LAS VEGAS, NV -- AMD announced at CES 2018 that it has finally lowered the MSRP for its Ryzen processors. The across-the-board price reductions apply to the Ryzen 7, 5, 3, and Threadripper models and span up to 30% in savings.
AMD's MSRP hasn't reflected actual pricing for quite some time. The Ryzen families had long sold under MSRP, even when they were doing battle with Intel's Kaby Lake. AMD's low pricing, unlocked multipliers on all models, and value-centric motherboard ecosystem make Ryzen processors an incredible value that helped the company claw back desperately needed market share.
Intel finally released Coffee Lake, which brought more cores to its mainstream processor lineup for the first time in a decade, but AMD had finally applied enough pressure to force Intel to maintain similar pricing compared to the previous-generation models. As a result, the Coffee Lake processors put Intel back on solid footing against its only competitor in the desktop PC market. That led to even deeper price cuts on the Ryzen processors over the Black Friday holiday.
Now, AMD has made the price cuts official for several models. The Threadripper 1900X, which is a curious addition to expensive X399 motherboards, now retails for $449, which is an 18% price reduction.
The cuts become even deeper further down the stack. The Ryzen 7 1800X debuted at $499, but now it's only $349. That 30% price reduction means you can score a solid deal on an eight-core, sixteen-thread processor that works just fine with an inexpensive B350 motherboard.
The Ryzen 7 1700X has long sold for less than its ostensibly cheaper Ryzen 7 1700 counterpart. Now, AMD has lowered pricing on both models, and an extra $10 is all it takes to tap the 1700X's much higher base clock frequencies. You can also pick up a Ryzen 5 1600, one of the best deals on the market, for a mere $174.
AMD's adjusted pricing ensures the Ryzen lineup remains competitive against Coffee Lake until the new second-gen Zen+ processors come to market in April. AMD also has new X470 motherboards coming soon that are cheaper than the current 300-Series boards, which adds to the savings.
We'll be sure to adjust our pricing calculations in our latest Best CPU recommendations and reviews as we work the final Coffee Lake models through our testing.
