AMD’s Ryzen CPUs Are A Little Bit Cheaper Now

When they launched, AMD’s new Ryzen CPUs were supposed to be appealing predominately for their price. And as it turns out, they’re now even cheaper.

Just to recap, here’s what the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 CPUs were priced at when they launched:

Ryzen 7 1800X (8c/16t): $699
Ryzen 7 1700X (8c/16t): $569
Ryzen 1700 (8c/16t): $469
Ryzen 5 1600X (6c/12t): $359
Ryzen 5 1500X (4c/8t): $275

We tested some of the Ryzen 7 and 5 CPUs, and you can read about that below. Our take at the time was that the Ryzen CPUs were good value, provided you weren’t using them exclusively for gaming, and if you were, then the 1600X was probably the CPU of choice.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/04/the-less-you-amds-ryzen-cpus-are-better-value-provided-you-dont-just-game/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/04/ryzen-1800x-1600x-1500x-cpus-410×231.jpg” title=”AMD’s Ryzen CPUs: Good For Games, Better For Everything Else” excerpt=”It’s not often that the CPU market has any degree of disruption. And that was the logic behind the launch of AMD’s Ryzen CPUs, with the chip manufacturer aiming to offer more performance by selling CPUs with more cores and threads than their Intel counterparts for less money.”]

But while AMD had a small advantage in price when the Ryzen CPUs first launched, Intel has been able to respond with a price cut of their own. And so, right in the middle of Computex week, it turns out retailers have cut prices on AMD chips as well.

AMD wasn’t able to respond to an inquiry by the time of writing, but a cursory check of Ryzen CPU prices on the excellent StaticICE aggregator has shown that, across the country, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs are coming down.

The Ryzen 7 1800X hasn’t really changed: stores are selling it for $679 now, which is more or less what you’d expect retailers to do a few months after something has launched. And the Ryzen 1600X has more or less stayed put, too. Beyond that, the haircut is more intriguing:

Ryzen 7 1700X: $519 (down from $569)
Ryzen 7 1700: $429-439 (down from $469)
Ryzen 5 1600X: $345 (kind of down from $359)
Ryzen 5 1500X: $249 (down from $275)

Not a bad saving, especially if you’re going for a sub-$800 or $1000 gaming PC build. Grab a cheap GTX 1060 or an RX 470 around $250-260, and you’ve got a decent little gaming rig on the cheap.

Update: The price cut is exclusively on the retailers end, AMD has informed me. They haven’t officially cut the MSRP in Australia, although you can still get the CPUs for cheaper anyway.