There won't be much pressure unless AMD is capable of producing enough R3s to meet market demand for low end.
Given the most recent announcement, AMD is going to offer a FULL QUAD CORE ryzen chip for less than what the cheapest i3 is selling, so the purchase decision is a no-brainer. Even when you throw in a low end discrete GPU, you still end up with a significantly more powerful machine, both in terms of GPU and GPU power, for less money than what the top end i3's sell for.
And given the fact that R3s are crippled ryzen dies, I don't think AMD can meet demand to the point of forcing intel to cut on i3 prices. Which is why AMD needs a "native" quad core, preferably with iGPU, and fast. Now that will surely put pressure on intel.
I think it is telling that AMD didn't bother to simply cut the zeppelin die in half (it is effectively two "halves" stitched together). Presumably the cost of creating a new mask (they could have planned ahead such that it required next to no different circuitry. Presumably they aren't at all interested in a 4 core device without integrated APU.
That said, I think Intel has only 3 Xenon masks and maybe one or two consumer masks (I *think* 4 and 2 core are different masks). It is expensive and requires twice the process tweaks as just having the zeppelin mask.
Ryzen looks good for desktop, but is it going to be competitive in the mobile market? I haven't read any reviews. The core i3s are awesome in terms of energy consumption and battery life, will the AMD chips be able to do that well given they will need a discrete GPU? Doubtful.
I'm all for having choices and competition and I hope the AMD chip gets put into some good systems, not the trash it was relegated to over the last decade.
Ryzen will do just fine in mobiles, as in laptops and such. It will likely bring the thermal envelope for quad cores down to 25-30 watts including GPU.
The i3's don't look that energy efficient to me. The top end is at 50-60 watts, and that's still DUAL core, we have OCTA core ryzen at 65 watts.
Even if we take the lowest TDP models from the chart above, that's 35 watts for 2 mere cores, 17.5 watts per core, whereas the 65 watt octa core ryzen comes at just a tad over 8 watts per core. Even if we assume that half of the i3's TDP is graphics, ryzen is still more energy efficient.
IMO zen based dual and quad core APUs will be a huge hit in mobile devices. They are due to release mobile chips in a few months. So it is a little early for reviews, not unless someone crams a full desktop part in a laptop chassis - we've seen such oddities before.
Look at the i3 T series (35w) and keep in mind it has a GPU inside that uses up some of that TDP, whereas ryzen has no GPU. Intel's cores are most efficient at around 3.0-3.5 ghz, anything more than 3.5, your having to add a lot of voltage for relatively little gain in frequency. Ryzen is most efficient at 2.5-3.0 ghz. AMD has a little optimizing to do for high frequency with decent efficiency.
Underclocking ryzen has revealed that the initial production revision drops to about 60 watts at 3 Ghz. That puts it at 7.5 watts per core. A dual core would therefore use about 15 watts of power, leaving a whole another 20 watts for an iGPU to make it to 35 watts.
And this is "desktop grade" ryzen, chips tailored for mobiles will inevitably be even more efficient. Also ryen at 3Ghz will likely beat i3 at 3.5 Ghz in single threaded performance, and it also benefits more from "hyperthreading".
Although I am not certain how much of the iGPU is actually included in the i3 TDP. AVX torture tests have revealed the 35 watts i3 to go all the way to 30 watts, and that's on the CPU alone, without even loading the GPU with heavy graphics. I'd say the GPU is actually somewhere between 10-15 watts, which would bring the average CPU core power usage to 17.5 to 15 watts, which is at least twice as high as "desktop ryzen" cores at comparable performance level.
With ryzen having a lower IPC (it is slower clock for clock) how on earth would it be faster at a lower frequency? Intel still rules single threaded performance. Ryzen quadcores would beat the i3 in multi thread scenarios and lose in single thread. For most consumers it would probably mean browsing is a bit slower and encoding mp3 is faster.
Dual-core vs dual-core AMD would lose on every level to an i3...
Also it is no surprise the 35w i3 can use 30 watt for the CPU alone. Why not use the headroom you have? When graphics are loaded up the CPU will probably clock down to leave room for more GPU.
be nice if AMD had set the bar on R3 R5 R7 as 4, 6 and 8 core so easy to tell witch ones are core type (to bad they don't keep SMT on the lower end R3 cpus)
The better question is, what does this say about Coffee Lake? They are shipping new SKUs when, in theory, they should be draining inventory ahead a better offering.
Coffee Lake is not a top-to-bottom SKU spread. These Kaby Lake Refresh parts, particularly the 15W parts, will not ever see a Coffee Lake replacement. They will move directly to Cannon Lake instead.
@NewMaxx those start shipping in August as far as we know @Cygni - that's not what Intel has hinted at in recent weeks. They did claim a 30% or so perf gain at 15W with a quad core vs current duals and as far as we know those are arriving very soon.
Actually there's some doubt whether 6-core Coffe Lake i7 will really ship in Q3, since Z370 is rumored to be postponed to Q4 (source: some mainboard manufacturer via twitter) and it's not clear whether they'll run on Z270, despite using the same socket. Anything less is scheduled for H1 2018 as far as I have read.
You're paying a bit less than $100 more (than the comparable Pentium) for what, AVX256? I think they also finally disabled ECC in i3 (it was disabled much earlier in i5 and i7, I've always assumed this was to keep an "ARM server-killer" on the price list to prevent any such competition).
I'd have a hard time arguing that the extra .5-1 GHz (especially with the 7350K option) isn't such a bad idea when looking for the price of the entire *system*, but at that point you have to ask yourself about the Ryzen R5.
I'd recommend either a Pentium G46*0 or R5. The patch in between costs a lot for very little additional power. Of course if your critical application already uses AVX256, by all means by an i3 (or i5, if you have that level of parallelism, i5 may well max things out).
The base and turbo speeds you have listed for the 7700K are wrong, as is the base speed for the 7740X. It should be 4.2 GHz, 4.5 GHz and 4.3GHz respectively.
What is the iMac you are referring to in the article? All iMacs are listed as having i7 or it CPU. The only one I know of having a Xeon is the upcoming iMac Pro, but given they say it'll have up to 18 cores I doubt it'll have an Xeon E3.
BTW, Xeon E3s are rebranded i5/i7 CPUs with ECC enabled. They even use the same socket and until recently could even use the same chipset. Intel decided to make the market segmentation even more pronounced and since E3 v5 (Skylake) you need a server chipset for the CPU to work. Before then you could put an E3v4 on an H87/Q87/Z87 motherboard.
Yeah, that bit is ridiculous. For a site that claims to avoid reporting on rumors, I'm not even sure what to say here.
Since the WWDC keynote on June 5, Apple's website has had tech specs for the iMac Pro https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/specs/ which clearly list 8, 10, and 18-core Xeon options with turbo up to 4.5 GHz and up to 42MB cache. Also, memory configurations from Apple include up to 128 GB DDR4-2666 EEC RAM. So there is no way Apple is using E3-1200 v6 Xeons in the iMac Pro.
So Ryan, you should really take down that link to Digitimes, which appears to be behind a paywall unless hot-linked directly from Anandtech, and is an unsubstantiated and inaccurate rumor from April (before the WWDC announcement). Unless someone's getting paid to keep it there.
For the price of a Core i3-7320 itself, I can easily get a complete i5-3470 refurb office PC that is still faster in MT and able to take in and run a SSD and 1050 Ti. I really see no reason buy and build new Intel rigs other than the 7700K these days.
I love the low power revisions Intel is able to bring to the table midway through a product cycle. 3.6ghz on all cores at 35w. That's nuts considering that takes into account the igpu too. My haswell i3-4130t is also 35w but maxes out at 2.9ghz. My i7-4790T is still probably my favorite cpu. Max single core turbo up to 3.9, all core turbo around 3.5ghz and only 45W. While Intel hasn't made huge gains at the top end, their mobile and low power desktop offerings are still pushing the envelope in perf/watt.
The Xeon E3-1285 v6 is NOT the cpu that will be used in the iMAC PRO, apple have said the low-end iMac PRO (starting at $5000) will have an 8core 16thread Xeon.
I think apple execs are hitting their head hard about choosing intel for their soon to be high performance imacs.
Just imagine the profits of just using a $999 1950X offering 40% more than the intel offering at the same price. Or just stick to the 1950X and squeeze even more profits while keeping the premium price.
Apple may change the iMac pro to threadripper and Ryzen, it's happening boyz.
i3 kaby lake IS with really high frequency with Very capable 4k graphics for normal non-gaming/non g-heavy uses. i3 IS FASTEST single thread performance of all time. Why do you lower expectation? Two FAST COREs is enough for developers for example. I myself bought $400 plus some Desktop which IS much faster and more productive than any laptop. It is i3 with 128 GB ssd and 1 TB hdd.. Don't forget Windows 10 is made for 2 cores and office 2017 is made for single thread. Microsoft made Directx 12 more cores, but didn't get very well results in real world. Ryzen 3 is equal to i5 ivy bridge in performance, though it IS with faster RAM and uses more power than them, so, efficiency of AMD is nonsense, it is only HW-Acceleration in that benchmark (at least, 16 cores/threads is much easier to make for a performance point, but I heard it is HW-accelerated and it is not for core count in cinebench r)....
Ryzen already demolishes Skylake in performance per watt, if you relax Ryzen with lower clock speeds and SMT off like on Ryzen 3, the efficiency gets even higher.
You need 2 fast cores, get the Pentium 4560... oh wait...
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meacupla - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Aside from the low power offerings, i3 lineup doesn't set the bar high, does it...It is no wonder Ryzen Pro and r3 have such paltry specs.
jimjamjamie - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
I mean a couple of 4GHz cores makes for a nippy machine, but the prices need to go down. Hopefully R3 can facilitate that.ddriver - Sunday, July 16, 2017 - link
There won't be much pressure unless AMD is capable of producing enough R3s to meet market demand for low end.Given the most recent announcement, AMD is going to offer a FULL QUAD CORE ryzen chip for less than what the cheapest i3 is selling, so the purchase decision is a no-brainer. Even when you throw in a low end discrete GPU, you still end up with a significantly more powerful machine, both in terms of GPU and GPU power, for less money than what the top end i3's sell for.
And given the fact that R3s are crippled ryzen dies, I don't think AMD can meet demand to the point of forcing intel to cut on i3 prices. Which is why AMD needs a "native" quad core, preferably with iGPU, and fast. Now that will surely put pressure on intel.
hishnash - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
i think we need to wait for the APU from amd that will target the lower end.FreckledTrout - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
That would be the Raven Ridge APU landing early 2018.wumpus - Sunday, July 23, 2017 - link
I think it is telling that AMD didn't bother to simply cut the zeppelin die in half (it is effectively two "halves" stitched together). Presumably the cost of creating a new mask (they could have planned ahead such that it required next to no different circuitry. Presumably they aren't at all interested in a 4 core device without integrated APU.That said, I think Intel has only 3 Xenon masks and maybe one or two consumer masks (I *think* 4 and 2 core are different masks). It is expensive and requires twice the process tweaks as just having the zeppelin mask.
niva - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Ryzen looks good for desktop, but is it going to be competitive in the mobile market? I haven't read any reviews. The core i3s are awesome in terms of energy consumption and battery life, will the AMD chips be able to do that well given they will need a discrete GPU? Doubtful.I'm all for having choices and competition and I hope the AMD chip gets put into some good systems, not the trash it was relegated to over the last decade.
ddriver - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Ryzen will do just fine in mobiles, as in laptops and such. It will likely bring the thermal envelope for quad cores down to 25-30 watts including GPU.The i3's don't look that energy efficient to me. The top end is at 50-60 watts, and that's still DUAL core, we have OCTA core ryzen at 65 watts.
Even if we take the lowest TDP models from the chart above, that's 35 watts for 2 mere cores, 17.5 watts per core, whereas the 65 watt octa core ryzen comes at just a tad over 8 watts per core. Even if we assume that half of the i3's TDP is graphics, ryzen is still more energy efficient.
IMO zen based dual and quad core APUs will be a huge hit in mobile devices. They are due to release mobile chips in a few months. So it is a little early for reviews, not unless someone crams a full desktop part in a laptop chassis - we've seen such oddities before.
Morawka - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Look at the i3 T series (35w) and keep in mind it has a GPU inside that uses up some of that TDP, whereas ryzen has no GPU. Intel's cores are most efficient at around 3.0-3.5 ghz, anything more than 3.5, your having to add a lot of voltage for relatively little gain in frequency. Ryzen is most efficient at 2.5-3.0 ghz. AMD has a little optimizing to do for high frequency with decent efficiency.ddriver - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Underclocking ryzen has revealed that the initial production revision drops to about 60 watts at 3 Ghz. That puts it at 7.5 watts per core. A dual core would therefore use about 15 watts of power, leaving a whole another 20 watts for an iGPU to make it to 35 watts.And this is "desktop grade" ryzen, chips tailored for mobiles will inevitably be even more efficient. Also ryen at 3Ghz will likely beat i3 at 3.5 Ghz in single threaded performance, and it also benefits more from "hyperthreading".
Although I am not certain how much of the iGPU is actually included in the i3 TDP. AVX torture tests have revealed the 35 watts i3 to go all the way to 30 watts, and that's on the CPU alone, without even loading the GPU with heavy graphics. I'd say the GPU is actually somewhere between 10-15 watts, which would bring the average CPU core power usage to 17.5 to 15 watts, which is at least twice as high as "desktop ryzen" cores at comparable performance level.
jospoortvliet - Monday, July 24, 2017 - link
With ryzen having a lower IPC (it is slower clock for clock) how on earth would it be faster at a lower frequency? Intel still rules single threaded performance. Ryzen quadcores would beat the i3 in multi thread scenarios and lose in single thread. For most consumers it would probably mean browsing is a bit slower and encoding mp3 is faster.Dual-core vs dual-core AMD would lose on every level to an i3...
Also it is no surprise the 35w i3 can use 30 watt for the CPU alone. Why not use the headroom you have? When graphics are loaded up the CPU will probably clock down to leave room for more GPU.
leexgx - Thursday, July 20, 2017 - link
be nice if AMD had set the bar on R3 R5 R7 as 4, 6 and 8 core so easy to tell witch ones are core type (to bad they don't keep SMT on the lower end R3 cpus)jjj - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
The better question is, what does this say about Coffee Lake? They are shipping new SKUs when, in theory, they should be draining inventory ahead a better offering.NewMaxx - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
The analogous CL chips to these aren't shipping until next year.Alexvrb - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Performance bump/new stepping models are nothing new.Cygni - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
Coffee Lake is not a top-to-bottom SKU spread. These Kaby Lake Refresh parts, particularly the 15W parts, will not ever see a Coffee Lake replacement. They will move directly to Cannon Lake instead.jjj - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
@NewMaxx those start shipping in August as far as we know@Cygni - that's not what Intel has hinted at in recent weeks. They did claim a 30% or so perf gain at 15W with a quad core vs current duals and as far as we know those are arriving very soon.
MrSpadge - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
Actually there's some doubt whether 6-core Coffe Lake i7 will really ship in Q3, since Z370 is rumored to be postponed to Q4 (source: some mainboard manufacturer via twitter) and it's not clear whether they'll run on Z270, despite using the same socket. Anything less is scheduled for H1 2018 as far as I have read.wumpus - Sunday, July 23, 2017 - link
You're paying a bit less than $100 more (than the comparable Pentium) for what, AVX256? I think they also finally disabled ECC in i3 (it was disabled much earlier in i5 and i7, I've always assumed this was to keep an "ARM server-killer" on the price list to prevent any such competition).I'd have a hard time arguing that the extra .5-1 GHz (especially with the 7350K option) isn't such a bad idea when looking for the price of the entire *system*, but at that point you have to ask yourself about the Ryzen R5.
I'd recommend either a Pentium G46*0 or R5. The patch in between costs a lot for very little additional power. Of course if your critical application already uses AVX256, by all means by an i3 (or i5, if you have that level of parallelism, i5 may well max things out).
leexgx - Monday, July 24, 2017 - link
ECC works on i3 and XEON cpus as long as you have the correct chipset to disable the ECC block on the CPU so you can use itDark_Complex - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
The base and turbo speeds you have listed for the 7700K are wrong, as is the base speed for the 7740X. It should be 4.2 GHz, 4.5 GHz and 4.3GHz respectively.Ryan Smith - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Thanks!colinstu - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
I sure hope that Xeon E3-1285 v6 is priced in that 300$ range... insane how +100 mhz = double the priceextide - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Considering the model below it is $612, I wouldn't count on it being anywhere near $300. It's going to be at LEAST $612Glock24 - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
What is the iMac you are referring to in the article? All iMacs are listed as having i7 or it CPU. The only one I know of having a Xeon is the upcoming iMac Pro, but given they say it'll have up to 18 cores I doubt it'll have an Xeon E3.melgross - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
The new iMac Pro due out in December is slated to have up to an 18 core Xeon, ECC RAM, up to 128GB.Santoval - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
"Up to 18 cores" means the lowest end of the series can easily start with 4 cores.It is a Xeon, after all, not an i7.. /s
Glock24 - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Yes, but different socket, different chipset.BTW, Xeon E3s are rebranded i5/i7 CPUs with ECC enabled. They even use the same socket and until recently could even use the same chipset. Intel decided to make the market segmentation even more pronounced and since E3 v5 (Skylake) you need a server chipset for the CPU to work. Before then you could put an E3v4 on an H87/Q87/Z87 motherboard.
PixyMisa - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
They announced that it will start at 8 cores. So definitely not using an E3 Xeon.hishnash - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
No apple have been very clear there are 3 different options: 8, 10 and 18 coresthe lower end $5000 will be 8cores 16 threads.
leexgx - Friday, July 21, 2017 - link
$5000 can get you a lot in a pcrepoman27 - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
Yeah, that bit is ridiculous. For a site that claims to avoid reporting on rumors, I'm not even sure what to say here.Since the WWDC keynote on June 5, Apple's website has had tech specs for the iMac Pro https://www.apple.com/imac-pro/specs/ which clearly list 8, 10, and 18-core Xeon options with turbo up to 4.5 GHz and up to 42MB cache. Also, memory configurations from Apple include up to 128 GB DDR4-2666 EEC RAM. So there is no way Apple is using E3-1200 v6 Xeons in the iMac Pro.
So Ryan, you should really take down that link to Digitimes, which appears to be behind a paywall unless hot-linked directly from Anandtech, and is an unsubstantiated and inaccurate rumor from April (before the WWDC announcement). Unless someone's getting paid to keep it there.
lilmoe - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
Need...More.....SKUsMrSpadge - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
AMD's lineup is refreshingly simple in comparison. Yet leaves little to be desired.Lolimaster - Friday, July 14, 2017 - link
With Ryzen onslaught, intel complete desktop/HEDT feel boring as hell.With Ryzen 5 1400-1500X offering about 90% of a i7 6700 for half the price any dual core+ht above $70 simply should not exist.
Now Ryzen 3 between $109-129 even worse for intel i3 line.
Ryzen really did a mess of intel pricing, profit, marketshare plans for the next 3 years.
StrangerGuy - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
For the price of a Core i3-7320 itself, I can easily get a complete i5-3470 refurb office PC that is still faster in MT and able to take in and run a SSD and 1050 Ti. I really see no reason buy and build new Intel rigs other than the 7700K these days.Lolimaster - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
Why a 7700K, 1500X is basically that at half the price, and once you go to 1440p+ the difference in IPC (5-7%) for gaming in basically gone.1500X + 2xRX570 or just a puny 1050ti + 7700K
1500X + 1060 6GB or just a puny 1050ti + 7700K
1500X with 1080 or just a puny 1060 + 7700K
mooninite - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
No desktop Iris? Straight to the trash these CPUs go...Ej24 - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
I love the low power revisions Intel is able to bring to the table midway through a product cycle. 3.6ghz on all cores at 35w. That's nuts considering that takes into account the igpu too. My haswell i3-4130t is also 35w but maxes out at 2.9ghz. My i7-4790T is still probably my favorite cpu. Max single core turbo up to 3.9, all core turbo around 3.5ghz and only 45W. While Intel hasn't made huge gains at the top end, their mobile and low power desktop offerings are still pushing the envelope in perf/watt.Lolimaster - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
You can custom Ryzen to whatever efficiency you want.Ryzen 7 1700 achieves 800pts in CB R15 with just 35w once you downclock and undervolt it.
Ryzen 7 1700 limited to 35w = i7 6700 65w
Lolimaster - Saturday, July 15, 2017 - link
Intel simply can't touch Ryzen efficiency, AMD's efficiency goes to sick levels when you relax the clock and voltages.Hurr Durr - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
Do they at least pay you for this breathless shilling?Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
Intel killed himself, do need more shill than that?Ro_Ja - Sunday, July 16, 2017 - link
I cannot think of any reason why 2C/4T processor should even exist. Quad-Core should be the norm.hishnash - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
The Xeon E3-1285 v6 is NOT the cpu that will be used in the iMAC PRO, apple have said the low-end iMac PRO (starting at $5000) will have an 8core 16thread Xeon.the E3-1285 v6 is only 4cores.
Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
I think apple execs are hitting their head hard about choosing intel for their soon to be high performance imacs.Just imagine the profits of just using a $999 1950X offering 40% more than the intel offering at the same price. Or just stick to the 1950X and squeeze even more profits while keeping the premium price.
Apple may change the iMac pro to threadripper and Ryzen, it's happening boyz.
nobodyblog - Monday, July 17, 2017 - link
i3 kaby lake IS with really high frequency with Very capable 4k graphics for normal non-gaming/non g-heavy uses.i3 IS FASTEST single thread performance of all time. Why do you lower expectation? Two FAST COREs is enough for developers for example. I myself bought $400 plus some Desktop which IS much faster and more productive than any laptop. It is i3 with 128 GB ssd and 1 TB hdd.. Don't forget Windows 10 is made for 2 cores and office 2017 is made for single thread. Microsoft made Directx 12 more cores, but didn't get very well results in real world.
Ryzen 3 is equal to i5 ivy bridge in performance, though it IS with faster RAM and uses more power than them, so, efficiency of AMD is nonsense, it is only HW-Acceleration in that benchmark (at least, 16 cores/threads is much easier to make for a performance point, but I heard it is HW-accelerated and it is not for core count in cinebench r)....
Thanks!
Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
Ryzen already demolishes Skylake in performance per watt, if you relax Ryzen with lower clock speeds and SMT off like on Ryzen 3, the efficiency gets even higher.You need 2 fast cores, get the Pentium 4560... oh wait...
Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
Let's see passmark:i5 3570K 3.4Ghz 7151
Ryzen 3 1200 --> 3.2Ghz <--- 7043
i5 4590 3.3Ghz 7235
Ryzen 3 1200 @3.3Ghz 7263*
Ryzen 3 1200 @3.4Ghz 7483*
i5 6600 3.3Ghz 7837
Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
All in line with Ryzen having around 93% of Skylake IPC or 8-5% less IPC depending on the memory speed.Lolimaster - Tuesday, July 18, 2017 - link
Ryzen always had an IPC above Haswell/Broadwell.