AMD Zen 4 and RDNA3 Architectures Launching Around the Same Time in 2022

AMD is expected to debut its next-generation "Zen 4" microarchitecture and RDNA3 graphics architectures around the same time, in 2022, according to internal company roadmaps seen by Broly_X1 on Twitter, who has leaked AMD roadmaps before. The "Zen 4" microarchitecture in particular sees AMD debut processors based on the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, and the company's first implementation of an EUV node. With "Zen 4" in 2022, the company could target a so-called "Zen 3+" microarchitecture launch later in 2021, which combines the "Zen 3" CCD with 64 MB of 3D Vertical Cache, a feature that enables a 15% gaming performance uplift , the company claims.

The RDNA3 graphics architecture could see a greater deal of effort toward improving real-time raytracing performance, with more fixed-function hardware dedicated to raytracing. The architecture could see an even bigger generational performance uplift than the one seen between RDNA and RDNA2, according to a PCGamesN report . Across the fence, "Zen 4" and RDNA3 will be squaring off against Intel's "Meteor Lake" and NVIDIA's "ADA Lovelace" architectures, respectively. RDNA3 finishes tape-out toward the end of 2021, as the 5 nm EUV node is already available to AMD for prototyping.