AMD’s Ryzen 2 Series Hype Train
AMD has been firing on all cylinders on the first day of CES with announcements of its upcoming Ryzen 2, the future of Vega, and Intel-based processors with Radeon Vega graphics.
What to expect from Ryzen 2
Two key technologies from the first Ryzen have been refreshed, Precision Boost 2 and XFR 2. Precision Boost 2 has significant improvement from its initial release. The clock speed for the cores will not drop unless the processor uses more than 2 cores. This is to provide optimal performance while decreasing power and heat output.
Extended Frequency Range (XFR) 2 has also seen a good improvement. XFR 2 now allows every CPU core to be boosted, instead of only locked to two cores. With these conditions, hopefully, we can expect Ryzen 2 processors can reach 4.6 to 5GHz with ease.
Refreshed Motherboards
Just like Intel’s Kaby Lake board refresh, Ryzen 2 also received a new batch of motherboards, launching along with the processors. Although AMD has promised to use AM4 boards until 2020, these new ones will provide optimization as well as lower power. Older Ryzen chips will still be compatible with the new motherboards.
As of time writing, the first boards that appeared are all from AsRock. Namely, AsRock Fatality X470 Gaming K4, AsRock Fatality X470 Professional Gaming, and AsRock Fatality X470 Gaming-ITX/AC. Lower-tiered boards like B450 and B420 might come in a later date.
Wraith Prism
As expected, Ryzen 2 processors will have the newest iteration of the Wraith coolers. Not much to say rather than hyping it up for the RGB nation and its enhanced motherboard compatibility. Most likely, Wraith Prism will be with speculated Ryzen 5 2600 or Ryzen 7 2700.
The 2018 Roll-Out
AMD released a roadmap for this year for its processors. Included in the roadmap are the release of Raven Ridge APUs, Threadripper 2, Ryzen Mobile, and Ryzen Pro that are both in desktop as well as in mobile form.
- Ryzen 3 Mobile APUs: January 9th
- Ryzen Desktop APUs: February 12th
- Second Generation Ryzen Desktop Processors: April.
- Ryzen Pro Mobile APUs: Q2 2018
- Second Generation Threadripper Processors: 2H 2018
- Second Generation Ryzen Pro Desktop Processors: 2H 2018
Price Drops
Lastly, with every release of a new series, the old one drops its prices. However, price drops have already been announced with Ryzen 7 1800x dropping significantly from $499 to $349.
