AMD has reportedly begun sampling 4 core, 4 thread Ryzen CPUs . These new quad cores have multi-threading disabled and will be the company's entry-level Ryzen processors set to take on Intel's i5 and i3 chips on the desktop.
Affordable, Fully Unlocked 45W Ryzen Quad Cores For The Masses
Despite being the company's entry level Ryzen offerings these quad core Ryzens, just like all Ryzen CPUs, will have unlocked multipliers and will feature full overclocking support on X370 and B350 chipset AM4 motherboards. This will perhaps make them the most potent gaming chips in their class, especially considering Intel's entire i5 and i3 lineups are locked. Save for one SKU each, which the company sells at a premium over their locked counterparts.
In terms of power, these quad core Ryzen processors are said to be very power efficient coming in at a frugal power envelope of around 45 watts. Additionally, all of these chips will feature a base clock speed of 3.4GHz or higher. It's not yet clear whether AMD will offer six core and eight core Ryzen processors with simultaneous multi-threading disabled or if it's only going to be a strategy to drive more competition at the lower end of the spectrum. With that being said the company will not offer any Ryzen SKU with less than four cores.
Self-Overclocking CPUs - XFR, Precision Boost & Pure Play Explained
These chips will come with all the bells and whistles of AMD's flagship eight core sixteen thread Ryzen. That includes all the multimedia and storage features as well as auto-overclocking with XFR, dynamic power and frequency management with Pure Power and Precision Boost. "XFR”, short for Extended Frequency Range automatically boosts the clock speed of Ryzen CPUs beyond their official nominal values to stretch them as far as the cooling will allow, without any intervention from the user.
Complementing "XFR" are two other interconnected features called Pure Power and Precision Boost. Pure Power works by monitoring temperature, frequency and voltage readings in real time via embedded sensors distributed across the Zen cores. These sensors feed data back to what AMD calls the "Infinity Control Fabric" which then adjusts power to adapt perfectly to the situation. The goal is to use the least amount of voltage required to run any given structure. This results in lower average power consumption and cooler operation.
Precision Boost is the other face of the same coin. It works in tandem with Pure Power to maintain the highest possible frequencies at any given voltage. Which improves performance without contributing anything to the power dissipation of the chip. The feature is very precise and extremely responsive, making changes in milliseconds, with a fine 25MHz resolution.
Ryzen Will Be Available On Shelves Before March 3rd
Thanks to some clever sleuthing by Anandtech readers a presentation at this year's upcoming Game Developer Conference has been spotted with a particularly interesting sentence in the description, "Join AMD Game Engineering team members for an introduction to the recently-launched AMD Ryzen CPU".
So buckle up folks and start saving those pennies if you plan on grabbing a Ryzen CPU and an AM4 board.
AM4 X370 Chipset Features
- Support for M.2 SATA SSDs
- NVMe
- 4 DDR4 memory slots (dual channel DDR4)
- 24 PCIe Gen 3 lanes (from the CPU)
16 PCIe Gen 3 lanes dedicated for graphics with support for up to 3-way CrossFireX & 2-way SLI
4 PCIe Gen 3 lanes dedicated for storage (NVMe, SATA & PCIe storage)
4 PCIe Gen 3 dedicated for LAN & USB3.1 Gen 2 ports - 8 PCIe Gen 2 lanes (from the chipset)
- 10 USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports (4 from the CPU and 6 from the chipset)
- 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports
- 6 USB 2 ports.
- 6 SATA3 6Gb/s ports (2 from the CPU and 4 from the chipset)
