Gaming
Ryzen 7's multi-threaded capabilities make the chip an attractive choice for professionals and content creation types, yet what about gamers seeking high-end prices without having to pay the Intel premium?
The answer, at this point in time, is clouded in uncertainty. Playing taxing games at a high resolution shifts the focus away from the CPU - Deus Ex, for example, is bound by the GeForce GTX 1080 GPU and puts all the tested processors on a level footing.
Hitman suggests that AMD is closer to Intel than ever before, yet Total War: Warhammer puts the Ryzen 7 1700X behind the cheaper Core i5-7600K to the tune of over 10 per cent. In-game performance, as you've no doubt heard, increases when you disable the Ryzen chip's SMT functionality, but this is hardly something end users will want to do on a routine basis, and it's becoming clear that further software optimisations are going to be needed as developers get to grips with AMD's wholly new architecture.
