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AMD’s Ryzen 5 processors set to launch in second quarter of 2017

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Earlier this week, AMD opened pre-orders on certain models of its hotly anticipated Ryzen processors — but the company has yet to spill any more information about the midrange and entry-level versions of the CPU. Now, information has leaked about the Ryzen 5 series, giving us a little more insight in what to expect from the components.

The midrange Ryzen 5 processors will apparently be made available in the second quarter of 2017, while the entry level Ryzen 3 series will launch in the second half of the year, according to a report from PC Perspective. These parts are priced to give PC builders plenty of options, a strategy that’s surely intended to draw attention away from Intel’s suite of CPUs.

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The Ryzen 5 1600X will apparently retail for $259, while the Ryzen 5 1500X will come in at $229. These are pretty competitive prices, given the capabilities of the hardware.

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The 1600X and the 1500X are equipped with six cores and twelve threads, with the former boasting support for AMD’s XFR (Extended Frequency Range) technology. Both processors are unlocked, and lend themselves to overclocking, which is sure to be appreciated by PC gamers looking for peak performance. AMD’s 1600X is set to go head to head with the Intel Core i5-7600K CPU, and the 1500X is being touted as a direct competitor to the i5-7500.

There’s also some new information regarding how AMD plans to construct its six-core processors. The company will disable one core from each of the component’s two four-core complexes, maintaining a balance and ensuring that the full 16MB L3 cache is enabled, according to a report from Forbes.

AMD certainly looks poised to give PC builders some compelling new options over the course of 2017. Expect to hear plenty more about the Ryzen 5 series over the coming months, as we draw nearer to the rumored second-quarter release date.

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Brad Jones
Brad Jones
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
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