AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su's Computex inaugural keynote was packed with the hardware we wanted to hear about so eagerly. 3rd-gen Ryzen desktop processors are now official, based on new Zen 2 cores, the series includes a new Ryzen 9 flagship with 12 cores and 24 threads for $499, while the mainstream king Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6 core/12 thread 65W CPU starting at $199. AMD's X570 chipset also claims a first in supporting PCIe 4.0.
AMD is
claiming their new Zen 2 cores deliver 15% more IPC than previous generation chips, in addition to new features and design improvements that include larger cache sizes and a redesigned floating point engine. Shipping on July 7, the full Ryzen 3000 family of processors consist of the chips outlined on the table below.
Model | Cores/
Threads | TDP (Watts) | Boost/Base (GHz) | Total Cache (MB) | PCIe 4.0 Lanes* | MSRP |
Ryzen 9 3900X | 12/24 | 105W | 4.6/3.8 | 70 | 40 | $499 |
Ryzen 7 3800X | 8/16 | 105W | 4.5/3.9 | 36 | 40 | $399 |
Ryzen 7 3700X | 8/16 | 65W | 4.4/3.6 | 36 | 40 | $329 |
Ryzen 5 3600X | 6/12 | 95W | 4.4/3.8 | 35 | 40 | $249 |
Ryzen 5 3600 | 6/12 | 65W | 4.2/3.6 | 35 | 40 | $199 |
* PCIe lanes is the sum of the CPU's 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes (16 for the GPU, 4 for storage, 4 for the chipset), plus the X570 chipset's 16 lanes.
As expected, the new lineup introduces a new Ryzen 9 desktop processor with the flagship 12 core/24 thread Ryzen 9 3900X which is selling at a premium above the rest of the pack but features more cores and cache for a price well below Threadripper's levels. AMD was also keen to share some preliminar performance benchmarks, meant to highlight how their new processors compare to current Intel competitors:
- Ryzen 7 3700X vs. i7-9700K with real-time rendering: The Ryzen 7 3700X offered 1% more single-threaded performance, and 30% more in multi-threaded tests.
- Ryzen 7 3800X vs. i9-9900K with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds gameplay: The Ryzen 7 3800X matched the performance of the i9-9900K.
- Ryzen 9 3900X vs. i9-9920X with Blender Render: The Ryzen 9 3900X beat the Intel i9 9920X by more than 16%.
Ryzen was already superior to Intel in terms of multi-threaded performance and most of the time value. Single-threaded performance is now stronger, which was one of the areas where Intel was still holding the lead, albeit usually at a higher price.