The latest line of AMD Ryzen™ CPUs have arrived to brighten up the lives of tech-loving, gamer-mad mortals everywhere.
The new 2nd generation AMD Ryzen™ processors follow their predecessors, the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X/1700 and the AMD Ryzen 5 1600X/1600; they rival Intel’s 8th gen coffee-Lake range, with Ryzen 7 CPUs boasting 2 more cores (8 cores and 16 threads) with impressive base and boost clocks.
The ‘Pinnacle-Ridge’ release consists of four chips, - two in the Ryzen 7 series (the 2700X and the 2700) and two in the Ryzen 5 series (the 2600X and the 2600).
Whilst the underlying Zen architecture remains the same, AMD claims there are improvements with XFR 2 as well as a refinement to the cache. The 2700X boasts a max boost clock of 4.3Ghz while the 2600X sees an equally credible 4.2GHz. One key difference is that AMD have shrunk the Ryzen 7 dies from 14nm to 12nm and the company is keen to point out a higher TDP (thermal design power) of 105 watts on its 2700X in comparison to 95 watts with the 1800X.
There have also been some updates to the stock coolers with the new 2000 series CPUs. Each model comes with a slightly different stock cooler to suit the respective needs of its processor. The Ryzen 7 2700 has the Wraith Spire with RGB while the 2700X comes with the brand new Wraith Prism, also with RGB. A pleasing and practical perk for those of you on a tight budget who didn’t want to fork out for a cooler separately since these stock coolers offer great performance.
Rolling in along side these processors is the new X470 chipset, though the ‘Pinnacle Ridge’ 2nd Gen CPUs are still compatible with the 300 series motherboards, which is welcome news (this will require a BIOS update!).
So, there you have it. Be sure to check out our overview video below and comment what you think of AMD’s effort on this one!
