Thought it was time to start a thread on these new CPU's from AMD, not due for release until the end of 2016, they seriously seem to have the potential to shake up the CPU market.

A recent demo put the CPU on par with Intel's Broadwell-E, that is a huge jump for AMD and could lead to cheaper CPU's for all of us. Intel might have to drop their prices to compete.

This guy has made a video of it and sums it up quite well.

You know, I used to be a staunch fan of AMD CPUs, until they dropped the ball and Intel beat them up and took their lunch money. If this gets them back in the game I'll have to take a good, hard look at them again.

I was thinking the same thing Dave 

It also feels like Intel have kept us on quad cores for eons by keeping 6 and 8 core CPU's priced too high for the average persons pocket.

Zen could open the way for more cores for everyone.

I'm rooting for you AMD   

Well I've only had my 6 core for a year and two months, so I won't be upgrading for at least another year, probably not even then. The PC is fast, I don't use the CPU for rendering any more either. GPU is more likely something I would upgrade first.

You are one of the lucky ones with deeper pockets then Freddy, already owning Broadwell-E 

Yeah Zen wont be for you unless you feel the need for the 16 core monster with AMD's version of hyper threading, it will give 32 cores available to windows 

There is also rumor of a 32 core version with 64 threads, I kid you not.

http://wccftech.com/amd-naples-32-core-zen/

Very exciting times ahead 

Only because I save up specially for upgrades. I haven't been saving for PC stuff since I bought the GPU, so it will definitely be further down the road this time.

  I went with Intel because people were crushing the copper casing used with the AMD processors, I haven't paid much attention to AMD since then.
We'll see how they do,  I'm thinking that the 8 cores have a rollback in frequency you don't see in the 6 core so the 6 core is fine with me,  will AMD's 8 core have a roll back?
Carl2

I don't know for sure because these CPU's haven't hit the market yet but you might have a point Carl2, it is possible the clock speeds will be lower as they increase the cores from 8, 16 and 32, in an attempt to keep heat production down.

But it is only my best guess.

I'm thinking the 16 core version might be a nice sweet spot, lets see how they perform when they get released, oh and how much they cost too.

Zen is getting closer and the web is getting full of information and speculation about it.

Some leaked benchmarks are looking impressive and if they are to be believed (which is possible) they might be taking the crown from Intel soon with their new chip "Ryzen".

If you have the time, check out this video.

  I've pretty much decided I should go with a 4 core and I'm sitting back waiting for the Kaby to be released.  There is also a new motherboard for the Kaby which I haven't seen any mention of maybe it will magically appear when the cpu is out.  Either way I'd hold back before switching to AMD and get a good feel about how other people feel about the new AMD.
  It's an interesting video and it's nice to see AMD is trying to maximize the use of technologies in use.  I think the six core is interesting because it can handle the heat but the eight core that has to cut back on speed is another thing.  I didn't notice a price for the AMD.
Carl2

Really good video 

For me it would come down to price at the end of the day, as they haven't exactly eclipsed Intel - at least on this evidence, but as he hints there may be more to come. The side by side comparisons are interesting but I'm not the sort to sweat over a couple of seconds - although if they can keep up and maybe go a little further than Intel then it has to be good for the market generally. Also 10 Watts isn't something that I lose sleep over.

The example of rendering in Blender didn't really grab me as I don't do CPU rendering any more, but I see the value of it as a benchmark alone.

But very interesting indeed and worth watching and listening. Good luck to AMD 

Yes it is a good video isn't it, the guy does a good job at keeping it fair and unbiased, I think.

If nothing else it does look like AMD will have a chip to rival Intel, so yeah good news all round.

One thing he didn't mention in this video that I have seen and read in other places is the memory, it's looking like Ryzen will run dual channel memory and not quad channel like Intel do on their X99 platform.

This could mean that an AMD Ryzen platform could be aimed more at the mid-end user, being cheaper to build than an Intel X99 system with 4 sticks of RAM. Putting it another way this could be 8 core CPU's for the masses, if the price is right.

Well we have seen some leaked benchmarks and pricing for Ryzen and I have been following it as close as I can, erere things are looking very promising.

It seems that Ryzen cores are roughly on par with Skylake cores with their IPC. So pretty fast then. 

However pricing is looking incredible, if these leaks can be believed then we are looking at something around 60 to70% cheaper for the top end 8 core 16 thread CPU compared to Intel. 



Enough of the speculation, we will find out for sure soon, as I'm posting this Ryzen is about one month away, I think.   

Ryzen, pre-order from about £300...

https://www.scan.co.uk/shops/amd/ryzen?utm_campaign=ScanShot+564+22%252f02%252f17&utm_source=scanshot&utm_medium=email

Need to see some benchmarks, shouldn't be long now.

8 core 16 thread CPU for that money, impressive and if the performance lives up to the hype then mighty impressive