Over the Memorial Day weekend and ahead of Computex 2019, AMD took to the stage to host their Keynote. Of course, this conference was one that many PC enthusiasts were looking forward to as this is when AMD would finally unveil their latest processors, chipset and GPU cards. The eagerly awaited Zen 2 (3rd-generation Ryzen), the challenger to Intel’s crown was shown off and was very impressive, to say the least.
Right out of the gate, AMD CEO Lisa Su wasted no time talking up the Zen 2 chips and having several demonstrations that pitted the new processors against Intel’s more expensive processors. With the results showing that the Zen 2 processors definitely had an advantage over them. While proclaiming that not only did AMD improve on the cost per performance but also that these new chips were designed with PC enthusiasts in mind this time. Thanks to the 7nm process, AMD is able to fit up to eight cores for a single chiplet or up to 12 cores in the case of the Ryzen 9.
While the Ryzen 5 and 7 lineups are similar to the previous processors, but with a better TDP and higher clock/boost speeds. The star of the show is the addition of the Ryzen 9. The first 12 core/24 thread Ryzen processor outside of the Ryzen Threadripper 1920x. This processor is going to be both a monster and highly sought out when it releases. Especially by content creators, who will be able to tap into the available power.
Every announced Ryzen 3000 series processor will be available on July 7th, 2019. Looks like I’ll be taking a trip down to Microcenter the day off. Or maybe even camping outside the doors so I don’t miss out.
Along with the new processors is the latest chipset, the X570. While similar to X470, X570 will introduce the fourth generation of PCIe, PCIe 4.0. This new standard doubles the rate of bandwidth, transfer rate and frequency of PCI 3.0. Which is great news for M.2 SSD drives, which will be able to take advantage of the speeds. If you thought they were fast now, just wait until PCIe 4.0. However, just as PCIe 3.0 was introduced, GPU’s simply won’t be able to take advantage of the faster and wider lanes.
| Processor | Cores / Threads | Clock Speed | Boost Speed | TDP | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 5 3600 | 6C/12T | 3.6GHz | 4.2GHz | 65W | $199 |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | 6C/12T | 3.8GHz | 4.4GHz | 95W | $249 |
| Ryzen 7 3700 | 8C/16T | 3.9GHz | 4.4GHz | 65W | $329 |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 8/16 | 3.6 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 105W | $399 |
| Ryzen 9 3900X | 12/24 | 3.8 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 105W | $399 |
Interesting enough, there wasn’t any mention of AMD’s Threadripper processors. As this show only focused on the higher-core Ryzen processors. However, not to worry as Threadripped will definitely return at a later date.
However, there is a bit of a downside to the news. While AMD is fully committed to supporting the AM4 format until 2020 and beyond. The new Ryzen 3 processors won’t be completely compatible with the X370 and B350 chipsets. In fact, if you own an A320 motherboard, you’ll need to upgrade to either B450, X470 or X570 if you want to upgrade to Ryzen 3. While B350 and X370 motherboards owners will need to wait and see if a bios will be available that will allow them to upgrade to Ryzen 3. Definitely, check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if a bios is coming. For those who have either an ASRock or Asus mobo, you’re in luck. As they have already confirmed that they will release a bios upgrade for B350 and X370. Thankfully for me, I won’t have to upgrade my motherboard yet again.
All in all, this is great news for AMD and anyone who loves performance while not paying an arm and a leg. If I was Intel, I’d start getting worried as AMD has been committed to taking Intel’s position and with the recent unveiling, AMD is primed to do just that.
Expect some benchmarks from us once we get ahold of the newer Ryzen 3 processors in July.
