AMD’s bet for the next generation of microprocessors is very solid. Lisa Su, the general director of this company, has revealed a few hours ago in more detail than on previous occasions what do they offer us its upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors with Zen 4 microarchitecture for desktops.
And what they promise us is, as we are about to find out in this article, more of everything. And better. The arrival of a new batch of microprocessors should be supported by a significant improvement on all fronts, but this is not always the case. Fortunately, what AMD tells us about these Ryzen 7000 Looks very good. And, in addition, we already know when they will arrive in stores. An advance: they are about to fall.
More efficient and with a very competitive IPC
During the last few months AMD has been gradually revealing the characteristics of its Ryzen 7000 processors, so what it has told us on this occasion is nothing more than the icing on the cake that announces its imminent launch. Broadly speaking, the two great assets of these chips are its 5nm photolithography and its Zen 4 microarchitecture, which, as we can guess, takes Zen 3 as its starting point.
However, if we scratch a bit below the surface, we will soon discover that these processors have many other attractive features derived from the two that we have just noticed. One of the most surprising is that they will be able to work at a maximum clock frequency of up to 5.7GHz (This figure reflects the maximum turbo frequency of the monstrous Ryzen 9 7950X equipped with 16 cores and 32 execution threads). In the following table we have collected the main differences between the Ryzen 7000 processors and their predecessors:
ryzen 7000 | ryzen 5000 | ryzen 3000 | |
|---|---|---|---|
microarchitecture | Zen 4 | Zen 3 | Zen 2 |
ccd photolithography | 5nm | 7nm | 7nm |
iod photolithography | 6nm | 12nm | 12nm |
cores | up to 16 | up to 16 | up to 16 |
threads | up to 32 | up to 32 | up to 32 |
gpu microarchitecture | RDNA2 | Nope | Nope |
plinth | AM5 | AM4 | AM4 |
principal memory | DDR5 | DDR4 | DDR4 |
pci-express | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
On the other hand, in this second table we summarize the specifications of the imminent Ryzen 7000. The model that serves as the gateway to the family is the Ryzen 5 7600X, while the most ambitious, as we imagined, is the Ryzen 9 7950X:
cores | threads | base frequency | maximum frequency | l2 cache | l3 cache | tdp | price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ryzen 9 7950x | 16 | 32 | 4.5GHz | 5.7GHz | 16MB | 64MB | 170 watts | $699 |
ryzen 9 7900x | 12 | 24 | 4.7GHz | 5.6GHz | 12MB | 64MB | 170 watts | $549 |
ryzen 7 7700x | 8 | 16 | 4.5GHz | 5.4GHz | 8MB | 32MB | 105 watts | $399 |
ryzen 5 7600x | 6 | 12 | 4.7GHz | 5.3GHz | 6MB | 32MB | 105 watts | $299 |
The first slide that is worth stopping at reflects the increase in IPC that, according to AMD, the new Ryzen 7000 with Zen 4 microarchitecture gives us when compared to comparable Zen 3 chips by locking their clock frequency to 4 GHz And the promise is attractive: nothing less than a 13% increase.
However, it is important that we bear in mind that, as we have just seen, the Ryzen 7000 can work at a higher clock rate at the maximum frequency of the Ryzen 5000, so the difference in performance between two comparable models of these families should be clearly noticeable and in favor of the new Zen 4 processors.
On the next slide AMD justifies where does it come from the increase in the IPC linked to Zen 4 that promises us in its next generation of microprocessors. To make this improvement possible, the engineers of this company have refined the management policies of the L2 cache, the execution engine, the code branch prediction algorithms, the data and instruction loading and storage operations, and, above all, , the front end in all its extension.
The next . As we have seen above, the CCD of AMD Zen 4 chips is manufactured using the photolithographic process of 5nm from TSMC. In addition, this brand promises us a very favorable increase in performance per watt, although it is something that we will have to check when the opportunity arises to analyze the new Ryzen 7000.
In the following graph we can see how the Ryzen 9 5950X (in gray) and Ryzen 9 7950X (in orange) processors perform against each other when their TDP is adjusted to 65, 105 and 170 watts. The improvement that the processor with Zen 4 microarchitecture promises us is impressive, although we must not lose sight of the fact that these are the figures announced by AMD, and, therefore, the most prudent thing is to accept them with reservations until we have the opportunity to analyze them in our own facilities.
Another important fact about the Ryzen 7000 processors that we already knew, but that is worth reviewing: they will use the new socket AM5 type LGA-1718. This physical interface is capable of delivering up to 230 watts of power to the CPU. And, again as we already knew, the next AMD processors will use DDR5 memory modules and implement the high-performance PCI Express 5.0 interface.
Ryzen 7000 chips are ready to hit stores
They are just around the corner. AMD has confirmed that its next generation of Ryzen 7000 microprocessors with Zen 4 microarchitecture will land in stores next september 27. And with it will come a new batch of motherboards equipped with the X670 chipsets (motherboards with the B650 chipset will presumably arrive at the end of October). Sounds good. Really good. Now we just have to cross our fingers and trust that our tests reflect everything that AMD has promised us.
