Intel increases production of Coffee Lake while Ryzen gets cheaper

Greg S

Posts: 1,607   +442

Following the release of a product change notification, Intel has revealed that it has retrofitted an assembly line for Coffee Lake. Until now, Intel has been producing Coffee Lake CPUs in Malaysia, but will soon be shipping 8th generation i5 and i7 processors from Chengdu, China.

Even though the i7 8700k could be the best gaming CPU right now depending on which games you are playing, actually getting a hold of one has been difficult. The above suggested retail pricing combined with a lack of stock has reduced its price to performance value, but that does not seem to be stopping many consumers from still trying to buy one.

What will potentially put a dent in sales for Coffee Lake, however, is the price reduction of Ryzen. Over the weekend, Ryzen CPUs hit record low prices. The Ryzen 7 1700X reached a new low of just $229.99 at Microcenter beating the Ryzen 7 1700 by $20. At leading online retailers, Ryzen is still available at considerable discounts.

Most noteworthy Ryzen discounts so far are as follows (Ryzen had already received price cuts after launch, but these makes them ever more attractive):

An increase in supply of Coffee Lake CPUs could certainly help out the price situation for those interested in shopping for an Intel processor. Intel business partners must be ready to receive retail boxed processors by December 15, 2017 that carry the "made in China" label instead of made in Malaysia, so expect to wait a few more weeks before there may be more stock available.

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8700 and 8700k have been on ebay since launch but your stuck paying their reseller markup hogwash. I did see a few 'buy it now's' with free shipping for a decent price but they were snatched up in hours.
 
It has been almost 3 months after release and they are already lowering prices huh? They certainly took a hit with Coffee Lake after their big hit came up.

AMD may be preparing to hit the market with zen+ soon, may be waiting for coffee lake parts to meet demand
Yeah that makes sense...
A: "let's wait for the competition to actually get a market share before we release our product"
B: "you sir are a genius, you've earned a promotion".
 
Why not. It's all a game to them.
Intel have i3, i5 and i7 CPUs. So AMD release Ryzen 3, 5, 7 in a direct snub to Intel.
Intel have B250 and Z270 motherboards. So AMD release B350 and Z370 motherboards.
Everyone starts talking about AMD and Ryzen so Intel fights back by announcing an amazing new CPU release that gets everyone talking about Intel again. The CPUs won't be fully available until late this year or next year but that doesn't matter - the goal was to stop everyone talking about Ryzen and a snub to AMD.
Both companies are now close to releasing key products (Ryzen Zen+ and Coffee Lake) but they need to time their releases to ensure the other company doesn't make last minute tweaks to the product to gain the upper hand. AMD seems to have the edge here as Coffee Lake specs and a small volume of the processors have been released, whereas Zen+ won't be released until February? But I wouldn't put it past Intel to do a sudden release of a new product if they had to. In the same way as Nvidia released the GTX 1070 Ti to stop people talking about Vega. Half the battle is in the technology of the products (which are very similar in performance) - the other half is in controlling what we are talking about and looking forward to.
 
One thing which we need to consider is - regardless of whether you go for the Intel chip or the Ryzen chip, it means getting a new motherboard. Which means that anyone who upgraded to Windows 10 will need to buy a new Windows 10 license. The Windows 10 upgrade allows you to do a clean install of Windows 10 but not if the motherboard changes. So the real winner here is Microsoft :)
 
The price drop for Ryzen was inevitable and expected. Not because they suck; they're okay for the price. They just couldn't live up to the hype created by the gushing praise and "Intel Killer" articles/blogs/posts which followed it's release. Ryzen fans and tech sites may have done AMD a disservice by going overboard with their enthusiasm, resulting in disappointment and buyers remorse for many. It's sad to read some of their posts now, they don't understand why Ryzen isn't quite as good as they were led to believe. Some of them still insist that it is better than any Intel chip, because they can't admit they were fooled. Now it's becoming like Bulldozer; die-hard fans grimly hanging on, and sensible builders using Ryzen to hit a price point to fit a budget, while those who can afford to buy Intel. Zen+ will be the same drama again, with the same result.
 
Oddly enough, I don't know anyone who's unhappy with the Ryzen chips or experiencing buyer's remorse. Entire crews and studios have jumped ship in the CGI world, for example, simply for the extra cores and bang for the buck. In rendering, AMD is doing absolutely wonderful.
I believe those are the kind of scenarios where the cores of AMD shine, it's for the home gamer where AMD has fallen a little (not a lot) flat.
 
One thing which we need to consider is - regardless of whether you go for the Intel chip or the Ryzen chip, it means getting a new motherboard. Which means that anyone who upgraded to Windows 10 will need to buy a new Windows 10 license. The Windows 10 upgrade allows you to do a clean install of Windows 10 but not if the motherboard changes. So the real winner here is Microsoft :)

Your windows key binds to your windows account. You can move from motherboard to motherboard without too much issue. If ijt didn't I'm sure people would rather pirate, because frankly not being able to use a product you paid for doesn't make you want to buy from the same shitty company again.
 
Your windows key binds to your windows account. You can move from motherboard to motherboard without too much issue. If ijt didn't I'm sure people would rather pirate, because frankly not being able to use a product you paid for doesn't make you want to buy from the same shitty company again.
To add some more information, if you call them and let them know you are changing hardware they will probably be more than happy to assist to recover the license you payed for.
 
One thing which we need to consider is - regardless of whether you go for the Intel chip or the Ryzen chip, it means getting a new motherboard. Which means that anyone who upgraded to Windows 10 will need to buy a new Windows 10 license. The Windows 10 upgrade allows you to do a clean install of Windows 10 but not if the motherboard changes. So the real winner here is Microsoft :)

It was the same with windows 8 and windows 7. But for those you just called in to say ur mobo broke and u had to get a new one, MS would immediately give u a new product key. I imagine win 10 is the same, especially with Google looming in the distance with their Android OS incoming to desktops, MS wants to keep as many ppl on Win as possible. Android is now the most used OS in the world.
 
8700 and 8700k have been on ebay since launch but your stuck paying their reseller markup hogwash. I did see a few 'buy it now's' with free shipping for a decent price but they were snatched up in hours.

Considering the price of the 8700K, your much better off buying a Ryzen 1800X with the price drop...with the right RAM, it's every bit as good in gaming as Intel.
 
Oddly enough, I don't know anyone who's unhappy with the Ryzen chips or experiencing buyer's remorse. Entire crews and studios have jumped ship in the CGI world, for example, simply for the extra cores and bang for the buck. In rendering, AMD is doing absolutely wonderful.
I believe those are the kind of scenarios where the cores of AMD shine, it's for the home gamer where AMD has fallen a little (not a lot) flat.

In gaming, it falls flat when someone upgrades from an Intel chip. In some cases it ends up being a side grade. Depends what they had.

But for those folks who had an AMD chip (FX or older) and upgraded to Ryzen, it was an improvement across the board in gaming and productivity. So they would be extremely happy with their purchase.
 
Why not. It's all a game to them.
Intel have i3, i5 and i7 CPUs. So AMD release Ryzen 3, 5, 7 in a direct snub to Intel.
Intel have B250 and Z270 motherboards. So AMD release B350 and Z370 motherboards.
Everyone starts talking about AMD and Ryzen so Intel fights back by announcing an amazing new CPU release that gets everyone talking about Intel again. The CPUs won't be fully available until late this year or next year but that doesn't matter - the goal was to stop everyone talking about Ryzen and a snub to AMD.
Both companies are now close to releasing key products (Ryzen Zen+ and Coffee Lake) but they need to time their releases to ensure the other company doesn't make last minute tweaks to the product to gain the upper hand. AMD seems to have the edge here as Coffee Lake specs and a small volume of the processors have been released, whereas Zen+ won't be released until February? But I wouldn't put it past Intel to do a sudden release of a new product if they had to. In the same way as Nvidia released the GTX 1070 Ti to stop people talking about Vega. Half the battle is in the technology of the products (which are very similar in performance) - the other half is in controlling what we are talking about and looking forward to.

Coffee Lake is the same architecture as Skylake and Kaby Lake...Intel has done absolutely nothing in terms of the core architecture yet...Cannonlake will likely be better but that's nowhere near release. AMD has already said that Ryzen in it's current form was their last option. Meaning the R&D was way ahead of Ryzen but they needed to get the architecture to the market so they released it. My honest guess is that the refresh coming from AMD will likely be what AMD had hoped to release when Ryzen was introduced...they are working on Zen 2 currently which will likely be a full 30% faster and efficient. Intel may have added two cores to Coffelake but AMD's current architecture is built from the ground up to scale very high in terms of cores and threads...good times ahead for the consumer!
 
Oddly enough, I don't know anyone who's unhappy with the Ryzen chips or experiencing buyer's remorse. Entire crews and studios have jumped ship in the CGI world, for example, simply for the extra cores and bang for the buck. In rendering, AMD is doing absolutely wonderful.
I dumped Intel for a Ryzen 1800x...and I'm glad I did because when Intel announced that Coffelake would not work on existing 1151 motherboards, it really pissed me off...they are constantly forcing consumers to not only buy the CPU but a motherboard as well...most decent motherboards don't come under $200 so it becomes very expensive..mat least AMD said AM4 will last a minimum of 4 years...so I can get the Ryzen refresh CPU and Zen 2 without having to spend another $250 on another motherboard.
 
I dumped Intel for a Ryzen 1800x...and I'm glad I did because when Intel announced that Coffelake would not work on existing 1151 motherboards, it really pissed me off...they are constantly forcing consumers to not only buy the CPU but a motherboard as well...most decent motherboards don't come under $200 so it becomes very expensive..mat least AMD said AM4 will last a minimum of 4 years...so I can get the Ryzen refresh CPU and Zen 2 without having to spend another $250 on another motherboard.
Shame on them for updating their platforms... it's not like it's physically necessary or anything...
 
Your windows key binds to your windows account. You can move from motherboard to motherboard without too much issue. If ijt didn't I'm sure people would rather pirate, because frankly not being able to use a product you paid for doesn't make you want to buy from the same shitty company again.
To add some more information, if you call them and let them know you are changing hardware they will probably be more than happy to assist to recover the license you payed for.
I have actually tried that and they said to me that of I have changed motherboard and I don't have Windows 7 key then they can't help me.
 
One thing which we need to consider is - regardless of whether you go for the Intel chip or the Ryzen chip, it means getting a new motherboard. Which means that anyone who upgraded to Windows 10 will need to buy a new Windows 10 license. The Windows 10 upgrade allows you to do a clean install of Windows 10 but not if the motherboard changes. So the real winner here is Microsoft :)

This has changed now and you license is tied to your MS account so no need worry any more. I have had the same license across 3 PCs now as I have upgraded..... Its kind of nice
 
I dumped Intel for a Ryzen 1800x...and I'm glad I did because when Intel announced that Coffelake would not work on existing 1151 motherboards, it really pissed me off...they are constantly forcing consumers to not only buy the CPU but a motherboard as well...most decent motherboards don't come under $200 so it becomes very expensive..mat least AMD said AM4 will last a minimum of 4 years...so I can get the Ryzen refresh CPU and Zen 2 without having to spend another $250 on another motherboard.
Shame on them for updating their platforms... it's not like it's physically necessary or anything...

Yeah that is cool and all but it does kind of get annoying when they do I it every 2 years or so. Loved my i7 2700K but so annoyed when I could only go to a 3770K with the mobo.
 
Shame on them for updating their platforms... it's not like it's physically necessary or anything...

Don't be obtuse...look at the Property level boards which support newer CPUs for far longer...Z270 alone was a waste and totally unnecessary for Kaby Lake...and they easily could have made Coffelake compatible to the existing chipsets...Coffelake is nothing new except a minor Kaby Lake refresh with better efficiency...even the two added cores was tacked on at the very end because of how powerful Ryzen turned out to be...and AMD is at least supporting their products for more than a year.
 
If only those price drops actually get reflected where I'm at.
The R5 1600 here dropped approximately $2.2 but is still at $220. XD
 
Your windows key binds to your windows account. You can move from motherboard to motherboard without too much issue. If ijt didn't I'm sure people would rather pirate, because frankly not being able to use a product you paid for doesn't make you want to buy from the same shitty company again.
To add some more information, if you call them and let them know you are changing hardware they will probably be more than happy to assist to recover the license you payed for.

There is a strange mix with Microsoft. I have upgraded to SSD from spinning HDD doing a mirror, no problem. But when the SSD failed they absolutely refused to let me install my old license on a new drive. No, M$ said "New Drive, new license". So I'm not sure what would happen with a motherboard change as they told me the license is tied to the hardware.
 
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