Due to the immaturity of this brand-new processor design the Ryzen 1700 is pretty much in the sweet spot for consumers. It manually overclocks basically has high as not only the 1700X but also the 1800X yet costs significantly less than those already excellent value processors. Basically the 1700 is meant for people who know what they are doing and do not want to spend more than they need to. Alternatively, the 1800X is the better option for consumers who just want to press the power button and enjoy darn near Intel 6900 or 6950X performance without the budget killing price tag… and yes that is one of the main competitors for the Ryzen 7 series. We say that as it gives you nearly the same horsepower in most common scenarios for the enthusiast at less than half the upfront cost. No matter how you slice it, and no matter if you consider future promises in your final judgement, AMD is back. They are back and ready to compete for your hard-earned enthusiast dollar. The 1700X on the other hand is for people who don’t want to spend five hundred dollars on a CPU but want to get darn near the same overall performance. In other words its for people who want a good deal but don’t want to overclock.
Now with all that said Intel does have two very mature CPU designs and they are indeed stiff competition for the Ryzen 7 series. That is to be expected as their ‘Kaby Lake’ and ‘Broadwell-E’ are mature designs that Intel has a lot of time to refine. When you compare a mature design to a fresh from the oven design the extra time and experience is going to win out almost every time. Now with that said, the differences are not ‘massive’ outside a few niche areas, and with time yes we do believe AMD will reach parity and probably even pull ahead. AMD really has put Intel on notice that releasing rehashes with minor improvements is not going to fly in the consumer market any more. For that AMD need a standing ovation as the 6950X is indeed a beast but no non-Enterprise CPU should ever reach the above the 1K let alone 2K like when it was first released.
So with such stiff competition it really will depend on what you the buyer is looking for. If you want a killer deal on a beast of a multi-processing system that is also a great jack of all trades system the Ryzen 7 in general and the 1700 in specific is awfully hard to beat – especially when paired with kick ass RAM like the Crucial DDR4-2400 Ballistix White and the excellent ASUS Crosshair VI Hero. If you are interested in hitting massive overclocks… Ryzen is still not optimal. Basically, all 7’s are going to top out at about the same in 4.1 to 4.2Ghz range. This however is what makes the 1700 such a killer deal as it can be pushed this far with ease and yet costs only 329 vs the 1800X’s 499! That makes it a steal of a deal for the overclocking enthusiast on a tight budget.
Now for a gaming system, and only a gaming system where typical application performance make no mind… it is not quite cut and dry. On the one hand until AMD gets MS to get the lead out over their SMT driver issue Intel’s faster 7700K CPU is a better option. On the other hand few people actually build an expensive system just to game on. Most want their hard-earned money to do more than one job. Thus, the proliferation ‘of general purpose gaming rigs’ that can do double duty as work machines during the day and then game rigs at night.
This is where Ryzen starts to really shine as it is tailor made for those who want an all-round system that can handle a multitude of tasks. While Intel’s similarly priced 1151 i7 7700K is stiff coemption for Ryzen 7 series we are firmly in the ‘more cores is better than higher core speed’ camp. More cores simply can do more at the same time. For example, you can “crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women”… and live stream it all in real time so that all your friends can see it. That is a lot to ask of any 4core/8thread system and why 8 cores humming along at even ‘stock’ 3-3.7Ghz is usually more optimal in the real world than 4 cores at 4.2-4.5Ghz.
Whether you agree with our assessment or not, one thing that you cannot disagree with is that AMD is back and ready to compete for your hard-earned dollar on numerous fronts.
