During a press event this week, AMD showed off its upcoming 8-core Summit Ridge processor, with its Zen-based CPU micro-architecture. In a benchmark test using Blender, the chip edged out Intel's own high-end 8-core 6900K Broadwell-E processor, with both running at 3 GHz.
Both CPUs ended up finishing the test on stage at roughly the same time, with the Zen chip edging out Intel's enthusiast processor by a hair. This is surprising given how fast Broadwell-E runs. It will be interesting to see if performance will be similar across a wide array of benchmarks, or if this particular benchmark favors AMD's chip at the moment. It is worth mentioning that Blender is a 3D graphics and animation benchmark that is heavily multi-threaded and loves CPU cores.
AMD has not revealed the stock clock speeds of the Summit Ridge processor, nor has it mentioned a price for the chip. The Intel Broadwell-E processor costs $1,089. Hopefully, the final version of AMD's chip will match or beat Intel's high-end processors with a price point that's also the same or lower. We will have to wait a while to find out as Summit Ridge is not due for launch until the first quarter of 2017.
