AMD partner claims Zen launches January 17th, 8-core model for $300?

A Chinese AMD partner has leaked some details about AMD's upcoming Zen-based desktop platform. MAXSUN claims the Zen launch date is set for January 17th, 2017, with a second launch window in March 2017.

As suggested earlier this week, the high-end "SR7" parts are expected to be launched first, with mainstream and lower-end Zen "SR5" and Zen "SR3" parts to follow at a later date. If the information is correct, AMD is going to offer its high-end 8-core, 16-threaded models for $250 to $300, which seems awfully low if these chips are really as fast as is implied.

A Blender benchmark performed by AMD suggests Zen is capable of delivering clock-for-clock performance that is competitive with Intel's $1089 Core i7-6900. As TechPowerUp reports, it sounds very exciting but we'll have to wait and see if AMD can really deliver what it promised. Most enthusiasts desire more competition in the x86 processor market, but it wouldn't be the first time AMD's hyped products fall flat on their face.

MAXSUN also seemingly confirmed expected, finalized clocks for AMD's next processors, quoting an improvement from the 3 GHz on Zen's engineering samples, at 3.15-3.30 GHz base clocks and 3.5 GHz boost; the company also reports that Zen can be easily clocked to 4.2 GHz on conventional means, and up to 5 GHz with LN2. All in all, rumors being worth what they are, it is definitely an exciting time to be a PC enthusiast. Let's just see if AMD will deliver, or crash and burn like it has done in the past.