After years of Intel domination, computer processors are starting to get interesting again. AMD’s new Ryzen line offers Intel-equivalent performance for way less money, and it seems like that wasn’t a one-off.
AMD has revealed pricing for some of its hotly-anticipated new Threadripper CPUs, and for anyone who freaking out over the price of Intel’s new Core i9 chips, I have some good news.
The 16-core, 32-thread 3.4-GHz Threadripper 1950X — broadly equivalent to Intel’s 16-core, 32-thread Core i9-7960X — is $1,000, $700 less than the i9. The Threadripper 1920X, sporting a mere 12 cores, is $800, a nice $400 saving over the 12-core Core i9.
Now of course, stats aren’t everything, and it’s going to take a bunch of serious benchmarking to work out exactly where all the processors stand relative to each other. But if we extrapolate performance a little from the current Intel Core i9 processors and AMD Ryzen chips — which have been tested — the assumption is that AMD’s new Threadrippers will offer way more performance per dollar than Intel’s processors.
Now, most of this is still academic. Threadripper and Core i9 are expensive, and more powerful than 99% of people need or want. These processors are more expensive than most people’s entire PCs — the real battle is going to be fought between Ryzen and the Core i5.
