AMD causes a storm

If AMD made waves in the PC enthusiast market with their Ryzen 7 CPUs, they are literally gearing up to cause a tsunami in the gaming CPU market with the Ryzen 5 chips that are earmarked for release on April 11, 2017.

The Ryzen 5 line up features four CPUs, the 1600X, 1600, 1500X and 1400. Of the four, three will also be shipping with the new AMD wraith spire and stealth CPU coolers, with the 1600 and 1500X getting the Wraith Spire cooler and the 1400, the Wraith Stealth. The flagship of the Ryzen 5 lineup is the R5 1600X CPU, which features six physical cores with 12 threads, making it a grand total of 12 cores, six physical and six virtual. It’s clocked at an impressive 3.6 GHz base clock with a boost clock of up to 4.0 GHz. The most appealing thing about the new 1600X is not the clock speed or the number of cores, it’s the price. AMD, in an effort to woo the budget gamers is launching the 1600X at an astounding low price of Rs 18,199. To put that number into perspective, its direct competitor, the Intel i7 5820K still costs around the Rs 30,000 mark.

Following this same trend AMD is launching the the other Ryzen 5 CPUs at the prices listed below:

• Ryzen 5 1600 (6 cores, 12 threads, 3.2 GHz base clock, 3.6 GHz boost clock): Rs 15,799.
• Ryzen 5 1500X (4 cores, 8 threads, 3.5 GHz base clock, 3.7 GHz boost clock): Rs 13,799.
• Ryzen 5 1400 (4 cores, 8 threads, 3.2 GHz base clock, 3.4 GHz boost clock): Rs 12,199.
• The listed prices are not inclusive of local taxes, so expect them to cost a little more, however, even with that, there is nothing that the competition offers that comes anywhere close to these price points.

I am really happy about the disruptive pricing that AMD is employing here, as at the end of the day it gives us, the consumer, much more choices as well as lowers the overall prices of all components. I am eagerly waiting to test out the Ryzen 5 CPU’s
gaming chops when they launch.