AMD Ryzen price, tiers, specs, release date news: High-end processors for desktops expected to roll out early this year

Emmanuelle Espiritu Friday, January 06, 2017

AMD's Zen architecture is now officially known by the brand name Ryzen. | Facebook/AMD

Advanced Micro Device's recently concluded "New Horizon" event may have disappointed consumers who have been looking forward to seeing more of the upcoming Ryzen processor parts. However, this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) happening in Las Vegas have more than made up for that.

Digital Trends reported that there are five motherboard makers participating in the Vegas tech convention and a total of 16 AM4-based solutions have been brought out on display, all of which are said to be Ryzen-ready. The motherboards are based on X370 and X300 chipsets which would allow for high-end desktop performance for both big (X370) and small (X300) PCs.

With these motherboards, consumers will be treated to such features as dual channel DDR4 memory, M2 SATA devices, NVMe devices, PCI Express 3.0, and USB 3.0 Gen1/Gen2 connectivity. The boards will also allow for faster performances and data transfer speeds via dedicated PCI Express lanes for USB, graphics, data, and other I/O connectivity. There have also been claims of the machine itself learning to predict instructions based on the user's habits, which would enable the central processing unit (CPU) to run programs faster.

Ryzen is an upcoming AMD processor aimed at three different computing devices, with each chip separated in three different tiers. The 14nm Summit Ridge, which is aimed at desktop PCs is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2017, followed by the 32-core Naples server processor in the second quarter, and Ryzen-based notebook chip known as the Raven Ridge will be hitting tech markets in the latter half of the year.

AMD has yet to disclose an estimate price range for their upcoming processors, but WCCFtech are pegging the prices for the Summit Ridge variants at $149 for the Summit Ridge 3 (SR3), $250 for the Summit Ridge 5 (SR5), $350 for the Summit Ridge 7 (SR7), and up to $500 for the premium SR7 Black Edition.

Both the SR7 and SR7 Black Edition are rumored to be released later this month, while the SR3 and SR5 will follow suit by March.