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AMD's Ryzen 5000 CPUs Get Major Price Cuts, Up to 25 Percent:
AMD's Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) processors are two years old, but the Zen 3 chips are still among some of the best CPUs on the market. If you're looking for your next upgrade, U.S. retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Micro Center, and Newegg, are currently selling the Ryzen 5000 lineup at reduced prices.
The Ryzen 5000 price cuts are probably an answer to the recently released Intel 12th Generation Alder Lake product stack that has helped Intel recover market share in the Japanese and German markets. While Ryzen 5000 still dominates the list of best-selling processors on Amazon and Newegg, Alder Lake has been creeping up to the Zen 3 parts. For example, the Core i7-12700KF is the seventh best-selling chip on Amazon, whereas the Core i7-12700K is in the third spot on Newegg's charts. Moreover, it's that time of the year when retailers start making space for the next wave of processors.
AMD has already confirmed that Ryzen 7000 (Raphael), Ryzen 5000's successor, will hit the market in the second half of the year, so retailers have likely started to offload Ryzen 5000 parts. Ryzen 7000 lives on the completely new AM5 platform with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support. The transition to the AM5 socket means consumers will have to invest in a new motherboard, although the topic of the memory remains in the air. Intel's Alder Lake supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory modules, but AMD hasn't confirmed if Ryzen 7000 will also have hybrid memory support.
The story continues with a chart of prices for various models and has links to vendors, too.
Random question: Is your primary computer a desktop or a laptop? I've been laptop-only for the last 15-20 years -- my computing needs have been relatively modest.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday March 05 2022, @09:48AM (6 children)
Both good ideas, thanks. I haven't really looked into them. What I'm doing now is working pretty well.
My feeling is (and I'm sorry in advance if someone interprets this politically- I'm not very political) is that things like water, sewer, gas, power wires, Internet fiber / copper should all be owned by a non-profit public entity. Sigh.
Comcast was (is still?) doing a thing where various people's home gateway would be an open WiFi hotspot for anyone with a Comcast ("Xfinity") account. So I have (had?) a legitimate login / access through one of my employers. One of my neighbors' gateway used to have the open Xfinity WiFi, and I had weak but usable connection. However, it has gone away. Better tools reveal it's still there, but "non-broadcasting", and all attempts to connect have failed. Bait and switch.
... Hmmm, Starlink looks pretty pricey- $99 - $500? Yeah, my cell plan is good enough, and only $30 / month. :)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 07 2022, @02:52PM (5 children)
Ah, I had to make do with cell towers for a while. That was in dark times. Horrible for doing anything much beyond browsing the internet. That was in the days of 3G, though. Point-to-Point Wireless is what I've been on for a very long time. It's not much cheaper than Starlink and Starlink has faster upload/download, etc. The unfortunate thing is the $500 install fee, but nowadays you're paying close to that for your Point-to-Point wireless. Unless you find some deal where they do it for free, which I was only able to take advantage of once. Had to pay $300+ a couple of different times, because I changed ISPs (at least once due to the fact that I moved and old provider didn't have coverage at new location).
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday March 08 2022, @02:02AM (4 children)
I hate to sound like an old fart, but I remember a world before fees. Didn't know how good we had it then.
Well I get 4G, although I'm in an RF fringe, sometimes I see 8 Mbit / sec. and it's plenty for me. Most I do is watch a vid or two. At work I do the big downloads, updates, etc. I have one main full-time job, but do work in 3 other locations, each of which has fiber or quite high speed Comcast copper, so I'm quite well covered (and have keys and full 24/7 access to each building).
Incedently, I don't know if this is widely known, but Comcast has been installing fiber. A few years ago some unmarked trucks were pulling some kind of wire on poles on a street near me and I stopped to ask what it was. Nice gentleman said it's "Comcast fiber". I don't know if they'll pull it to houses yet, but backbones are getting faster.
I'll look into "Point-to-Point", but I doubt it's in my area. I'm in a semi-rural area. I have a few neighbors, but not dense neighborhoods where I am. And again, the 4G is quite Good Enough. (AT&T 3G just got killed off...)
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday March 08 2022, @02:51PM (3 children)
I've generally lived a few miles out of town when I got point-to-point wireless. It's an easier system to sell in rural areas, because you don't have to run lines to the house. Just need to get fiber to a tower and broadcast it from there.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday March 09 2022, @04:37AM (2 children)
I did a brief search- does it fall under "mesh networks"?
It'd be interesting to look into the legality/licensing and costs to buy the service and provide it to a neighborhood.
My strong hunch is that my 15 or so nearby neighbors all have very big company package deals (TV, Internet, phone) and it would be no advantage to them to buy into a shared network.
Trying to resist being philosophical, but I wish we Americans were more into sharing resources. I often think about lawnmowers: of my neighbors who cut their own lawns, at least 5 of us could co-own 1 mower, for example. Yes, I know, there are many details to work out, but I'm dreaming optimistically. :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday March 09 2022, @02:50PM (1 child)
Not really, it's Point-to-Point Wireless.
Example of a Really crappy point-to-point wireless ISP: https://www.txispeed.com/ [txispeed.com] (Don't use them! I'm getting a much better deal than the insanity listed on their site. You may not have but one or two providers available, though.) Still, I'm paying about $95 total for 35 down / 15 up or something like that. I may have a "business edition" that does 35 up and 35 down. I requested the best they could deliver and that's the best they can deliver, because of distance to tower, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday March 11 2022, @02:37PM
Just looked at my most recent bill and it's 25 down / 5 up. Seriously, it's not great, but could be (and I've had) worse.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"