Before AMD announced Threadripper Intel had only a 12 core chip on the roadmap for the x299 platform, and charged around 1700$ for their 10 core chip. Now they will be charging 2000$ for 18 cores.
Competition is such a nice thing. Glad that AMD is back in the CPU game. Can only be good for us customers.
(Yes, I know that "normal people" don't even buy laptops anymore, let alone desktops. Please excuse my fantasy-world in which people buy desktop computers and even upgrade the amplifiers of their at least 7-piece stereo sound system)
IMO the Ryzen R7's have been a huge "mid-end" win for anyone doing any sort of multicore/CPU intensive work. Without competition, Intel's been gouging the market for the past few years.
Well, I think the current mid-range Ryzen's offer significant value and I imagine OEMs will start including them into their popular models sooner than later.
6 cores at 3.6ghz with a 4.0ghz boost for $239.
https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Ryzen-1600X-Processor-YD160XBCAEW...
More than likely we won't see any kind of price war. Instead we'll see minor price fighting on a per category basis. Intel's mid vs AMD's mid, etc. There's no drive down to the bottom with a duopoly.