'all those Zen 4 cores are running at 5 GHz' - Lisa Su
Published: 5th January 2022 | Source: AMD | Author: Mark Campbell
Ryzen 7000 is coming in H2 2022, and we are excited about it
At CES 2022, AMD revealed their "fastest gaming processor" with their Ryzen 7 5800X3D , but that isn't all that AMD has coming in 2022. Later this year, AMD's planning to launch its Ryzen 7000 series of Zen 4 processors, 5nm CPUs that are already running in AMD's labs.
During their Product Premiere keynote, AMD showcased prototype Zen 4 silicon working with a reference AMD motherboard with DDR5-4800 memory. Sadly, no performance results for this processor are available to compare with AMD's current offerings, but that hasn't stopped AMD from setting expectations high with Zen 4.
A new socket, new cores, 5nm, and a new platform
With their Ryzen 7000 series processors, AMD will be launching a new CPU socket called LGA1718 on a new CPU platform called AM5. With AM5, AMD will be supporting DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0, offering more memory bandwidth and connectivity bandwidth to desktop PCs than they ever have before.
The move to AM5 marks the end of AMD's long supported AM4 platform, with AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D being the last new processor for the platform. The move to LGA will bring an end to bent CPU pins, making AMD's processors less fragile and less prone to damage.
With TSMC's 5nm lithography node and AMD's new Zen 4 CPU cores, AMD plans to extend their "performance and performance per watt leadership" when their Ryzen 7000 series launches later this year. With the Ryzen 7000 series, AMD will be moving to a new core architecture and a new lithography node, which in Intel terminology is both a "tick" and a "tock".
The last time AMD delivered such a major core and lithography node shift at the same time was with Zen 2 and their Ryzen 3000 series. Zen 2 was a major turning point for AMD, and with similar technological shifts with Zen 4, there is little reason not to be hyped for AMD's next-generation processors.
Zen 2 delivered higher core counts, higher core clock speeds, greater performance per clock cycle [improved instructions per Cycle (IPC)], and greater power efficiency. AMD should be able to deliver those same benefits with Zen 4, and that is great news for PC gamers.
"All of those Zen 4 cores are running at 5 GHz"
During their Zen 4 tease, AMD showcased a prototype processor playing Halo Infinite's PC version, with Lisa Su claiming that "all of those Zen 4 cores are running at 5 GHz". At the time of writing, no currently available Ryzen processor can run at 5 GHz, never mind running at those speeds on all cores.
While AMD has not revealed how many cores their Ryzen 7000 prototype contains, the fact that an early prototype is already running at 5GHz on all cores is a major achievement for AMD. Early silicon often runs at lower clock speeds than their finalised retail counterparts, and that means that 5+ GHz clock speeds should be possible on AMD's Zen 4 CPUs.
Alongside these clock speed benefits, we expect AMD's Ryzen 7000 series processors to deliver more performance per clock, further increasing the single-threaded and multi-threaded performance of their next-generation processors. Zen 3 launched in late 2020, and we expect AMD to have made some major changes to their Zen architecture since Zen 3's cores were finalised. We expect big things from AMD.
Many unknowns remains
While AMD has discussed many of Zen 4's improvements, there are still a lot of mysteries surrounding Zen 4. Will Zen 4 include V-Cache? How many cores will the Ryzen 7000 series offer on AM5? How much will Ryzen 7000 cost? Will DDR5 availability improve in time for Zen 4's launch?
We expect AMD to discuss Zen 4 in more detail later this year, likely at Computex 2022 or around E3 2022. AMD's Ryzen 7000 series is due to launch in H2 2022, and we can't wait to hear more.
You can join the discussion on AMD's Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 teaser on the OC3D Forums .
Most Recent Comments
05-01-2022, 15:57:27
Dicehunter05-01-2022, 16:09:28
WYPOriginally Posted by Dicehunter  Will be interesting to see if Zen 4 can work with DDR4 as well, Would make adoption a hell of a lot easier as I cannot see DDR5 kits with decent speeds and timings being any less expensive by the time it comes out. |
As for adoption, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is for those who do not want a full platform upgrade. It supports motherboards as far back as X470 and B450.
DDR5 availability should improve a lot as this year progresses. It won't be as cheap as DDR4, but there are workloads that benefit from the bandwidth boost. Quote