Are these price decreases because of Coffee Lake?
For today only Ebuyer are offering some significant price reductions on some of AMD's Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 series CPUs, bringing AMD's 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 1600X to a price of just £188.98.
These offers will be available for the next day or so, giving AMD fans an opportunity to get some extra value from their CPU purchases for a limited time.
When AMD released their Ryzen architecture they caused an upheaval in CPU market in terms of pricing. AMD offered eight powerful CPU cores at a price that was previously unheard of, with their flagship releasing for £449 while Intel's Broadwell-E 8-core, the i7 6900K cost around £1000.
Ryzen has forced Intel to decrease the price of their new Skylake-X series CPUs and has allowed PC builders to get more value than ever before in the high-end CPU market. Thanks to AMD, competition has returned to the desktop CPU market.
Now with the upcoming release of Coffee Lake, Intel is expected to release CPUs with increased performance per pound, which again shows exactly how much of an impact Ryzen has had on the desktop CPU market.
With today's offer, Ebuyer is offering decreased prices for AMD's R7 1800X, R7 1700X and R5 1600X, though some of these offers are much more appetising than others. Below is a list of Ebuyers prices for these CPUs, though the R5 1600X is the highlight here.
All of these prices are huge reductions over Ebuyers usual prices, though when compared to some cheaper storefronts these price reductions are a lot less significant. Shopping around AMD's R7 1800X can usually be purchased for £400 or so, making Ebuyers price reduction an effective £11 reduction. The R7 1700X is typically £319.99, making Ebuyers reduction an effective £31 reduction. The Ryzen 5 1600X is usually £220 or so, making Ebuyers reduction here an effective £31 reduction.
With the 1800X having a mere £10 price reduction when compared to other stores we personally do not think it is worth buying, esecially when most 1700 and 1700X CPUs can overclock to similar speeds and similar voltages.
At the time of writing AMD is offering free copies of Quake Champions with every purchase of a Ryzen 5 or 7 CPU. This game costs £19.99 on Steam, adding some additional value to any new CPU purchases.
Our performance analysis of Quake Champions' Early Access version can be read here.
Which Ryzen CPUs offer the best value?
Since the launch of AMD's Ryzen 7 and 5 series of CPUs, we have said that the Ryzen 7 1700 and Ryzen 5 1600 CPUs have offered the best value for money, given their similar overclockability of the entire Ryzen 7/5 lineup.
With these limited time priced the Ryzen 7 1700X is only £10 more expensive than the Ryzen 7 1700 and the Ryzen 5 1600X is the same price as most R5 1600 CPUs, giving the X-series CPUs more value for money/performance per pound when these CPUs are used at stock settings.
When overclocking we have found that most Ryzen CPUs are capable of reaching similar speeds, so when overclocking AMD's R7 1700 and 1600 have always offered the best value, given their similar overclockability.
One other factor that needs to be considered is that the Ryzen 7 1700 and R5 1600 CPUs also ships with a stock cooler, the Wraith Spire. The 1700X/1600X will require the purchaser to buy an aftermarket CPU cooler, regardless of whether or not they plan on running the CPU at stock or overclocked.
If you plan on overclocking our advice is to still go for AMD's R7 1700 CPU, as the users will save a little bit of money, get a great stock cooling solution (it is useful to have a spare cooler) and have a similar overclocking experience. The R7 1700 is still the best buy for those that enjoy tinkering with their systems. When it comes to the R5 1600X, today's pricing is soo close to the R5 1600 that there is no real reason not to go for the X-series variant, though this model will lack a stock cooler in the box.
Right now, those what simply want to run their system at AMD's stock clock speeds should buy the R7 1700X and 1600X, as it offers higher stock clock speeds with a minimal increase in price. The lack of a stock cooler here is unfortunate, but even affordable aftermarket CPU coolers can handle Ryzen at stock with relative ease.
For those interested in the cooling requirements of AMD's Ryzen 5 and 7 CPUs should look at our Ryzen CPU cooling roundup here.
At the time of writing the final retail prices for Coffee Lake are unknown, leaving many to question how much value Intel will be able to offer with their new 8th generation of CPUs.
Coffee Lake has an opportunity to decrease the value proposition of Ryzen, though without final retail pricing it is unknown how well Intel's upcoming CPUs will compare to AMD in terms of price/performance.
You can join the discussion on AMD/Ebuyer's limited time Ryzen price reductions on the OC3D Forums.