It's confirmed. The AMD Ryzen 7 CPUs will be released starting March 2 and the initial push will involve the Ryzen 7 1800X, the Ryzen 7 1700X and the Ryzen 7 1700. The whole bunch of powerful Zen Summit Ridge chips are designed to both outperform Intel's existing Core i7 lineup, and at the same time undercut the latter in pricing, new reports said.
All Ryzen 7 chips are of the high-end class, according to PC World, but when it comes to the pricing match the AMD CPUs will undercut the competition by up to 54 percent. The Ryzen 7 1700, for instance, will boast of the following specs - 8-core/16-thread, 65W TDP and base clock of 3.0GHz that can be boosted to 3.7GHz - but the SRP is only at $329 or relatively cheap for a premium processor with muscle car capabilities.
The mid-tier of the group is the 7 1700X that the same report said is faster than Intel's Core i7-6900K chip. The former is also a 8-core/16-thread class with TDP of 95W and regular clock of 3.4GHz (can be boosted to 3.8GHz) but will sell for only $399. In comparison, the i7-6900K retails for no less than $1000.
Then there is the flagship Ryzen 7 1800X that nearly shares the same specs found on the 1700X except that the boost speed could reach a high of 4.0GHz on all cores (or as much as 5.0GHz on single core, per the earlier benchmark leaks). But if the same Intel Core i7-6900K will require buyers to shell out over $1000, the 1800X will be no more than $500, according to AMD.
And all Ryzen CPUs will come out unlocked, meaning the chips are ready for overclocking right out of the box. AMD said the enthusiast feature will apply across the board so the same treat can also be expected from the mid-range Ryzen 5 and the budget-friendly Ryzen 3 chips.
These AMD challengers to Intel's Core i5 and i3, however, will not be arriving with the Ryzen 7 chip. The chipmaker said fans will have to wait until later this 2017.
PC World said Intel is expected to sufficiently address the great challenge that the Ryzen CPUs are proving to be. It's fair to assume that the current industry leader will release new chips in the coming months, which is firing up the rumors that Kaby Lake-X and Skylake-X chips, including the possibility of an earlier than expected debut of the Coffee Lake CPU family, will hit the market starting the second half of 2017.
Meanwhile, WCCFTech shared the clips below of the Ryzen 7 unboxing, indicating too that product reviews will soon become available. The report also provided the links where pre-order of the CPUs is now underway.