Adios, Wraith? Why AMD's XT chips signal doom for a key Ryzen selling point

With the launch of its slightly faster, slightly better, exactly-the-same-price Ryzen 3000 XT processors this week, AMD became just a bit more like Intel…and Nvidia. More importantly, I suspect these new CPUs may exist to set the stage for removing a key AMD value proposition from next-gen “Zen 3” Ryzen CPUs.

Whither goest thou, Wraith?

Most Ryzen XT reviews landed, well, not with a thud necessarily, but at least a loud “meh”—though Gamers Nexus did say, “we think the sand could have been better put to use elsewhere,” when promoting its Ryzen 7 3800XT review. But the general sentiment is that they’re fine. Ryzen XT processors offer mild 100MHz to 200MHz clock speed increases over their non-XT namesakes, and a higher overall level of silicon quality, meaning they can hold those faster clocks for longer and overclock better. Cool stuff! Yet not cool enough generally to recommend, given their steep $80ish price premium over the standard X-series chips, which remain on the market.

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from PCWorld https://ift.tt/322mcRR