Ryzen 7 2700X And Ryzen 5 2600X Deliver Solid Gains Over AMD's Previous Generation
AMD initially announced its 2nd Generation Ryzen desktop processors back at CES earlier this year. Our coverage of the event is
available for you here, but to quickly recap,
2nd Generation Ryzen processors are based on a refined update to the
Zen architecture, dubbed Zen+, that offers higher clocks, lower latencies, and a more intelligent Precision Boost 2 algorithm that improves performance, system responsiveness, and power efficiency characteristics. The chips are also manufactured using a more advanced process, however, they still leverage the existing AM4 infrastructure and are compatible with the same socket, chipsets, and motherboards as the first generation products -- with a BIOS / UEFI update, of course. That said, there is a “new” chipset arriving alongside the 2nd Generation Ryzen desktop processors as well,
the X470.
There are four new processors being released today in the 2nd Generation
Ryzen family, which we’ll talk about in just a moment. We’ve got the two “X”-branded variants on hand for testing, the flagship Ryzen 7 2700X and its little brother, the Ryzen 5 2600X. At their core all of AMD’s
2nd Generation Ryzen desktop processors are similar, and differ only in their core counts, frequencies, and TDPs.
