Can AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation Processors Really Change Computing?
AMD changed the computer processor market when they came out with the first generation of their Ryzen processors back in 2017.
Since then, rapidly advanced their processors, and the second-generation processor has been out for over a year.
Ryzen has allowed AMD to surpass sales of Intel, but now we’re awaiting a new processor: Ryzen 3rd generation processors.
When Were AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation Processors Announced?
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is always a huge spectacle in the computing industry, and at the 2019 event, AMD announced the first Ryzen 3000-series processor.
They also revealed that the series will bring the 7nm Zen 2 to the mainstream market.
The Zen 2 will be another pushback for Intel.
Intel has had issues with their 10nm chips, and issues even exist with their 14nm chips.
As a result, Ryzen 3rd generation’s 7nm chip will help the company really stand out from Intel.
But we don’t know all of the fine details behind this new series of processor.
When is the AMD Ryzen 3000 series Release Date?
AMD claimed that we would see the chip in mid-2019, but we’ve heard little buzz about the chip since. However, it is now believed that they will be released in July 2019.
It’s estimated that the chips are going to be delayed, and this is common with a lot of new processors.
Intel really botched their 10nm release that had been plagued by a variety of issues.
AMD has always been better at ensuring that their products are fine-tuned before they hit the market.
We’re shocked that the chip hasn’t been released yet. AMD has been rather consistent with their releases in the past:
- First-generation processors were released March 2017
- Second-generation processors were released April 2018
May will not see the arrival of the third-generation chip, or if we do, there’s no news about it anywhere.
We are hearing a few details, via a leak, about the specs of the processor. But we cannot verify these specs while we will mention them shortly.
There are some rumors that the chips will come out in July when AMD offers the Navi graphics card slated for a July release.
We’ve also had some news from CEO Lisa Su who has said that the company will release their next generation products at the AMD Computex 2019 keynote.
The keynote is in mid-2019, so it would fit into the original timeline for the processor’s release.
Any News on Ryzen 3rd Generation Pricing?
No, there have been no solid details provided on the actual pricing of the series.
There will be 8-core, 16-thread processors available. It’s expected that there will be a rather wide range of prices and versions for all budgets.
Leaks suggest that prices will be between $99 and $499.
| Ryzen 9 3850X | $499 |
| Ryzen 9 3800X | $450 |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | $330 |
| Ryzen 7 3700 | $300 |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | $230 |
| Ryzen 5 3600G | $199 |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | $175 |
| Ryzen 3 3300X | $130 |
| Ryzen 3 3300G | $130 |
| Ryzen 3 3300 | $99 |
But these prices will not be 100% accurate. These prices come from a leaker who has leaked prices in the past and has been rather accurate.
The high-end processor will be around $499 and will be the optimal choice for gamers and high-end rigs.
Other leaks suggest pricing will be $110 – $560, and while these prices are a bit higher, they’re still in the respectable and believable range for AMD.
Ryzen 3rd Generation Specs to Challenge Intel
AMD and Intel go head-to-head in performance, so it’s not unrealistic to think that the Ryzen 3000-series will try to compete against Intel’s Core i9-9900K. The chip will be 8-core and have 16-thread.
AMD used Cinebench during CES 2019 to demonstrate their newest series. The company was able to hit a score of 2,203, while the i9-9900K has a score of around 1,870.
That’s an impressive difference, but it also doesn’t require more power either.
More powerful, the chip is actually more efficient, too. The new Ryzen’s power maxed out at just over 133W. Intel’s chip requires close to 180W of power.
With all of this said, the 3000-series is far more impressive than Intel’s top-tier chip:
- Energy efficiency is 27% better with the 3000-series
- Performance is about 12% higher with the 3000-series
The key reason for better efficiency and performance is the 7nm Zen 2 platform.
When compared to their second-generation chips, which has 12nm Zen+ architecture, these chips are smaller and far more powerful.
The chips will take it a step further with the use of extreme ultraviolet lithography.
And what does this mean to you?
It’s this technology that will allow for better overall power efficiency.
If you’re running the AM4 socket, you’ll be happy to know that the 3000-series is able to fit into the AM4 socket.
This means that the processor will be compatible with the motherboards we saw in our best motherboards for the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X guide.
But there is a difference thanks to PCIe 4.0 support.
We have very little to go off of except for what we have seen at CES 2019. The good news is that this is just the beginning for the 3000-series.
We fully expect the series to beat the Core i9-9900K by multitudes, especially with even higher tiers of the Ryzen.
| Cores | Threads | Base / Boost Clock | TDP | Price | |
| Ryzen 9 3850X | 16 | 32 | 4.3 / 5.1GHz | 135W | $499 |
| Intel i9-9900K | 8 | 16 | 3.6 / 5.0GHz | 95W | $490 |
I was going to try and compare this chip to something else on the market, but it is far above and beyond anything on the market today.
AMD’s Ryzen 3000-series, if these rumors are true, will have a significant advantage over Intel.
No other chipmaker has ventured into this territory yet, and it will be very exciting, especially for processor-intensive applications.
Rumors About the Ryzen 3000-Series
The Ryzen 3000-series leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and we’re not even sure which version of the processor was on display at CES 2019.
We have seen a lot of pricing rumors, and they seem to be rather accurate.
We also have a wide range, over around a dozen different iterations of the processor, of specs. The specs that we’re hearing about are:
- Cores will range from 6 to 16
- Threads will range from 12 to 32
- Clock will range from 3.2GHz to 5.1GHz
So the 3.2 GHz will be on the low-end, while the maximum will be about 4.3 GHz.
The high-end chip will have 16 cores, 32 threads and a clock range of 4.3 GHz to 5.1 GHz.
| Cores | Threads | Base / Boost Clock | TDP | |
| Ryzen 9 3850X | 16 | 32 | 4.3 / 5.1GHz | 135W |
| Ryzen 9 3800X | 16 | 32 | 3.9 / 4.7GHz | 125W |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | 12 | 24 | 4.2 / 5.0GHz | 105W |
| Ryzen 7 3700 | 12 | 24 | 3.8 / 4.5GHz | 95W |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | 8 | 16 | 4.0 / 4.8GHz | 95W |
| Ryzen 5 3600G | 8 | 16 | 3.2 / 4.0GHz | 95W |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | 8 | 16 | 3.6 / 4.4GHZ | 65W |
| Ryzen 3 3300X | 6 | 12 | 3.5 / 4.3GHz | 65W |
| Ryzen 3 3300G | 6 | 12 | 3.0 / 3.8GHz | 65W |
| Ryzen 3 3300 | 6 | 12 | 3.2 / 4.0GHz | 50W |
The high-end model would be the best processor on the market, and with better energy efficiency, it would be the go-to processor.
Intel has been lagging behind AMD, and it’s to the point that we may be concerned about the chipmaker.
Intel simply cannot compete with AMD at this point, so unless Intel makes drastic improvements, we don’t see how the company will be able to withstand the 3000-series.
We’re also seeing motherboard manufacturers come out with future catalogs that mention the X570 chipset from AMD.
Biostar mentioned their Racing X570GT8 motherboard, which would be a motherboard designed for the X570 chipset.
The motherboard will also offer PCIe 4.0 support, which has been rumored to be supported by the 3000-series.
CPUs have not been exciting for years, but the Ryzen series has changed that a lot. AMD has been able to make strides in size and efficiency. The computing speed and performance offered by the Zen 2 processors are going to be impressive.
We may hear an official announcement on the release of the Ryzen 3 as early as the end of May.
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