AMD's new Zen-based $499 CPU beats Intel's $999 CPU

We've reported about AMD's next-gen Zen CPU that will outperform Intel's high-end Core i7-5960X, but it looks like the 8-core Summit Ridge SR7 flagship processor will be priced at $499.

AMD will launch 3 different Summit Ridge product tiers, with the high-end/enthusiast SR7 SKUs while the mid-range SR7 and entry-level SR3 SKUs will help out other markets. AMD will launch the higher-end Zen SKUs in January 2017 at CES, while the SR5 and SR3 SKUs will launch two months later in March 2017.

The next-gen SR7 will reportedly have core/turbo clocks of 3.2GHz and 3.5GHz, respectively - while we have 8 CPU cores, with 16 threads in total. There's 16MB of L3 cache joined by 4MB of L2 cache, while we have a 95W TDP. The second member in the SR7 family has the same CPU core count and TDP, but drops the clocks down to 3.0GHz and 3.2GHz for core and turbo clocks, respectively.

Now, considering the $499 price - AMD has a winner on that alone, especially if Zen can outperform the $999+ CPUs from Intel. There's a tease that the entry-level SR3 SKU will offer a 4-core, 8-threaded Zen CPU that will hit $149, offering Core i7-6700 level performance at the price of a Core i3 processor. Not too damn bad at all.

We will be at CES 2017 covering AMD's reveals of Zen CPUs, and just like you - we're beyond excited.