Whether you are a gamer looking to buy a new system or a professional looking to build a workstation, you should not be building a PC right now! Why you ask, let me explain.
Processors are an integral part of any computing system and the two major desktop CPU manufacturers, Intel and AMD both have great products for consumers. Although recently AMD has been gaining the upper hand since the launch of their 'Ryzen' CPUs. The Ryzen chips have been loved by many due to their higher core counts, easy overclocking capability and cost effectiveness. But recently at CES 2018 AMD announced that it will be launching its Ryzen based APUs in February 2018. The Ryzen CPUs released till now lack any sort of integrated graphics which is a bummer for people who want to build a system from scratch and do not have enough money to buy a dedicated GPU. So if you are one such unlucky bloke then you wont have to settle for a cheap GPU solution as there are two chips planned as of now and they come with RX Vega based graphics complete with support for features such as AMD FreeSync, Radeon Chill, Enhanced Sync and Radeon ReLive. The first one being the Ryzen 3 2200G with 4 cores and 4 threads. This CPU can clock at 3.7GHz with 8 graphics compute units and a max GPU clock of 1100MHz. The Ryzen 3 2200G is going to be launched for a price of USD $99. The more expensive (yet affordable) Ryzen 5 2400G is prriced at USD $ 169 and is more powerful as it gets 4 cores and 8 threads with a max frequency of 3.9GHz. With 11 graphics compute units and the GPU clocking at a maximum of 1250MHz, you can expect smooth 1080p gaming without the need of a GPU.
In case you are not excited by these new Ryzen APUs and still want to go with the already available Ryzen CPUs, it would be wiser to wait as AMD announced price cuts on their existing CPUs and that will take some time to reflect in your local market (the prices are still the same in India at the time of writing this article). Lastly, a little more time into the future, April to be precise, AMD will have the 2nd generation of Ryzen CPUs based on the Zen+ architecture ready to ship. These 2nd gen Ryzen CPU will have better performance for sure and will put Intel in a tight spot once again.
If you are on the Intel side of things then you might think that the latest 8th gen CPUs are going to stick around for quite a while and it is no harm to buy them. Well you are not entirely wrong, the next generation will take some time before it comes out, however, if you are someone looking to buy a Core i3 or an i5 CPU belonging to the 8th gen then your will be in a bit of loss. Currently Intel has only Z370 motherboards in the market which are compatible with these 8th gen CPUs and these are expensive due to their flagship nature. While they do pack in a lot of features, everyday consumer looking for cost effectiveness would hardly be concered about them. It makes no sense to put an i3 8100 in a motherboard that supports overcloking (as this particular CPU isn't overclockable) and that cost more than the processor itself. It would be wiser to wait till the lower tier boards show up.
AMD APUs on the horizon
Processors are an integral part of any computing system and the two major desktop CPU manufacturers, Intel and AMD both have great products for consumers. Although recently AMD has been gaining the upper hand since the launch of their 'Ryzen' CPUs. The Ryzen chips have been loved by many due to their higher core counts, easy overclocking capability and cost effectiveness. But recently at CES 2018 AMD announced that it will be launching its Ryzen based APUs in February 2018. The Ryzen CPUs released till now lack any sort of integrated graphics which is a bummer for people who want to build a system from scratch and do not have enough money to buy a dedicated GPU. So if you are one such unlucky bloke then you wont have to settle for a cheap GPU solution as there are two chips planned as of now and they come with RX Vega based graphics complete with support for features such as AMD FreeSync, Radeon Chill, Enhanced Sync and Radeon ReLive. The first one being the Ryzen 3 2200G with 4 cores and 4 threads. This CPU can clock at 3.7GHz with 8 graphics compute units and a max GPU clock of 1100MHz. The Ryzen 3 2200G is going to be launched for a price of USD $99. The more expensive (yet affordable) Ryzen 5 2400G is prriced at USD $ 169 and is more powerful as it gets 4 cores and 8 threads with a max frequency of 3.9GHz. With 11 graphics compute units and the GPU clocking at a maximum of 1250MHz, you can expect smooth 1080p gaming without the need of a GPU.
Price cut on current AMD CPUs & 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs to launch in April 2018
In case you are not excited by these new Ryzen APUs and still want to go with the already available Ryzen CPUs, it would be wiser to wait as AMD announced price cuts on their existing CPUs and that will take some time to reflect in your local market (the prices are still the same in India at the time of writing this article). Lastly, a little more time into the future, April to be precise, AMD will have the 2nd generation of Ryzen CPUs based on the Zen+ architecture ready to ship. These 2nd gen Ryzen CPU will have better performance for sure and will put Intel in a tight spot once again.
Lack of cheaper Intel motherboards
If you are on the Intel side of things then you might think that the latest 8th gen CPUs are going to stick around for quite a while and it is no harm to buy them. Well you are not entirely wrong, the next generation will take some time before it comes out, however, if you are someone looking to buy a Core i3 or an i5 CPU belonging to the 8th gen then your will be in a bit of loss. Currently Intel has only Z370 motherboards in the market which are compatible with these 8th gen CPUs and these are expensive due to their flagship nature. While they do pack in a lot of features, everyday consumer looking for cost effectiveness would hardly be concered about them. It makes no sense to put an i3 8100 in a motherboard that supports overcloking (as this particular CPU isn't overclockable) and that cost more than the processor itself. It would be wiser to wait till the lower tier boards show up.
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