 12 nm Ryzen 2000-series "Pinnacle Ridge" processors in April, with possible availability on the 19th. From all of the materials leaked to the web, it's becoming clear that the Ryzen 7 2700X will be the company's next flagship socket AM4 processor, with a "2800X" not being part of the first wave of "Pinnacle Ridge" chips. Adding further to the theory of the first wave of "Pinnacle Ridge" chips being led by the 2700X, is the leaked cover of the next issue of print magazine CanardPC, which screams "2700X," and includes a roundup of second-generation Ryzen parts from 2200G all the way through the 2700X. The 2700X, besides process and minor architectural refinements, also features higher clocks than the current company flagship in the segment, the Ryzen 7 1800X. It's clocked at 3.70 GHz base, with 4.35 GHz boost, and XFR 2.0 driving the clocks up even further, compared to the 3.60/4.00/4.20 GHz (base/boost/max-XFR) of the 1800X. For this reason alone, the 2700X will be a faster part.

AMD has the advantage of having sized up Intel's Core i7-8700K before deciding to lead with the 2700X. The possible 2800X will depend on Intel's short-term response to the 2700X. There were rumors late last year of a possible speed-bumped "Core i7-8720K." AMD's first wave of Ryzen 2000-series "Pinnacle Ridge" will be as brisk as Intel's first "Coffee Lake" desktop processors, with just four SKUs - the Ryzen 7 2700X, the Ryzen 7 2700, the Ryzen 5 2600X, and the Ryzen 5 2600. Besides higher clocks, the chips could feature a minor IPC uplift (vs. first-generation "Summit Ridge") thanks to rumored faster (lower-latency) caches, support for higher memory clocks, updated Precision Boost algorithms, and XFR 2.0.

Not sure whether intentional or an error, SiSoftware posted a review of the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600 processors on their website. The creators of the popular Sandra benchmark suite has taken down the review for the meantime. Luckily, our good old buddies at VideoCardz have ninja reflexes and downloaded the graphs before SiSoftware removed them. In their review, SiSoftware pitched the upcoming Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600 processors against AMD's previous Ryzen 7 1700X processor and Intel's Core i7-6700K Skylake processor.

The SiSoftware team evaluated CPU performance using a plethora of synthetic benchmarks. Unfortunately, they didn't evaluate gaming performance. Nevertheless, their review gave us a taste of what we can expect from the Ryzen 2000 series. The Ryzen 2000 series (or Zen+) officially supports DDR4 frequencies up to 2933 MHz which should help improve its performance. Similar to its predecessor, Zen+ processors possess the most cores and threads. Therefore, performance improvements depend hugely on IPC and clock speeds. While we're on the subject of clock speeds, Ryzen 2000 series' base clock is 9% higher while the Turbo/Boost/XFR frequency is 11% higher when compared to previous Ryzen chips. In terms of CPU performance, we can expect at least a 10% improvement in CPU-heavy benchmarks. All of this comes at a cost though. The TDP for Zen+ (105W) is 11% higher than the first-generation Ryzen processors (95W). Beefy cooling solutions are highly recommended especially if you plan to overclock these CPUs. Although Zen+ based processors' L1, L2, and L3 caches suffered no changes, latencies should show some improvement. AMD may launch the Ryzen 2000 series on April 19, so we won't have to wait long to get our hands on the new processors.

As we grow ever closer to the launch of AMD's 2000-series, details and scores are expected to be revealed in increasingly faster fashion. Today, some Geekbench benchmarks (reportedly) of an AMD 2700X CPU have appeared, shedding some light on the expected performance - and performance improvement - of the new AMD top-of-the-line CPU.

The Ryzen 7 2700X CPU that has been tested achieved scores of 4746 single core and 24772 multi-core, which show some interesting improvements over the original flagship Ryzen 7 1800X. The official Geekbench baseline scores for AMD's 1800X are 4249 and 21978, respectively, for single and multicore benchmarks. This means that the new 2700X, which is expected to carry an increased 100 MHz base (3.7 GHz vs 3.6 GHz) and 350 MHz higher boost (4.35 GHz vs 4.0 GHz) over the 1800X, is pulling some additional performance from some micro-architecture refinements, and not just from the added clockspeed. The mobo used, an ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero motherboard, is a X370-series chipset motherboard, so while it supports the new AMD CPUs, it might not fully support all their SenseMI Gen 2 improvements. From what can be gleaned, the Ryzen 7 2700X ran at its default base frequency of 3.7GHz, and the accompanying 16GB memory ran at 2.4GHz.

Ahead of its launch product roadmap of AMD's next-generation performance-thru-enthusiast segment socket AM4 processors, was leaked to the web. It indicates that AMD could launch its next-generation Ryzen 2000-series "Pinnacle Ridge" processors with no more than four SKUs initially. These include the top-dog Ryzen 7 2700X, followed by the Ryzen 7 2700; the Ryzen 5 2600X, and the Ryzen 5 2600. Both Ryzen 7-series SKUs are 8-core/16-thread chips, while both Ryzen 5-series SKUs are 6-core/12-thread. There's also pricing for each of the four. The clock-speeds are also revealed below.

The Ryzen 7 2700X is being launched at a SEP of USD $369, and positioned against Intel Core i7-8700K. This is followed by the Ryzen 7 2700 being priced at $299, and fielded against Intel's multiplier-locked Core i7-8700. The Ryzen 5 2600X is, obviously, positioned against the Core i5-8600K, and priced at $249; while the Ryzen 5 2600 is priced at an attractive $199, and looks to disrupt several of Intel's Core i5 6-core SKUs around its price-point. Unlike many of Intel's SKUs, all AMD Ryzen chips feature unlocked multiplier, SMT, and a cooling solution. That's right, even the top-dog 2700X and 2600X include coolers, as opposed to their predecessors. The 2700X includes AMD's new Wraith Prism, while the 2600X and the other two SKUs include a Wraith Spire.

A few days ago, we spotted AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 2700X processor at the 3DMark playground. We got word today that our Korean buddies over at the Hardware Battle forums have leaked some benchmarks of a mysterious Ryzen 7 2000 processor. While the graphs don't explicitly state the model of the so-called "Future Processor", it's very likely that it's the Ryzen 7 2700X. First off, the clock speed matched the specifications from the previous 3DMark leak. HWBattle also compared it to the Ryzen 7 1700X numerous times which makes perfect sense considering that the Ryzen 7 2700X is the next successor to the throne. Initially, we projected the Ryzen 7 2700X to hit the 4.2 GHz mark thanks to AMD's XFR 2.0 (eXtended Frequency Range) and Precision Boost 2.0 technologies. However, HWBattle's sample reached 4.35 GHz which makes it even more impressive.

Comparing the Ryzen 7 1700X and 2700X side by side in AIDA64's memory benchmark, the latter was 11% faster in the memory latency test and 30% and 16% faster in the L2 and L3 Cache tests, respectively. The Ryzen 7 2700X's single thread performance was surprisingly strong as well. It surpassed the likes of the Intel Core i9-7980XE, i7-8700K, and Threadripper 1950X processors in the Dhrystone Aggregated-int Native benchmark. The Ryzen 7 2700X started to fall behind in multi-core performance, but it still managed to beat the Intel Core i7-8700K. We saw a similar scenario with the Physics test in 3DMark's FireStrike Ultra benchmark. The Ryzen 7 2700X once again annihilated the Intel Core i7-8700K.

AMD's next iteration on their very positively received Zen microarchitecture is preparing for take-off in the coming months, and as we draw ever close to the release date, more details are trickling in. This time, it's the appearance of a Ryzen 7 2700X (which supersedes the original Ryzen 7 1700X) on Futuremark's 3DMark database. The Ryzen 7 2700X was paired with an ASRock X370 Taichi motherboard (still considered one of the best ever to grace AMD's new AM4 platform), and its 8 cores and 16 threads are locked into a 3.7 GHz base and 4.1 GHz turbo clocks (respectively 300 MHz higher base and turbo clocks that the 1700X's).

The usage of AMD's XFR 2.0 (eXtended Frequency Range) and Precision Boost 2.0 could mean that the CPU is able, in certain scenarios, to turbo over the specified limit of 4.1 GHz, up to 4.2 GHz, thus delivering an even bigger boost to its performance. The usage of a 12 nm process means AMD has taken the power savings and increased frequency potential that comes from shrinking their original Zen microarchitecture, and put those to increased frequencies across the board, thus increasing their CPU's single-thread performance. Being an X chip,. AMD has kept the package TDP at a still respectable 95 W, much like its 1000 series Ryzens, though we know that this 95 W figure doesn't really spell out just how energy efficient these AMD CPUs really are.