AMD Ryzen 2nd-gen is on its way
AMD
AMD’s second-generation updates to its mainstream Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 desktop processors isn’t quite as dramatic as Intel’s recent eighth-generation mobile launch; in part, that’s because AMD been-there-done-that with multicore, such as the 8- and 6-core Ryzen 7 1700 and Ryzen 5 1600 series from last year last year. So its second-gen products replacing them feel transitional, eking slightly higher boost-clock speeds out of the move from the Zen 14nm process to the12nm Zen+ architecture, among other tech tweaks. The new chips use the same Socket AM4 as their predecessors, though AMD is releasing a new X470 chipset to take advantage of the higher clock speeds.
And to sweeten the deal, the chipset has AMD’s StoreMI disk-acceleration technology built in and the boxed processors will include an AMD Wraith-series CPU coolers.
They’re slated to ship April 19.
The lineup is as follows:
Second-gen Ryzen CPUs
| Ryzen 7 2700X | Ryzen 7 2700 | Ryzen 5 2600X | Ryzen 5 2600 |
| 8/16 | 8/16 | 6/12 | 6/12 |
| 4.3/3.7 | 4.1/3.2 | 4.2/3.6 | 3.9/3.4 |
| 20MB | 20MB | 19MB | 19MB |
| 105W | 65W | 95W | 65W |
| Wraith Prism (LED) | Wraith Spire (LED) | Wraith Spire | Wraith Stealth |
| £329 | £299 | £229 | £199 |
| GBP232, AU£425 | GBP210, AU£385 | GBP160, AU£295 | GBP140, AU£255 |