AMD’s Ryzen 2 chips are ready to launch on April 19, 2018 and are now available for pre-order. Over a year on from the launch of their ground-shaking Ryzen processors, AMD’s 12nm refresh is promising optimised performance, a new lithography, and a shiny new X470 chipset.
Looking for the best AMD gaming motherboard? Look no further.
AMD are launching four new Ryzen processors on April 19: two ‘X’ performance-focused chips, the Ryzen 7 2700X and Ryzen 5 2600X; and two energy efficiency chips, the Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 – all built upon the brand new 12nm process node. At least for the time being there seems to be no Ryzen 7 2800X in sight.
The top-end enthusiast Ryzen 7 2700X takes over from the Ryzen 7 1700X, maintaining eight cores and 16 threads, but will now reach 3.7GHz base clock up to 4.3GHz boost. It also features 20MB L3 cache, a 105W TDP, and will be available for $329.
There’s also the Ryzen 5 2600X, taking over from the Ryzen 5 1600X. This will arrive with six cores and 12 threads, a 3.6GHz base clock up to 4.2GHz, 19MB of L3 cache, and a 95W TDP. The Ryzen 5 2600X will be available for $229.
As for energy efficient processors, both the Ryzen 7 2700 and Ryzen 5 2600 feature a 65W TDP. The Ryzen 7 2700 comes with eight cores and 16 threads at a cut-down base clock of 3.2GHz, a boost speed of 4.1GHz, and comes with the same 20MB of L3 cache. The Ryzen 7 2700 will be available for $299.
The Ryzen 5 2600 also, unsurprisingly, maintains core parity with the last gen chips, at six cores and 12 threads, but features 19MB of L3 cache, and runs at a base clock of 3.4GHz up to 3.9GHz boost. The Ryzen 5 2600 will be available for $199.
For the first time with AMD’s Ryzen, the X-series chips will come with Wraith coolers in the box rather than requiring a third-party cooler at added expense. The Ryzen 7 2700X comes with the brand-new RGB’d Wraith Prism, and the Ryzen 5 2600X comes with a Wraith Spire. The Ryzen 7 2700 also comes packaged with the Wraith Spire, and the Ryzen 5 2600 a Wraith Stealth.
While you won’t need one of the brand-new X470-equipped motherboards for the latest Ryzen chips – AMD are supporting backwards-compatibility until 2020 – the red team are promising a few benefits with the latest chipset. These include improved power infrastructure for higher clocks and AMD’s StoreMI technology.
StoreMI is a storage software AMD are rolling out with the latest generation of chips. This storage tech is promising speedier access times and faster load times for gamers mechanical hard drives, in an Intel Optane style.
Make sure to check PCGamesN on April 19, 2018, for full details and performance benchmarks of AMD’s Ryzen 2 processors and X470 motherboards at launch.