AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors are the next generation of Team Red’s powerful Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series processors, and their release may not be as far off as you think.
The new chips will utilize the AMD Zen 4 5nm architecture, which is a vital technological advantage in their rivalry with Intel, especially considering the successful launch of the Intel Alder Lake processor series by Team Blue in 2021.
While there is still limited information about the Ryzen 7000 series, we got a look at a prototype chip during AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su. AMD CES 2022 keynote, and based on that address, as well as other leaks and rumors, we have a strong idea of what to expect from upcoming chips.
So what do we know about the AMD Ryzen 7000 series so far? Let’s dive in and find out.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series: straight to the point
- What is it? AMD’s next-generation desktop processor series
- What will it cost? Probably starting as low as $199 / £199 / AU$299 for Ryzen 5 and selling up to $599 / £599 / AU$849 for Ryzen 9 chips
- When do you leave? By the end of the third quarter of 2022, probably in September
AMD Ryzen 7000 series: release date
Rumor has consistently floated to September 2022 as the most likely release date for AMD’s initial lineup of Zen 4 processors, with multiple sources pointing to Q3 2022 as the release target, including Digitimes. And now we have official confirmation from AMD that the launch will indeed be in the third quarter, that is, no later than September.
However, before that happens, it has been reported that we will have some sort of teaser or early reveal, with AMD to host an exclusive look at AM5 motherboards on August 5 which will possibly delve into the Ryzen 7000 series processors. If true, this event could be a big headache for Intel.
Then there was the recent AMD update that added four chips to its feature library: the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X. This means that during the August 5th event, Team Red will be able to reveal more official information about these chips, ahead of their likely September release. This would certainly represent a healthy starting lineup for AMD to provide robust competition for Team Blue now.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series: specs
There have been a lot of rumors surrounding the specs of the Ryzen 7000 series lineup. Benchleaks Twitter Bot, probably consists of an 8-core/16-thread chip as well as a 16-core/32-thread chip. Indicates that the L2 cache size is 1MB per core, double that of Zen 3.
According to an unearthed reference result (which was quickly withdrawn), this 8-core CPU, which may have been the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X, has a reported boost speed of 5.2 GHz compared to the 4.7 GHz boost of the 5800X. It can also have an integrated GPU, which means it can come with built-in graphics. According to these same rumors, the processor has a ‘GFX1036’ GPU solution that runs between 1,000MHz and 2,000MHz, with the codename pointing to being RDNA 2.
A known twitter leaker suggested that the initial release of Zen 4, when it arrives, will consist of the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7800X, and Ryzen 5 7600X, with other models likely to come out after that. There’s a lot of talk too that these chips can introduce integrated Navi graphicssomething that could spell trouble for Intel, as it would improve the Zen 4 APU’s graphics capabilities, a boon for low-end gamers and PC builders.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series: Performance
The biggest performance improvement between the Zen 3 and Zen 4 chips is the latter’s use of the 5nm process. This upgrade could result in a 1.87x transistor density improvement over the 7nm TSMC process currently in use by the AMD Ryzen 5000 series. But while the density may have nearly doubled, that doesn’t necessarily mean twice the performance.
It also looks like the Ryzen 7000 series processors may see performance gains up to 40%, and it’s possible that we could see a 25% increase in IPC performance from AMD Zen 4. And if AMD sticks with PCIe 4.0, it could have 28 lanes in total (compared to 24 today). And with 5.0GHz core frequency talks to each core, that could be a big improvement over the Zen 3’s performance.
Of course, until AMD shows us the chips in action, we can’t say anything for sure.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series: What to Expect
The launch of the AMD Ryzen 7000 series is vital for Team Red’s future competitiveness in processor production, as Intel continues to hold a dominant position, especially after the launch of Alder Lake puts Team Blue back on top.
AMD is expected to will lose 26% of its 2022 CPU market share revenue due to the success of the Intel Alder Lake series. Overall, the high-end PC market has declined in popularity, and combined with the good reception of Intel’s Alder Lake processors, this confluence of forces has contributed to AMD’s loss of revenue.
In terms of the upcoming battle between the Raptor Lake series versus the Ryzen 7000 series, it looks like Intel has the upper hand. Not only will the former feature a significant performance boost, Raptor Lake-S chips supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory that gives you an even greater advantage. Whether AMD Zen 4 will continue to support DDR4 memory remains to be seen.
Then there’s the large architecture.LITTLE that Intel uses for its Alder Lake chips and plans to use it to power the next series of Raptor Lake processors. This Arm-designed architecture works by combining large “performance” cores with small, low-power “efficiency” cores. The former is reserved for active and intensive tasks, while the latter is designed to manage all the various small but background tasks that can hamper overall performance.
AMD has scoffed at this approach and is instead investing heavily in vertical chip stacking, which we first saw in our review of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D in April 2022. This technology allows AMD to ‘stack’ cache memory into the processor, which creates additional L3 cache to boost performance in games and server processes. This technology will almost certainly spread to more of the Ryzen 7000 lineup, and it’s going to be an interesting fight to see which of the two architectural moves will end up paying more in the future.