AMD Ryzen Summit Ridge CPU Confirmed Ready to Overclock at 5GHz on Single-Core: $499 Intro Price to Topple Intel?

The AMD Ryzen Summit Ridge CPU is fast shaping up as a game changer as fresh reports confirmed that the flagship model of the Zen-based SR series chips - the SR7 Black Edition - is ready to overclock out of the box. Top processing speed is at 4GHz on all cores and on single-core, it's an effortless 5GHz.

And with the Ryzen SR7 Black rumored to debut for only $499, the chip can potentially lure in "the next generation of digital creators, VR pioneers, game world explorers and tech thrill-seekers in ways never seen before," according to MobiPicker, and in process beat industry leader Intel to its game.

But to be clear, the Ryzen chip overclocking prowess comes with definite parameters. As reported by WCCFTech, stable overclocking will depend greatly on two things - a high quality motherboard and chip design that can deal with the anticipated impact of electromigration. In the case of the Ryzen SR chip, it appears that AMD engineers have overcome these issues, the report added.

AMD has indicated that the Summit Ridge chips, specifically the SR7, can clock up to 3.4GHz minus overclocking but leaked benchmark results have been showing so far that the advertised numbers can still be breached. For gamers, the use of top-notch liquid cooling is one practical solution. For AMD, it is the Ryzen's supposed ability to manage electromigration effects.

And if the latter will prove correct, then would-be buyers of the Ryzen chip are assured of a longer lasting hardware as mitigating the effect of electromigration is one solid insurance that a CPU's lifespan will not be cut short.

But really the game-changing feature that could make the Ryzen SR chips irresistible even for long-time Intel fans is the pricing. While still unconfirmed, WCCFTech said the Ryzen SR7 Black Edition will hit the market with a cash damage of only $499 (or $349 for the regular SR7 variant). Now considering the facts and even the rumors known so far, all signs point to a winner of processing chip coming from AMD.

As pointed out by the same WCCFTech report: "A Ryzen chip with a decent overclock will be able to give comparable performance to (and possibly even beat) Intel's $1000 i7-6900 in optimized scenarios." For most users, the decision to dump Intel will be easy given the tempting CPU solution that the AMD Ryzen chip is shaping up to be.

And the wait for the AMD Ryzen Summit Ridge chips will surely end this January 2017 as the formal introduction is set via the Las Vegas CES 2017 with the actual release date to immediately follow in the same month. Then by March, the midrange solutions SR5 and SR3 will come out for only $249 and $149, respectively.