AMD’s upcoming Ryzen chips are probably the most anticipated CPU release ever, at least from what we can remember. They are really set to shake up the industry, something in our opinion it desperately needs. It has already been reported that Intel is “freaked out” over the performance of Ryzen, and now it seems like there are plans in the works to combat the upcoming Ryzen processors.
We’ve already seem some of these changes with Intel releasing their first ever Core i3 processor with an unlocked-multiplier, Core i3-7350K processor. Then you have the announcement of the Xeon Gold Series to compete with the Ryzen R7 1800X in the media workstation segment. But it seems like that is not enough for Intel, they will be launching two more Core processor to take on Ryzen, the Core i7-7740K, and the Core i5-7640K.
First up is the Core i7-7740K, which is set to be placed above the current Core i7-7700K. It is said to have a base frequency of 4.30 GHz and while the turbo boost frequency is up in the air we are expecting 4.60 GHz. This would put it 100 MHz over the Core i7-7700K, but it does have a TDP that is 9W higher as well (100W). It will also have 8MB of L3 cache. So Intel just bumped up the speeds with this processor, nothing to really combat AMD here.
Next is the Core i5-7640K. Now there have been conflicting reports on this next piece of information, but apparently this chip would feature HyperThreading. This would be the first time a Core i5 part would carry this piece of technology. This chip would have a base clock of 4.0 GHz (200 MHz over the i5-7600K’s 3.80 GHz) and would have 6MB of L3 cache. Expect this chip to also have a higher TDP around 100W. Having HyperThreading on a Core i5 part would definitely shake up Intel’s Core lineup, because we know the thing that really separates the Core i7 and Core i5 is HyperThreading.
We will keep you updated on this as soon as we hear more information.
