Home » AMD Ryzen vs. Intel Core series: Price Wars

AMD Ryzen vs. Intel Core series: Price Wars

Written By Abe Olandres
Published • July 28th, 2017
Personal Computing
4 Comments

AMD has completed rolling out its first batch of processors in the local market and, as expected, they are priced to directly compete with Intel’s latest line-up of processors.

For the longest time, AMD has been trailing far behind Intel. The AMD Ryzen family comes with a new Zen micro-architecture and feature more computing cores compared to an equivalent processor from Intel.

The entry-level processor is the Ryzen 3 and it competes with Intel’s Core i3 processors. Here are the currently available processors in the market today along with their retail prices.

AMD Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php6,000
AMD Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php7,250

Intel Core i3-7100 3.9GHz (2 cores /4 threads) – Php5,700
Intel Core i3-7350 4.2GHz (2 cores /4 threads) – Php8,250

Note that the Core i3 processors have higher base clock speed per core but only has 2 cores per chip compared to the 4 cores of the Ryzen 3 series. While the pricing between the two is comparable, AMD’s Ryzen 3 has double the number of processing cores already at this level.

Coincidentally, Intel has also released earlier this year new variants of their Intel Pentium processors. The likes of Intel Pentium G4620 now have 2 cores and 4 threads compared to the older variants that have 2 cores and 2 threads. This is perhaps a response to the Ryzen 3 series.

Moving up to the “mainstream” segment are the Ryzen 5 processors, a direct competitor to Intel’s Core i5 family. This batch has more variants since they cater to a wider segment of the market with the pricing gap of just around Php1,000 in between them.

AMD Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz (4 cores /8 threads) – Php9,250
AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz (4 cores /8 threads) – Php10,500
AMD Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz (6 cores /12 threads) – Php11,500
AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 3.6GHz (6 cores /12 threads) – Php13,800

Intel Core i5-7400 3.0GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php9,000
Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php10,300
Intel Core i5-7600 3.5GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php11,450
Intel Core i5-7600K 3.8GHz (4 cores /4 threads) – Php12,400

Intel’s Core i5 series only have the same number of threads as the number of cores which is an inherent limitation Intel has placed on their chip. This puts the i5 at a huge dis-advantage since the Ryzen 5 variants all have double the number of threads to their cores.

Likewise, the higher variant Ryzen 5 processors have 6 cores and 12 threads compared to the 4 cores and 4 threads of an equivalent Core i5 processor. This is the biggest disparity I’ve seen between the two and while the Ryzen 5 variants are priced slightly higher, the difference is not that significant.

Then we go to the “performance” segment of both CPU vendors. The Ryzen 7 processors are slightly more expensive compared to a comparable Core i7 processor. The Ryzen 7 CPUs also have much lower base clock compared to the i7.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz (8 cores /16 threads) – Php16,750
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X 3.4GHz (8 cores /16 threads) – Php20,800

Intel Core i7-7700 4.2GHz (4 cores /8 threads) – Php15,850
Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz (4 cores /8 threads) – Php17,900

However, the Ryzen 7 processors have twice the number of cores and twice the number of threads compared to a Core i7 processor. Again, no contest here.

Also note that Intel’s processors are frequency locked with the exception of variants that have a letter “K” at the end. These ones are unlocked and can be over-clocked.

On the other-hand, the entire Ryzen family feature unlocked multipliers so they are capable of being overclocked. Furthermore, the variants that end with a letter “X” allow for twice the boost capability.

Well, it’s pretty clear that the AMD Ryzen family is offering twice the number of CPU cores compared to Intel’s offering. This puts the Ryzen processors at a huge advantage when it comes to multi-threaded computing like video editing or rendering and other productivity tasks.

All that, for the same price. Intel has, once again, got some pretty serious competition.

Author’s Note: The prices indicated for the Ryzen processors here are the original SRP when it first came out. Apparently, due to high demand, their local prices have increased since then.

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Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

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4 Comments

el gato says:

7 years ago

the problem is most people don’t do productivity work. most go for the ‘gaming’ feature in which intel cpu excels.
what remains to be seen is the price/performance value with the jacked up prices of amd ryzen cpus.
- Reply

Abe Olandres says:

7 years ago

I think there are more businesses and professionals that will spend for productivity PCs. That could be the target for AMD.

Intel_Fanboy says:

7 years ago

Its probably almost been a decade since Intel has gotten some competition and for the past few years we’ve been seeing very minimal improvement from Intel’s side and even with the new Cofveve Lake rumours, I’m surprised that Intel doesn’t seem to keep up with AMD’s level (mainly the lack of hyper-threading). Is Intel gonna target OEM manufacturers again to regain complete control of the CPU market?
- Reply
Eddryan says:

7 years ago

The stock speed of Core i5 7600k is 3.8GHz
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