The rumor mill continues to turn regarding AMD's Ryzen CPUs, which are due for release next month. This time, though, it's Intel that's the subject of some interesting news as it seems to be getting a little scared of what AMD has up its sleeve.
The French website, www.cpchardware.com has made claims that its sources are pointing to three very interesting moves from Intel, to combat the threat AMD's Ryzen poses in potentially undercutting its enthusiast CPUs.
The first and most interesting is a Core i5-7640K, which will not only offer a 200MHz boost in frequency compared to the current Core i5-7600K, but amazingly, the website also claims it will feature hyper-threading. This is Intel's trickery that allows one core to provide two threads to mimic the work of two cores. You don't see the same performance increase as you do from a true second physical core, but there's a definite speed boost in multi-threaded applications.
Traditionally, Intel has only offered hyper-threading on its Core i7 K-series when it comes to unlocked quad-core desktop CPUs, so the move is unprecedented in bringing extra performance to its Core i5-series. It's clearly worried about AMD's offerings in the Core i5-7600K's price range of around $240, with the AMD SR5 CPUs looking likely to offer a minimum of 4 cores and 8 threads - the same as the would-be Core i5-7640K, with some even offering 6 cores and 12 threads according to this leak, and its cheaper SR3 range offering the same 4-core/8-thread configuration as the current Core i5-7600K.
The second rumor includes a second unlocked Core i7 CPU to sit alongside the current Core i7-7700K - a so-called Core i7-7740K, which will offer a speed increase over the original CPU. However, this will till fall short of offering the kind of allure of AMD's 6-core/12-thread SR5 CPUs, especially if the latter cost the same or a little more; don't forget that AMD's Ryzen CPUs all offer unlocked multipliers so are overclockable.
Finally, the website also briefly covers price drops for Intel's CPUs. This is the most logical result of a successful launch from AMD that brings some competition to the enthusiast CPUmarket. Intel has practically been allowed to charge what it likes for its CPUs as there hasn't been much of a challenge from AMD, especially at the high-end. The likelihood is that CPUs such as the Core i5-7600K, which costs $240, could well see double-digit percentage price cuts, with this particular model dropping to below $200.
The sheer scale of what AMD is rumored to be planning - not just a small selection of CPUs, but nearly 20, means that the CPU market is about to be shaken up with a vengeance and Intel is undoubtedly concerned not just about the next six months, but also how it will return fire in future too. Thankfully, for the consumer, this means for a very exciting year ahead in the PC enthusiast market.
