AMD and Intel are rivalling with each other since long, in terms of providing the best processor. Intel has always enjoyed countless years if being on top when it comes to processor performance. However, this is about to change soon as AMD is planning to unveil its newest AMD Zen processor to the market.
Reports are suggesting that AMD will release two new processors in the early months of 2017. These two will come in two variants; a four-core and an eight-core version. Both the processors will be manufactured in a similar but not identical process as Intel's 14nm Broad well line of processors.
AMD's upcoming Zen processors are showing more efficient energy use. The 4-core model will run with a 65W TDP and the 8-core is at 95W TDP. However, the Intel's 8-core Broadwell-E processor runs at 135W TDP. TDP is the thermal design power which is the measure of the maximum amount of heat generated by the processor, reports TheBitBag.
According to TechPlz, at present the Kaby Lake processors are widely used in the market. The updated i7 version of the popular Microsoft Surface Book is now using Kaby Lake 7th Gen processors. The HP Spectre, Asus Zenbook 3, and the Dell XPS 13 are also now use the 7th generation Intel chipset.
Compared to AMD's existing line of processors, the new 8-core Zen processor outstrips the current FX-8350 by a mile. The gaming benchmarks done on the new processor revealed that it performs 27.5 percent faster, even though there is a huge clock disparity between the two. The older FX-8350 will be running at 4GHz while the new ZMD Zen processor runs at 2.7GHz only.
A desktop PC Zen processor codenamed "Summit Ridge," will ship in the first quarter of 2017. Summit Ridge is an eight-core CPU with 16 hardware threads. Pundits have also expected Zencore to execute 40 percent more instructions per cycle than of its previous high-end processor.
Although, to match Intel's high-end chips, Zen has to fend off Chipzilla's 14nm Kaby Lake and 10nm Cannonlake that are due to come out within the next 18 months. At this time moment, AMD does not want to talk benchmarks.
The current 8-core price from Intel starts at around $1000. In the meantime, the AMD Zen processor will likely be priced below $500, even for the 8-core variant. Users may see a slight movement in Intel's pricing by 2017 when AMD released its new processor.
