After more than four years of development, the new "Zen" microarchitecture for desktop processors heralds AMD's starting point in the longer quest to reclaim the high-end desktop segment. The task of living up to all the hopes and expectations of the PC enthusiast crowd has fallen to the manufacturer's cutting-edge processor design: Ryzen. At the tip of the spear with which they intend to (re-)conquer the world of high-performance CPUs stands the Ryzen 7 series that has - thus far - impressed with its multitude of innovative features.
The AMD Ryzen 7 processors from the "Summit Ridge" generation come with eight physical CPU cores that, thanks to Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) are each capable of processing two threads simultaneously. This results in the number of logical cores being doubled with an additional eight virtual cores to make 16 effective cores. Precision Boost also adjust the clock rate in realtime according to the precise needs of the application - irrespective of whether this is against the backdrop of gaming or applications - and the clock rate increases in fine 25 MHz steps while remaining within TDP specifications.
AMD's Ryzen 7-CPUs are equipped with a revolutionary automatic-overclocking feature known as Extended Frequency Range (XFR) which is capable of drastically increasing the processor's clock frequency significantly higher than the factory default, provided sufficient cooling is available. As soon as the processor's integrated sensors detect additional cooling capacity, a Ryzen CPU will independently adjust its clock rates according to capacity of the installed cooler. This means that the active user intervention is not necessary. Depending on whether the processor is bundled with a comparatively small boxed-cooler, a larger (dual-) tower cooler, more performance-oriented AiO coolers, custom water cooling or even extreme liquid (LN2) cooling, XFR affords users unlimited clock frequencies in the premium and enthusiast ranges depending on the cooling performance.
As an aside all AMD Ryzen CPUs arrive "unlocked" and are available, as was the case in models from times paste such as the "Black Editions" and "K"-variants, with unlocked multipliers to allow overclockers to reach relatively high clock frequencies with ease and manually via the BIOS or UEFI, or by way of software tools that come with their respective motherboard such as the X370, B350 or X300 series. Adequate cooling must be provided in order to ensure maximise increases in clock frequencies.
