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Some Ryzen 5 1600X buyers have found 8 Cores On Chips

AMD Ryzen 5 2600 specs

Some folks who’ve purchased AMD’s Ryzen 5 1600X or 1600 CPUs have found that their chips have eight cores out of the box — that is two more cores than expected. The reports surfaced on the Korean cooln.kr forums, which state that the processors still run at the clock speeds for the 1600X and 1600, but come with a pair of extra cores.

The unlocked Ryzen 5 1600X features the same base clock speed of 3.6GHz and a max Turbo of 4.0GHz, but it has 8 cores and 16 threads instead of the 6C/12T configuration.

In other words, the buyers are effectively getting a much cheaper version of the flagship 1800X. To give you an idea of the effective price cut, the 1600X is currently selling for around $240 on Amazon, whereas the 1800X will set you back $400.

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Some lucky users also benchmarked their chips only to find the performance is exactly like the 1800X:

AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 8-core benchmarks

It’s unclear how exactly something like this could happen. Maybe it’s some kind of factory mistake, but that seems unlikely given that each CPU is tested right before it is packaged to be shipped.

Or, AMD could have made the move amid the higher demand on Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 CPUs. Based on sales figures from German retailer Mindfactory, the latter has been the most popular AMD processor since April. So it’s possible the company had decided to utilize some of its (presumably less purchased) 8-core dies as Ryzen 5 to meet the demand.

Whatever be the case, it’s a massive win on the CPU lottery. It’s worth noting, though, that all the unlocked chips were manufactured in Malaysia in the same week, so this probably applies to a limited batch of CPUs. Still, if you’re out in the market for a Ryzen 5 1600(X), you never know – it could be your lucky day.

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