“At AMD, we’re all about high-performance and adaptive computing,” Su said, noting that the company wants to create products that help solve the world’s most challenging problems. The company will introduce four new architectures to the market in the coming quarters, including the new RDNA for graphics, Zen 4C and a next-generation XDNA SoC.
(Image credit: AMD) “At AMD, we love computing, and we especially love all gamers and PC enthusiasts,” he added, announcing the new Ryzen 7000 platform powered by Zen 4. “Today it’s all about next-generation Ryzen processors.” The company’s goal with the Ryzen 7000 series is to push performance limits with efficiency. AMD said it focused on a new core design that combines industry-leading performance and industry-leading energy efficiency. The Ryzen 7000 is the first 5nm desktop processor and will use the new AM5 socket that supports DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. When AMD set out to build Zen 4, it only expected a 10% IPC boost compared to Zen 3, but careful tweaks and optimizations resulted in a bigger performance boost of 13% compared to Zen 3. The new processor also achieves a faster 5, 7 GHz clock speed, which is 800 MHz higher than the Ryzen 5000. All this leads to a 29% single-thread performance gain compared to the 5000 series.
Ryzen 9 7950X
(Image credit: AMD) The flagship Ryzen 9 7950X is “simply the best” CPU for gaming and content creation, AMD boasted. “We have 16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.7 gigahertz boost, 80 megabyte cache and 170 watt TDP envelope,” Su said. Compared to the Ryzen 5950X, the 7950X offers 15% more performance in popular games at 1080p, AMD revealed. Content creation performance has been boosted by 40% compared to the 5950X, and AMD has stated that “the 7950X is the world’s fastest CPU.”
(Image credit: AMD) The flagship Ryzen 7000 chipset delivers up to 62% more computing performance for content creators. Compared to Intel’s 12th Gen Core i9-12900K processor, AMD claimed the Ryzen 9 7950X offers 62% higher performance, but achieves this with 47% better performance per watt, leading to greater energy efficiency. Additionally, the Ryzen 7970X offers 11% faster single-threaded performance and more than 44% faster multi-threaded performance compared to its Intel 12th Gen rival. The company is also adding to the Ryzen 7000 lineup across all price points with three additional chips.
More models in the Ryzen 7000 family
(Image credit: AMD) There will be three additional Ryzen processor models in the 7000 family, AMD said, including the mainstream Ryzen 7600X. Compared to the Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K processor, AMD released its own performance benchmark that showed the 7600X achieving consistently higher frame rates. The Ryzen 5 7600X processor has six cores and 12 threads. AMD’s mainstream Ryzen 5 7600X is said to offer up to 11% faster performance improvements compared to the Core i9-12900K. “Now, if you look at a broader set of games, the mainstream 7600X delivers an average of 5% faster game performance,” Su said. The 7600X starts at $299. Other members of the Ryzen 7000 family include the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X, priced at $549, and the octa-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 7700X processor, priced at $399. The flagship 7950X costs $699.
Supported by Zen 4
(Image credit: AMD) “Zen 4 continues our tradition of new CPU performance delivering high performance on schedule,” said AMD CTO Mark Papermaster, introducing the new architecture powering the Ryzen 7000 series. “We have several improvements in architecture and technology compared to Zen 3,” Papermaster added. “I’m pleased to share that Zen 4 brings a significant instruction per clock lift of 13%. We’ve added a new front-end design to better feed the execution pipelines for machine learning and high compute workloads. We’ve expanded our x86 Support instructions to include an AVX-512 And finally, we leveraged the most advanced process node along with AMD’s design performance to bring these significant performance and energy efficiency gains.” The 13% increase is calculated using a geometric index on 22 representative workloads, including gaming and content creation benchmarks. AMD also noted that Zen 4 is a derivative of Zen 3. With Zen 3, AMD increased the execution width, and with Zen 4, the improvements come from front-end and industry predictions, increasing the capability of more instructions per cycle. Since the first Zen was released, Zen 4 has gained 235% IPC, Papermaster exclaimed. With AVX-512, there is a 1.3x improvement in 32-bit precision floating point inference operation compared to Zen 3. There is a 2.5x improvement in VNNI, which leads to faster image processing and natural language performance. Zen 4 is based on a 5nm node that uses an improved metal stack, 4th generation FinFET technology and an 18% reduction in die area despite adding more features. A 15-layer metal stack has also been co-optimized to provide high-frequency, high-density routing capability.
(Image credit: AMD) “Collaboration around design and process delivers leading performance for Zen 4,” Papermaster said, leading to 62% lower power or 49% more performance compared to Zen 3. “AMD is committed to high performance with sustainability, reducing the environmental impact of HPC Processors.” The company claimed it had pushed its lead over Intel, noting that Zen 4 is 50% smaller than the competition and 47% more energy efficient.
(Image credit: AMD) Looking ahead, the successor to Zen 5 in the future will be a 4nm/3nm with a new Zen 5 family in 2024, AMD revealed during its presentation. Zen 5 is scheduled for release in 2024 and will be further optimized for artificial intelligence workloads.
AM5 platform
(Image credit: AMD) The new AM5 platform succeeds the AM4 slot. The AM5 platform starts with an LGA 1718 pin socket for easier installation. Socket power delivery has been increased to 230W to unlock more performance, AMD said, while providing performance leadership. The platform supports DDR5 and PCIe5 technologies. The AM5 is also backwards compatible with AM4 coolers for maximum compatibility.
(Image credit: AMD) AM5 will support X670 and B650 motherboards. The X series, coming in September, will support more memory. Series B will arrive in October and will be more value based. Motherboards start at $125, the company said. PCIe 5.0 support on these boards doubles the bandwidth for each lane, AMD said. In November, PCIe 5.0 storage devices will be available from a wide range of global partners, including Crucial, Micron, Phison, Asus, Corsair, Gigabyte, MSI, PNY, Seagate and others. The AM5 platform will also use DDR5 memory. AMD said that DDR4 has now “reached the end of its evolution” and DDR5 brings higher capacity, lower latency and high data rates. AM5 will exclusively use DDR5 memory.
(Image credit: AMD) The AM5 will debut AMD EXPO memory technology for easy overclocking, which can deliver up to 11% improved 1080p gaming performance. The company said EXPO is based on clear licensing protocols and open standards. AMD expects to see more than 15 memory kits at launch supporting AMD EXPO. With AM5, AMD said it is committed to supporting the platform until at least 2025.
(Image credit: AMD) In addition to Ryzen, AMD also previewed its new RDNA 3 platform for graphics. Su said that RDNA 3 will offer 50% more performance per watt than current Radeon GPUs. The RDNA 3 platform will power AMD’s next-generation Radeon graphics cards. RDNA 3 will be released later this year, according to AMD.
