AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper CPUs launch in August starting at $799

Back in May, AMD first began talking about Threadripper, its upcoming 16C/32T beast set to take on Intel's Skylake-X processor lineup. Now today, AMD is finally opening up about pricing, specifications and availability, with two Threadripper CPUs planned- the 16C/32T 1950X and the 12C/24T 1920X, both of which seriously undercut Intel's Core i9 pricing while offering solid performance.

Ryzen Threadripper will be available worldwide for the high-end desktop market in early August, as we previously reported. Aside from the 16-core flagship processor that we saw previously announced, AMD is also introducing a 12-core version. Both CPUs are unlocked, so you get free reign on overclocking, they use the new Socket TR4, support quad-channel DDR4 memory and feature 64 lanes of PCI Express.

Here are the specs and pricing for both Ryzen Threadripper CPUs:

• Ryzen Threadripper 1950X: 16 Cores, 32 Threads, 3.4 base, 4.0 GHz boost, $999.
• Ryzen Threadripper 1920X: 12 Cores, 24 Threads, 3.5 base, 4.0 GHz boost, $799.

At $999, the top-end 1950X massively undercuts the rest of Intel's Core i9 lineup, with Intel's flagship 18-core i9-7980XE currently priced at $1,999. If we take a step down and look at Intel's directly comparable 16-core i9-7960X, the price gap is still massive, with Intel's offering coming in at $1,699. When you take a look at AMD's 1920X, the price gap is still massive, with AMD coming in at $799 and Intel's 12C/24T Core i9- 7920X priced at $1,199.

Unfortunately, right now, we only have Intel's Core i9 7900X (10C/20T) chip to compare performance numbers with but according to AMD's own tests, things are looking favourable. In the video above you can see the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X and 1920X up against Intel's 7900X in Cinebench r15, with AMD's new CPUs coming out on top. Ryzen Threadripper is on track to launch in early August, though Alienware systems featuring these chips will go up for pre-order early, on the 27th of July.

Aside from Threadripper, AMD still has two more mainstream desktop CPUs left to launch as well. Ryzen 3 is also launching on the 27th of July, with the 1300X offering 4-cores and 4 threads with 3.5/3.7 GHz base/boost clocks. The Ryzen 3 1200 offers the came core and thread count but has lower 3.1/3.4 GHz clock speeds.

KitGuru Says: Ryzen Threadripper is looking very promising based on price and AMD's own performance test. We will be looking forward to getting our own sample later on for a full review. What do you guys think of today's announcement? 

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