AMD Zen Summit Ridge release date, news, rumors: High-end AMD chipset to be unveiled at CES 2017

Miguel Salonga Thursday, November 24, 2016

AMD is about to update its list of processors with Zen, which is rumored to boast an advantage over Intel Core processors. | Wikimedia Commons

If the latest rumors are anything to go by, the public can expect a huge chipset reveal from AMD in the coming months. It is rumored that the new AMD Zen processor, now dubbed as the AMD Summit Ridge, will make an appearance at the Consumers Electronic Show (CES) 2017 next year, boasting a lineup of improved specs over the previous chipset products of the successful OEM.

As reported by Game N Guide, latest leaks from Chinese sources posted on the Chiphell forums suggest that the AMD Zen-based Summit Ridge processors will have three variants. Particularly, the serial names of these AMD Zen variants are the SR3, SR5, and SR7. It is noticeable that the serial numbering is similar to the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7. In this case, the Zen SR3 chipset will be the entry level variant, while the SR5 and SR7 are the mid-range and high-tier Summit Ridge chipsets, respectively.

According to the same sources, the SR5 will be a hexa-core processor. Not much has been known about the SR7 variant, although it is expected to satisfy the high standards of the meticulous tech enthusiast.

Game Debate expects that the upcoming AMD Zen flagship CPU will be similar to AMD 680K, having an initial selling price of $300. This is quite surprising given that the Zen Summit Ridge CPU is coming in powerful with at least 8 physical cores and 16 CPU threads, not to mention its likeness to other high-performance CPUs in the market today.

The Zen Summit Ridge is also being compared to the Haswell-E CPU in terms of performance. The Haswell-E is also similar at the very least to the Intel Core i7-5960X, which was released back then with a whopping $1000. With this, the AMD Zen can be seen as a high-level processor but is being packaged as a quite affordable CPU in the mid-range market.

Still, the public is advised to take the early rumors regarding the AMD Zen Summit Ridge with a grain of salt until the company provides the official details of their upcoming chipset.