AMD Launches 2nd Gen Ryzen PRO CPUs And Budget Athlon 200GE Combining Zen, Vega
It's now time for AMD's second-generation Ryzen PRO processors, which compete directly with Intel's vPro lineup. Like before, the Ryzen PRO processors put an emphasis on integrated security and encryption features that are favored by business customers.
The new models include the Ryzen PRO 2600, 2700 and 2700X. As you might expect, these processors match up nearly perfectly with their non-PRO Ryzen counterparts with respect to core counts, clock speeds, cache and TDP. The lone exception is the Ryzen 7 PRO 2700X, which has base/boost clocks of 3.6GHz and 4.1GHz compared to 3.7GHz and 4.3GHz for the gaming-oriented Ryzen 2700X.
AMD backs the processors with an 18-month stability guarantee (thanks to the company picking the chips from the highest-yield wafers), and promises that it will make the processors available for at least 24 months. The Ryzen PRO processors are backed by AMD Secure technologies and include a built-in AES 128-bit encryption engine. In addition, Windows 10 Enterprise Security is supported along with fTPM/TPM 2.0 and DASH.
AMD says that these second-generation Ryzen PRO processors offer up to a 16 percent performance boost over their predecessors in Cinenbench R15, and up to a 28 percent improvement over their 8th generation Intel Core i7 and Core i5 counterparts in the same benchmark. AMD has not yet announcing pricing or availability for these new Ryzen PRO chips.
But that is not all that AMD has to offer, and it is bringing the two-decade-old Athlon name to the Zen family of processors. It is launching a new, single Athlon 200GE SKU that features integrated Radeon Vega graphics. The processor of course shares much of the same core Zen/Vega architecture as the rest of AMD's mainstream processors, but it is optimized for power efficiency and low cost.
In this case, the Athlon 200GE is a dual-core processor (Socket AM4) with SMT enabled (4 threads), operates at 3.2GHz (there is no boost frequency) and is based on the first-generation 14nm Zen architecture. Likewise, the Vega GPU has just 3 compute units, and the overall TDP for the entire package is 35 watts.
AMD is positioning the Athlon 200GE against Intel's Pentium and Celeron processors. Compared to the Pentium G4560, the Athlon 200GE has just a 3 percent shortfall in Cinebench R15 performance, but a 67 percent advantage in GPU performance and a 2x improvement in power efficiency according to AMD.
With an MSRP of $55, this still isn't a chip that will knock your socks off with regards to high-resolution gaming. Instead, AMD says that the chip will be perfect fit for 720p eSports gaming.
There will also be an Athlon PRO 200GE offered with the same specs as its non-PRO sibling (and the requisite security-enhancing features).
