AMD begins sampling quad-core Ryzen processors without SMT

AMD has started handing out test versions of Ryzen processors with four cores and where simultaneous multithreading is disabled. It is the first time that there is talk of a model with less than eight cores.

The usually well-informed Canard PC shares the information on Twitter. To date, AMD has only talked about the existence of an octa-core processor with sixteen threads. If AMD were to release a processor with four cores, it would be comparable to a Core i5 processor from Intel.

The Tech Sheet tells Furthermore, the processor has a TDP of 65 watts and the base clock speed is lower than with the top model from Ryzen. It is not clear what those clock speeds are. The lower clock speed is remarkable, as Intel usually uses higher clock speeds with its quad-cores than with models with more cores.

Presumably, the quad-core processor won’t be in Ryzen’s initial lineup. According to previous rumors, AMD will start selling the top model in the series in February, which is internally codenamed SR7. Other models will be released later and are codenamed SR5 and SR3. This quad-core processor may be one of them.