AMD Sampling 4 Core 4 Thread Ryzen CPUs

When AMD first revealed Ryzen, the focus was logically on the top end flagship product. That chip features 8 cores and 16 threads and is clocked somewhere north of 3.4 GHz for sure. However, we also know that the red team is planning on releasing other models to fill in the rest of the lineup, with 4 core and 6 core variants being planned. According to CPC, it appears that AMD has already started sampling the low end 4 core units.

According to the source, these 4 core Ryzen CPUs are the entry Ryzen models with SMT disabled so only 4 threads are offered. This places them as logical i5 competitors in terms of performance as well as core and thread count. However, AMD does have the chance to price them lower to compete with Intel’s i3s as well, especially against the i3 7350K. As we know already, all Ryzen CPUs including this one are overclocked and unlockable. The TDP is also a cool 45W or about half that of the 8 core variant.

It’s interesting to see that AMD has chosen to disable SMT but it is valid die harvesting method. The real interesting point will be on the performance side versus the APU lineup. The Zen APUs are expected to feature 4 cores without SMT so this Ryzen will likely be priced around the top end APUs. With the same base architecture AM4 socket, it will be interesting to see in the long run if the 4 core market will be served by APUs with iGPUs disabled, SMT defective CPUs or a combination of both as we have today.