AMD hits hard - again

All the techies out there will probably read about this on the real computer websites like here, so I will only point out the big stuff here about AMD's announcements a few hours ago.

CPUs - fast 8 core with 65W TDP

For many years Intel dominated the CPU market, especially high was single thread performance and price. Then came Ryzen.

Like a Poenix from ashes AMDs new design put the company back on good tracks, and Intel in a panic. While the Ryzen 1 series was still a bit behind in IPC and high-clock performance, it made an instant jump from 4 to 8 CPU cores. Intel didn't even have a mainstream CPU with more than 4 cores at that time, not to mention that AMD sold the fastest Ryzen for half the price of a comparable Intel from the server market.

And now the Rebels stike the Empire again.

The Ryzen 3000 series with Zen 2 cores are made in 7nm (which is why they will release on 7/7 this year).

The most expensive chip is again priced at $499, the same as with the Ryzen launch, but this time the CPU has 12 cores with a base frequency of 3.8 Ghz, albeit ratet at 105W. The Ryzen 3900X is the only CPU that uses 2 "chiplets". A chiplet can hold up to 8 cores, so expect a 16 core Ryzen for the future, probably when Intel has put out a 12 core desktop chip of their own near that price point.

But the real star of the show is the 3700X.

8 cores with 3.6 Ghz base clock at only 65W. That is 20% more clock than the 1700, all while the Zen2 cores are said to have a 15% higher IPC. Or in other words, 1/3 more punch for the same power compared to the already very energy efficient 1700.

The 1700's weak point was the (relativly) low single thread performance, which made it not the best choice for CPU intensive games. The 3700X "heals" that while keeping the low, cool TDP.

Also with this third Ryzen family, AMD has finally a (small) lead in IPC compared to Intel.

The Ryzen 3700X is (at least on paper until we get real tests) easily the most energy efficient high performance CPU ever made. And it will be priced at upper mainstream levels!

To put it in perspective, the probably closest Intel CPU would be the i7-8700K. That CPU has similar price and same punch per core as the Ryzen - BUT - it has only 6 cores and rates 95W.

Whole lineup:

Graphics with next next cores

Probably even more astounding is the (less detailed) announcement of the next generation of AMD's GPUs.
The codenamed "Navi" cards are using a new architecture and, like the CPUs, 7nm structures. The new architecture is called RDNA (Radeon DNA).

Navi has, according to AMD's boss Lisa Su, 25% more IPC than the older GPUs with Graphics Core Next architecture, while the power need is 50% lower. That could make for some impressive low-power cards and, of course, also for some powerful high performance cards where you don't need an industrial-grade cooler.

AMD was always behind in energy consumption compared to NVIDIA, and this one sounds like AMD has "healed" this wound, too.

All in all it looks like AMD could be the dominating CPU and GPU seller next year.