AMD smashes CPU pricing war by declaring Threadripper price: 12 core starts at $799

Back in May, AMD first began talking about Threadripper, its upcoming 16C/32T processor series set to take on Intel’s Skylake-X processor lineup. It could very well be the most powerful consumer CPU ever introduced when it releases in August. We don't know the exact release date yet, but do have some new information about speeds, pricing, and configuration options. Two Ryzen Threadripper models are going to be on sale at following price:

1. 12-core/24-thread 1920X 3.5-GHz Threadripper for $799
2. 16-core/32-thread 1950X 3.4-GHz Threadripper for $999

Even the dumbest Intel lover has to admit, these are eye-popping discounts compared to Intel’s own Core i9 family, where the starting price of 10 core/20 thread 7900X Core i9 CPU is $999. You’ll pay $700 less for a 1950X than Intel’s 16-core, 32-thread Core i9-7960X, and a thousand dollars less than Intel’s 18-core, 36-thread Core i9-7980XE. On the lower end, the Threadripper 12-core 1920X costs $400 less than the 12-core Core i9-7920X, and $600 less than the 14-core Core i9-7940X.

Here are some of the specs we know so far about these two Threadripper processors:

• Threadripper 1950X features 16 cores with simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) for 32 threads of compute power. The base clock speed of the chip is 3.4GHz, with a 4GHz boost speed
• Threadripper 1920X will feature 12 cores with SMT for 24 threads of compute power. The base clock speed of the chip is 3.5GHz with a 4GHz boost speed
• Both chips pack a whopping 64 PCI-E lanes
• Quad-channel DDR4 memory
• X399 platform with a new TR4 socket that is incompatible with existing Ryzen chips
• Both chips are unlocked
• 180 watt TDP

On the lower end of the series, AMD also announced some new details on its budget Ryzen 3 chips, which are meant to fight with Intel’s Core i3 chips. The Ryzen 3 1300X is the more powerful of the two, clocked at 3.5GHz, while the Ryzen 3 1200 is slightly slower at base speeds of 3.1GHz. The first two Ryzen 3 models will be available on July 27th, but we don't have a pricing chart yet on our hand.