AMD announces new Athlon chips and second-generation Ryzen Pro CPUs
AMD has revealed a selection of new processors for both consumers and commercial users, including entry-level models for budget systems.
Image Source: AMD
AMD has revealed a selection of new processors for both consumers and commercial users, including entry-level models for budget systems.
The company is even introducing new 2-core/4-thread Athlon and Athlon Pro models in the form of the Athlon 200GE and Athlon Pro 200GE. The two are super similar, except that the latter is aimed at business users, and they both come with integrated Radeon Vega graphics.
This is interesting because it represents a new approach for AMD’s Athlon chips. Previously, Athlon processors came with integrated graphics disabled, but it looks AMD may be positioning Athlon to compete directly with Intel’s low-cost Pentium and Celeron chips.
At US$55, the Athlon 200GE is the first Zen chip to target the sub-US$100 market where Intel’s Pentium and Celeron chips were previously uncontested.
According to AMD, the Athlon 200GE is also up to 84 per cent faster in high-definition PC gaming than rival chips. However, it didn't specify exactly which chips, and you should always take vendor numbers with a pinch of salt.
Image Source: AMD
In addition, AMD is rolling out the Ryzen Pro equivalents of its second-generation Ryzen processors, with the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X sitting at the top of the line-up.
Here’s an overview of the new Ryzen Pro processors:
Cores/Threads | Base/Boost speeds | Cache (L2+L3) | TDP | Graphics Compute Units | |
AMD AthlonPro 200GE | 2/4 | 3.2GHz | 5MB | 35W | 3 |
AMD Ryzen7 Pro 2700X | 8/16 | 3.6GHz/4.1GHz | 20MB | 105W | - |
AMD Ryzen7 Pro 2700 | 8/16 | 3.2GHz/4.1GHz | 20MB | 65W | - |
AMD Ryzen 5 Pro 2600 | 6/12 | 3.4GHz/3.9GHz | 19MB | 65W | - |
The Ryzen Pro processors feature the same improvements as their consumer counterparts, including the new 12nm process technology and improved power efficiency across the entire frequency range. However, they also offer AMD's GuardMI technology, a security co-processor inside the CPU that enables features like Secure Boot, OS- and application-independent DRAM encryption, and trusted application enablement.
On top of that, AMD revealed two more Athlon chips, the Athlon 220GE and 240GE. However, there aren't any further details yet, and AMD said these would be disclosed upon availability in Q4 2018.
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