AMD recently released its new line-up of Ryzen desktop processors, which compete against Intel’s 7th-generation Kaby Lake chips.

Ryzen and Intel 7th-gen processors are priced at similar levels, while they have different strengths.

AMD’s Ryzen processors boast an increased number of cores and superior multi-threaded performance, but fall short of Intel’s quad-core processors in terms of IPC and single-thread performance.

Due to their similar pricing and specifications, consumers can confidently decide to purchase either a Ryzen or Kaby Lake chip, depending on their individual use cases and choice of chipset.

With Ryzen CPUs in the local market for a few weeks now, MyBroadband spoke to South African hardware retailer Wootware about the popularity of AMD’s new processors in South Africa.

Ryzen’s popularity

Wootware’s Rory Magee said AMD’s Ryzen 7 1700 octa-core processor is the most popular Ryzen desktop processor among local consumers.

“Of the Ryzen 7 CPUs, the Ryzen 7 1700 has been the most popular by a fair margin, and this also seems to be the case internationally,” said Magee.

Magee said the six-core Ryzen 5 1600 could quickly overtake the Ryzen 7 1700 in South Africa, though, due to its attractive value.

“The Ryzen 5 1600 looks like a strong contender to become AMD’s new most-popular CPU, given that it represents a compelling price-to-performance ratio, features six physical cores, and includes AMD’s Wraith Cooler,” he said.

Magee added that the popularity of AMD’s Ryzen processors has been steadily increasing in South Africa, chipping away at the market share of Intel’s 6th and 7th-gen processors.

“There’s been a significant uptake of AMD’s Ryzen platform and processors, and that’s just accounting for the Ryzen 7 range without taking the newly-released Ryzen 5 range into account,” said Magee.

“It seems likely that AMD will be taking a significant double-digit percentage share of new desktop CPU sales.”