AMD started 2022 with its new Ryzen 6000 mobile CPUs and its current-generation gaming king, the Ryzen 5800X3D. The real next-generation AMD CPUs will come out later this year. They will have a new Zen 4 architecture, a new 5nm production node, faster clock speeds than ever before, and a much longer list of supported features and hardware. The Ryzen 7000 processors are expected to be the most important AMD CPUs since the first-generation Ryzen chips came out in 2017.
Here’s all we know so far about the Ryzen 7000.
Pricing and Availability
AMD said at Computex 2022 that its Ryzen 7000 CPUs and AM5 motherboards would be available in the fall of 2022, which would be between September and November. That’s a little later than some people had hoped, but it shows that the original predictions for Q3 were more likely to be about late Q3 than early Q3.
Pricing is still up in the air, but it’s likely to be similar to its current range of Ryzen 5000 processors, which kept their launch prices for most of their lives and only dropped when Intel’s highly competitive Alder Lake processors came out.
For reference, here are the prices of Ryzen 5000 chips at the time of writing:
- Ryzen 5 5600X: $200
- Ryzen 7 5700X: $299
- Ryzen 7 5800X: $310
- Ryzen 7 5800X3D: $450
- Ryzen 9 5900X: $391
- Ryzen 9 5950X: $549
However, they are substantially lower than when the chips were first released and have been discounted ahead of Zen 4’s launch, so expect costs to be about 50% higher when Zen 4 is released.
Architecture
The new Zen 4 architecture is used in the Ryzen 7000 CPUs. This is a continuation of AMD’s Zen microarchitecture, which has been in use since Ryzen 1000, but it builds on TSMC’s new improved 5nm production node and continues the advancement of the chiplet design pioneered on Zen 2.
The 5nm node, dubbed N5 by TSMC, is said to provide a 15% speed gain and 1.8X transistor density over N7, while also consuming 30% less power for better performance and efficiency. That’s not to assume Zen 4 will replicate those gains, but it’s likely what allowed for such huge clock speed increases without a spike in TDP.
With considerable architectural improvements, AMD confirmed a maximum TDP of 170W on its new-generation CPUs. Each 5nm chiplet will have up to eight cores and a 1MB L2 cache per core, which will be doubled. A new 6nm I/O die with inbuilt Radeon RDNA 2 graphics and AI acceleration will be included on each die.
It’s unclear whether the new chips will benefit from AMD’s 3D VCache technology, which was first seen in the 5800X3D CPU, but since AMD hasn’t said much about it, it’s possible we’ll see it used for a mid-generation refresh to boost gaming performance between CPU lines, similar to what AMD did with Zen 3.
Performance
Details on how well AM4 CPUs operate are starting to emerge even if we must look at them with scepticism at first.
According to AMD, single-threaded performance on Zen 4 CPUs will be up to 15 percent faster than on Zen 3 CPUs, giving Zen 4 CPUs a significant performance edge over both Zen 3 and Intel’s 12th generation Alder Lake processors.
Process and design efficiency improvements, as well as a significant increase in frequency, all contribute to the improved performance. It was shown at Computex 2022 that Ghostwire Tokyo could be run at up to 5.52 GHz on a Zen 4 CPU, but the frequency fluctuated between there and 5.3GHz. While the 5950X is capable of 4.9GHz, this is far higher than the 5950X’s usual real-world frequencies, which were lower in games.
With a maximum TDP of just 170W, AMD would have a considerable advantage over Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs in terms of both gaming performance and power consumption, which would be a huge boon for the company. However, that doesn’t imply that AMD’s pre-production chips aren’t going to face severe competition from the impending Raptor Lake CPUs.
As far as multi-threaded performance goes, AMD claims considerable gains in productivity apps. In a demonstration at Computex, an unknown eight-core Ryzen 7000 CPU competed against Intel’s 12900K in Blender. In the short term, it outperformed the Intel CPU by up to 31%.
Support for DDR5 memory is also expected to improve performance. At Computex, AMD claimed to be using a 6,000MHz DDR5 memory kit, which is much faster than the 4800MHz permitted by Intel’s 12th generation CPUs. Read also; AMD Ryzen 6000 Series: Everything You Need to Know
Zen 4 may or may not support DDR4 memory as well, but according to Tom’s Hardware, AMD’s AM5 platform — which is expected to house Ryzen 7000 CPUs — will only support DDR5 memory, with support for DDR4 memory potentially being discontinued completely. Because DDR5 memory is currently more expensive than DDR4 memory, buying memory to accompany a Ryzen 7000 CPU may necessitate paying a premium.
New chipset and a new socket
It’s time to say goodbye to the AM4 socket that AMD has been using since the debut of the first-generation Ryzen processors. By the time the next-generation Ryzen processors arrive, the socket will be about five years old, so this isn’t surprising.
It will employ an LGA1718, Land Grid Array design, with the CPU pins on the motherboard instead of the CPU. AMD’s Ryzen 5000-series processors employ the older Pin Grid Array (PGA) socket design, while Intel has been using LGA sockets for several generations.
As the name suggests, LGA1718 will contain 1,718 pins on the motherboard. AM4’s 1,331 pins are proof that LGA designs can support a higher pin density. DDR5 memory and PCI-Express 5.0 will benefit from the extra pins, as will the system’s overall performance.
The 600 series of motherboards will use the new AM5 sockets. Extreme motherboards will feature the highest quality VRMs for enhanced overclocking and will have PCI-E 5 support on every M2 and PCI-E slot; X670 boards will feature mainstream overclocking potential, PCI-E 5 on both the first x16 PCI-Express slot, and at least one M.2 slot; B650 motherboards will have PCI-E 5 for at least one M.2 slot, and will instead feature PCI-E 4 for the PCI-Express slots.
Up to 24 PCIe 5 lanes, 14 USB ports, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2 will be supported by these new motherboards. Even better, AMD 600 motherboards will be able to accommodate up to four HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 2 connections thanks to the new integrated graphics.
The socket size of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors will remain the same, allowing for complete compatibility with AM4 cooling even if the company is switching to a new socket design.
Integrated Graphics and APUs
Since Ryzen 6000 and 7000 didn’t have integrated graphics, AMD isn’t releasing any new mainstream Ryzen CPUs or APUs with that feature in the next Ryzen 7000. Due to AMD’s decision to place the GPU on the I/O die rather than the main CPU chiplets, no Ryzen 7000 chips will be missing an onboard RDNA 2 GPU. Read more; AMD unveils Ryzen PRO 6000 Business Laptop Processors
These chips will have exceptional gaming capabilities even when they have not connected with a dedicated graphics card thanks to the RDNA 2 architecture used by AMD on its Radeon RX 6000 graphics cards, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and the Ryzen 6000 mobile CPUs.
This is wonderful for people who don’t want to spend money on a new GPU, but it’s also useful for diagnosing problems with existing GPUs.
