AMD Set to Launch Ryzen Before March 3rd, Meeting Q1 Target
by Ian Cutress on January 11, 2017 7:45 AM EST
Thanks to some sleuthing from various readers, AMD has accidentally let the cat out of the bag with regards to the official Ryzen launch date. While they haven’t specifically given an exact date, the talk to be given by AMD at the annual Game Developer Conference (GDC) says the following:
Join AMD Game Engineering team members for an introduction to the recently-launched AMD Ryzen CPU followed by advanced optimization topics.
From http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/optimizing-for-amd-ryzen-cpu-presented-by-amd
The GDC event runs from February 27th to March 3rd, and currently the AMD talk is not on the exact schedule yet, so it could appear any day during the event (so be wary if anyone says Feb 27th). At this time AMD has not disclosed an exact date either, but it would be an interesting time to announce the new set of Ryzen CPUs right in the middle of both GDC and Mobile World Congress which is also during that week. It would mean that Ryzen news may end up being buried under other GDC and smartphone announcements.
Then again, the launch could easily be anytime during February – this March 3rd date only really puts an end-point on the potential range. AMD has stated many times, as far back as August, that Q1 is the intended date for launch to consumers in volume. When we spoke with AMD at CES, nothing was set in stone so to speak, especially clock speeds and pricing, but we are expecting a full launch, not just something official on paper. Ryan will be at GDC to cover this exact talk, and I’ll be at MWC covering that event. Either way, we want to make sure that we are front of the queue when it comes time to disclosing as much information as we can get our hands on ahead of time. Stay tuned!
Source: GDC
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bananaforscale - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
You don't know what you speak of. Ryzen has been shown to rival Intel in single thread performance *even handicapped*, and games are increasingly multithreaded. If the price is right it's relevant to this gamer (who has probably played computer games before you were born), and I'm upgrading regardless. I figure my Bulldozer deserves a break.lmcd - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
Do you mean that one random blender demo?If you bought a Bulldozer, isn't that basically an admission that you don't care about the numbers?
Vodietsche - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
I'll be getting one of those ZEN/Vega-APUs for sure. This is gonna sweet! Might upgrade to a Zen CPU too, but still waiting for those benchmarks...CajunArson - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
I think there is far too much being read into that little blurb.According to AMD, "RyZen" has already been "launched" at least in as much as they are showing off engineering samples.
People tend to forget that it takes usually 2 - 3 *months* to go from the start of real mass-production to when you can actually buy a real chip at retail.
If AMD was actually going to have these chips on store shelves in the next 6 weeks, they would not have been showing off "engineering samples" at CES. They would have been showing off 100% finished retail chips.
TemjinGold - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
So in other words, according to you, there is ZERO chance AMD will meet their Q1 target date, right?CajunArson - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
They can meet it using Corporate Speak that people around here don't truly understand.They can "ship for revenue" in Q1 meaning they book the payments from OEMs and retailers for the first batch of RyZen parts. They can even say that they've "shipped" them. That doesn't mean that you can buy one though.
This isn't some theoretical exercise, you can't throw a rock on Google without running into reviews of fully operational 7700K Kaby Lake retail processors that were posted last November. You still couldn't buy one until last week though. In this case, nobody.. NOBODY.. has seen a full retail sample of Zen or "RyZen" floating around anywhere. Do the math, the laws of economics apply to AMD just like they do to everybody else.
xype - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
Initially I thought you’re being too harsh, but the point about Zen not leaking out is a valid one. Either security is super tight—or there aren’t any CPU production lines ramping up yet. In the latter case, the launch might be Q1 on paper, with widespread availability in Q2 or even Q3 (which is what people need to care about anyway).Also, GDC peeps, if interesting to AMD, get working machines easier than any of us.
bananaforscale - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
ISTR that when AMD released Bulldozer they were available within two weeks. I suspect AMD's launch is different from Intel's. (Heck, they do a lot fewer of them for starters. :D)TemjinGold - Wednesday, January 11, 2017 - link
Or they can you know, actually launch for real in Q1 like they said they would.Ozymankos - Monday, January 16, 2017 - link
Well,this i how this reality in 3d works...production of any goods takes time and shipment takes time\
plus...the human quality of service is very bad while the technological side is very good
many hosting sites prefer to let me run into big minuses with my 8 websites rather than bother with answering my questions
because support made by intelligent creatures not robots...is very expensive and very stupid