AMD has already announced that it will be missing the 2016 launch window for its new processors built on the Zen architecture. However, we won't have to wait long for them to appear in 2017 as reports claim that AMD will be launching its new CPUs at CES in January, alongside a slew of high-end X370 motherboards from various partners.
In preparation for this switch, AMD is said to be ramping up clearance of its current batch of CPUs, like the FX-8350 and FX-6350 in an effort to make room for Zen's arrival in January. This is according to sources speaking with Digitimes, who also claim that the last generation of CPUs will see heavy price cuts in the last few months of 2016.
We have heard bits and pieces of information regarding the first eight-core Zen/Summit Ridge processor in leaks leading up to now, giving us brief teases when it comes to performance. However, if this information is accurate, we will be getting the full story at CES in January.
Interestingly enough, Intel is also apparently set to launch its desktop Kaby Lake processors at CES too so the competition will be interesting, especially since this will be the first time Intel and AMD have gone directly head to head in the CPU market in quite some time.
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KitGuru Says: While it is a shame that AMD couldn't get Zen out before the end of 2016, a CES launch could end up being quite exciting. That said, this will likely be a paper launch, we still don't know when retail availability will arrive.
I like how 2 years ago, all the amd fans kept harping on about how ZEN was going to dominate.
The only thing ZEN has managed to do, is be nicknamed the next DUKE NUKEM FOREVER. Took forever, and it isn’t all that good. Just like buttdozer and Poopscavator.
No matter how bad their chips turn out, the AMD fanboys will STILL be unconvinced. Just like no matter what Donald Trump says, you still got idiots like my brother who think he’s amazing, and never told a lie… Him and Hilary are the same person. Wicked horrible people. And AMD continues to underwhelm.
WOW, your live must suck.
Zen would probably have got a good start if it was out about now but next year goona be a little too late given how kaby lake will be widespread by then
*angry Intel fanboy detected*
AMD doesn’t underwhelm, it just has an old inefficient CPU core which will be replaced by Zen.
Despite this, their APU are already as power efficient as Intel’s best, while being on 28nm.
But Kaby Lake proved to be a minor technology update from Skylake.
Kaby Lake is not going to be much of a Improvement, just like Skylake was not a huge improvement compared to Haswell.
And Honestly, I prefer the longer wait. Likely they’re still working on improving the Architecture and getting out any of the remaining bugs left with Zen.
Yes but current indications are that zen isnt as fast as skylake sure it will will sell a lot better then FX chips but it important and profitable high-end chips will still be in Intel’s hands
Please provide some examples on how Zen isn’t good.
Oh, you can’t? Is that because it’s not out yet?
Then, pray tell, how can you then be such a massive bell-end about it?
Way too many AMD fanatics making excuses for another obsolete CPU that can’t compete with Intel’s best from a few years ago and will be slaughtered by Kaby Lake.
AMD’s IPC sucks, get it, got it, good!
Zen is Haswell performance.
Wow I thought the tribalism of Intel vs AMD was gone but these comments wow.
How about we just wait for the product to launch, the benchmarks and pricing points to roll in and then as informed consumers decide which most suits our individual needs? And perhaps agree that a little competition in the CPU would be good for everyone…except perhaps Intel.
“…can’t compete with Intel’s best…”
Ignoring that the best from Intel hasn’t gotten that much better over the last few years to justify sequential upgrades, why do you have that expectation to begin with? Competition in the business sense, which is all companies care about, means taking market share from each other. Most end-users don’t pick parts, they buy whole pre-built systems through OEMs (Dell, Apple, etc), DIY is a ridiculously small minority. So ultimately, OEM contracts are the REAL customers, not folks like you and me. We don’t matter, so what good does having the best do for everyone else that can’t afford it? Nothing. Intel so far has most OEM contracts in the bag, that is what AMD has to take away/back to succeed, they don’t need the best nor beating Intel in anything.
You make that comment as if everything available for purchase that isn’t the best isn’t selling well enough to matter.
Let’s hope the production delay hitting Polaris causing the slight increase in price over MSRP doesn’t affect Zen, otherwise it will hurt them, as I believe Intel has more control over their production rates.
Kaby Lake is just a Skylake Refresh with a frequency boost, a la Devil’s Canyon. Just because Intel didn’t make a whole new chipset series for the Haswell Refresh and did with Skylake doesn’t mean there will be anything inherently different with the die or IPC, but people are guilible and fall for new names.
That is the art of marketing since Intel is a business, they are in it to make money; I’m guessing “Haswell Refresh” didn’t sell well. That was when Intel new strategy of Tick-Refresh-Tock began.
The only reason that in any business high-end is pure profit is because the rest (everything that isn’t high-end) pays for the party. If a business were to lose any amount of their lower tiers, then high-end starts to pay the bills and the business records a lower than expected margin. My point is that while it won’t matter that Zen is slower than Skylake, it is an issue for Intel if they lose OEM contracts for their mainstream to AMD.
That’s the point of competition in the business sense, to take market share away, this isn’t about being better or equal than the best the champion makes available. Enthusiast mentality doens’t apply here.
I don’t have a problem with Zen being slower than Skylake or Kaby Lake, the only people that really care are the minority of high-end users that are probably better off staying with Intel and nVidia. It is everyone else that AMD is going after with Zen. Their “X370” SKUs are no different than Intel HEDT, they aren’t going to make the company profitable again, it is just marketing (i.e. “We’re back”) until their Zen APUs come after Intel i3/i5 market, which has been a giant market at least since 2012:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/other/display/20121108145442_High_End_Personal_Computers_Account_for_Less_Than_10_of_PC_Market_Report.html
To be fair, very good things are being heard about 14nm+. Kaby lake whilst just a refresh, may turn out to be something decent.
That being said, 4 cores$500 (AUD) is starting to get old. Considering you can tell that BF1 specs prefer multi core over fast single core IPC, I’m not that excited about Kaby.
actually competition would be good as it would force them to raise the bar compared to the low gain the last gen had.
ALLLLLLLLLLL aboard the AMD Hype-Train!!! 😀
Zen is the last hope for PC enthusiasts. If it fails we are at the mercy of a CPU monopoly. It can happen, just look at Microsoft, which can charge what they please, force people to upgrade, drop support at anytime… Let’s hope Zen does not fail.
Best thing about Kaby Lake for me is the 4.5Ghz boost clock (7700 at least), which looks like it’ll be helping its stock performance
With probably some performance boosts when all cores are used
zen only took 4 years to make xd