AMD made a splash at E3 yesterday, making several big announcements that effect both PC and Console gamers. PC gamers had been looking forward to this keynote since Computex in May where details on the company’s new graphics cards were conspicuously absent from the presentation. They weren’t disappointed. The theme of the presentation was “leadership performance in its class” and demonstrating value per dollar.
CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, took the stage and began the keynote in what we can only view as a declaration of market dominance outside of the PC space. AMD announced that their graphics and processing technology will power all three major platforms, Google Stadia, Sony PlayStation 5, and the next-generation Xbox. This bodes extremely well for the company’s success over this next generation due to the consistently high demand for console gaming systems.
AMD also went into further details on their next-generation of Ryzen 3000 CPUs, which will launch on July 7th. On the top end, the company announced the 12-core/24-thread R9 3900X which will retail for $499. In answer to the big question, what gamer actually needs 12 cores, they gave a demo showing smooth streaming at the highest possible settings whereas the much more expensive Intel counterpart was only a slideshow.
Later in the presentation, the company surprised everyone by announcing the Ryzen R9 3950X which will launch in September. This processor boasts 16 cores/32 threads and aims to be the premiere gaming CPU; however, at $749 all those cores will come at a premium. Other CPUs in the stack include:
- R7 3800X – 8 core/16 thread, 3.9/4.5GHz ($399)
- R7 3700X – 8 core/16 thread, 3.6/4.4GHz ($329)
- R5 3600X – 6 core/12 thread, 3.8/4.4GHz ($249)
- R5 3600 – 6 core/12 thread, 3.6/4.2GHz ($199)
AMD also detailed their upcoming Navi GPUs, now titled the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700XT. Both cards are officially moving on from 1080p and targeting high-refresh rate gameplay at 1440p and are intended to compete with Nvidia’s RTX 2070 line. The higher performing card, the 5700XT, will retail for $449. The next step down will retail for $379. Both prices clearly appear intended to undercut the competition while offering similar performance.
In the presentation, AMD gave numerous examples of RX 5700 AND 5700XT going head to head with Nvidia’s cards and delivering very similar performance. The value proposition is high; however, we will be curious to see how prices and bundles develop over time, particularly as Nvidia is also rumored to be announcing upgraded versions of their RTX cards some time over the course of E3.
If you’re a PC builder, this keynote was sure to leave you excited. The ball is officially in Intel’s court to respond to such high-value chips.