AMD’s 8-Core Zen SR7 Flagship Allegedly Offers Core i7 5960X Performance At $499
AMD needs a win in the high-end processor category as badly as the Cleveland Browns could use one in football. The only difference is AMD is more likely to get one (sorry Cleveland, at least you have the Cavaliers). If the latest leak turns out to be accurate, AMD could get its much needed victory when its unreleased Zen SR7 processor takes the field with eight cores in tow.
The 8-core Zen part is said to perform better than Intel's muscular Core i7-5960X, a Haswell-E chip with eight cores clocked at 3GHz to 3.5GHz, 16 threads, and 20MB of cache. Not for the faint of wallet, the Core i7-5960X tops $1,000 in street pricing even when it's on sale. AMD's competing Summit Ridge part is said to cost half as much at $499.
New engineering samples of the potentially game changing Zen chip have been popping up in the wild. These latest revisions feature a 3.2GHz core clockspeed and 3.5GHz turbo frequency. Those are noticeable jumps in frequency compared to the previous revision, which had the core and turbo clockspeeds running at 2.8GHz and 3.2GHz, respectively.
The new chips are the highest clocked Zen parts seen to date and they're responsible for propelling the SR7's performance above that of the Core i7-5960X. It's one of four Zen parts leaked to the web that will launch over three Summit Ridge performance tiers, those being the high-end SR7, mid-range SR5, and entry-level SR3.
Here's a look at the upcoming lineup:
The 8-core Zen part is said to perform better than Intel's muscular Core i7-5960X, a Haswell-E chip with eight cores clocked at 3GHz to 3.5GHz, 16 threads, and 20MB of cache. Not for the faint of wallet, the Core i7-5960X tops $1,000 in street pricing even when it's on sale. AMD's competing Summit Ridge part is said to cost half as much at $499.
New engineering samples of the potentially game changing Zen chip have been popping up in the wild. These latest revisions feature a 3.2GHz core clockspeed and 3.5GHz turbo frequency. Those are noticeable jumps in frequency compared to the previous revision, which had the core and turbo clockspeeds running at 2.8GHz and 3.2GHz, respectively.
The new chips are the highest clocked Zen parts seen to date and they're responsible for propelling the SR7's performance above that of the Core i7-5960X. It's one of four Zen parts leaked to the web that will launch over three Summit Ridge performance tiers, those being the high-end SR7, mid-range SR5, and entry-level SR3.
Here's a look at the upcoming lineup:
| Zen SR7 | Zen SR7 | Zen SR5 | Zen SR3 | |
| L2 Cache | 4MB | 4MB | 3MB | 2MB |
| L3 Cache | 16MB | 16MB | 12MB | 8MB |
| Cores | 8 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| Threads | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 |
| Power | 95W | 95W | 65W | 65W |
| Core Clock | 3.2GHz | 3GHz | TBA | TBA |
| Turbo Clock | 3.5GHz | 3.2GHz | TBA | TBA |
| MSRP | $499 | $349 | $249 | $149 |
| Launch | January | January | March | March |
Keep in mind that none of this information is official. However, should AMD be able to hit the above price points while offering the kind of performance that is anticipated out of Zen, it will be a game changing for the Sunnyvale firm. It has been a long time since AMD has truly competed with Intel in the high-end CPU market.
We also have to call attention to the other SR7 part. It's clocked just a little slower than AMD's purported flagship CPU. At $349, that could end up being the Zen part that draws the attention, particularly if it has any kind of overclocking savvy whatsoever.
Brace yourself folks, things are about to get interesting.
We also have to call attention to the other SR7 part. It's clocked just a little slower than AMD's purported flagship CPU. At $349, that could end up being the Zen part that draws the attention, particularly if it has any kind of overclocking savvy whatsoever.
Brace yourself folks, things are about to get interesting.
