AMD had been written off as a serious processor maker, before it made a spectacular comeback in 2017, with the Ryzen and EPYC series, based on the new "Zen" micro-architecture. These chips disrupted Intel's 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" family enough to force their premature exit from the market, and the entry of 8th generation Core "Coffee lake" processors with 50-100% increases in core-counts. The Core i7-8700K took back the performance crown from the Ryzen 7 1800X, and the Core i5-8600K won back the $200-$250 segment, which some refer to as the "sweetspot" segment, from the Ryzen 5 1600X. It's time now for AMD's fightback, with the new Ryzen 5 2600X and the Ryzen 7 2700X.

The first wave of AMD's Ryzen 2000 series "Pinnacle Ridge" processor family is rather brief, with only four SKUs, two 8-core, and two 6-core. The 8-core parts compete with Intel's 8th generation Core i7, while the 6-core parts compete with its latest Core i5 series. Leading the pack is the 8-core Ryzen 7 2700X, followed by the Ryzen 7 2700. The 6-core Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 5 2600 follow.