8-core AMD Ryzen 5 1600/X CPUs randomly surface, performance matches the more expensive Ryzen 7 1800X

The Ryzen 5 and 3 CPU families turned out to be very profitable for AMD in the past months. The Ryzen 5 1600 CPU is currently priced around ~US$210, while the 1600X model costs ~US$220. These are 6-core/12-thread processors that represent AMD’s the top of the mid-range line. Nevertheless, a series of South Korean buyers have recently reported on the coolenjoy.kr forums that they ended up with 8-core/16-thread CPU models in their 1600/1600X retail boxes.

The 8-core/16-thread CPUs are normally identified with the Ryzen 7 1700/1700X/1800X models, but the reported processors from Korea still have identification numbers that indicate they are indeed Ryzen 5 1600 and 1600X models. All these chips were apparently manufactured on the 36th week of 2017 in Malaysia. Furthermore, the lucky Koreans went ahead and tested the processors and it turns out their performance is on par with the US$400 Ryzen 7 1800X CPU.

WCCFTech suggests that this is no mere packaging mistake, and this could be the result of AMD using the less purchased 8-core dies to meet the high demand on Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 CPUs. In this case, Intel is expected to announce lower prices for its new Coffee Lake CPUs, if it really wants them to compete with the Ryzen models.

Source(s)