Let me give you guys a little perspective, again. AMD has terrible brand image. Their CPUs for previous few years maybe were not terrible, but were nowhere near considered as a go-to solution for 90% of market. They were budget solutions, because of pretty weak performance compared to what Intel offered.
AMD decided to create from scratch CPU uarch, that would drive the brand in upcoming years. They wanted to target it at emerging markets, and with HSA initiative in mind, in the first place. It had to be cheap to buy, and had to offer good value. Keller, who is the father of Zeppelin design, joined AMD in August of 2012. He came to AMD directly from Apple.
AMD decided to deliver at least Haswell-level IPC, with twice as many core cores, at a bargain price, because they knew they are not able to compete with Intel in raw performance of CPU, clock for clock, at least for the first iteration. They wanted to create something different than usual AMD - they wanted to create CPU for TODAY. Not for tomorrow. Powerful enough to be extremely competitive, weak enough to not close the doors for them on future designs.
The target was simple. 5960X for 400$. It turned out to be better in the end, but it still will be at that price. Currently there are confirmed in rumors at least two SKUs in SR7 branding with 8 cores. 3.4/3.7 GHz which is the base model, that will cost between 350 and 400$, and top-end SKU with 3.6/4.0 GHz for around 499-599$.
Why then Intel might want to offer unlocked, extremely high clocked 4C/8T CPUs that would go into Core i5 Branding? Because I7 is reserved for the "highest end" from Intel, with premium price.
If AMD offers 4.0 GHz, 4C/8T CPU@65W priced at 199$, what can Intel do to counter it, even if clock for clock Skylake/Kaby Lake is 3% faster?
Intel can do only stuff that would guarantee marketing about single threaded performance. Make no mistake, Intel was right, that Ryzen in single threaded performance is weaker than Kaby Lake/Skylake. But AMD has to build a brand, again, after last few years. 2017 is the year of brand reset for AMD. And they are doing it by offering tremendous performance per dollar, and bringing competition back. And they will NOT price base 8C/16T higher than 400$. That was the goal from the start, for AMD, that was the strenght of the marketing this CPU.
P.S. The Branding for the Ryzen CPUs:
Ryzen 7 1800X - 3.6 GHz.
Ryzen 7 1700X - 3.4 GHz.
There will be Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 3. Ryzen 5 Obviously for 6C and 4C.
AMD decided to create from scratch CPU uarch, that would drive the brand in upcoming years. They wanted to target it at emerging markets, and with HSA initiative in mind, in the first place. It had to be cheap to buy, and had to offer good value. Keller, who is the father of Zeppelin design, joined AMD in August of 2012. He came to AMD directly from Apple.
AMD decided to deliver at least Haswell-level IPC, with twice as many core cores, at a bargain price, because they knew they are not able to compete with Intel in raw performance of CPU, clock for clock, at least for the first iteration. They wanted to create something different than usual AMD - they wanted to create CPU for TODAY. Not for tomorrow. Powerful enough to be extremely competitive, weak enough to not close the doors for them on future designs.
The target was simple. 5960X for 400$. It turned out to be better in the end, but it still will be at that price. Currently there are confirmed in rumors at least two SKUs in SR7 branding with 8 cores. 3.4/3.7 GHz which is the base model, that will cost between 350 and 400$, and top-end SKU with 3.6/4.0 GHz for around 499-599$.
Why then Intel might want to offer unlocked, extremely high clocked 4C/8T CPUs that would go into Core i5 Branding? Because I7 is reserved for the "highest end" from Intel, with premium price.
If AMD offers 4.0 GHz, 4C/8T CPU@65W priced at 199$, what can Intel do to counter it, even if clock for clock Skylake/Kaby Lake is 3% faster?
Intel can do only stuff that would guarantee marketing about single threaded performance. Make no mistake, Intel was right, that Ryzen in single threaded performance is weaker than Kaby Lake/Skylake. But AMD has to build a brand, again, after last few years. 2017 is the year of brand reset for AMD. And they are doing it by offering tremendous performance per dollar, and bringing competition back. And they will NOT price base 8C/16T higher than 400$. That was the goal from the start, for AMD, that was the strenght of the marketing this CPU.
P.S. The Branding for the Ryzen CPUs:
Ryzen 7 1800X - 3.6 GHz.
Ryzen 7 1700X - 3.4 GHz.
There will be Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 3. Ryzen 5 Obviously for 6C and 4C.
