Computex22: AMD unveils Ryzen 7000 processors, up 15%!

AMD today unveiled its next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processor, based on its new Socket AM5 platform. The new Ryzen 7000 series processors introduce the new "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with the company claiming a 15% performance increase in single-threaded loads versus the "Zen 3" generation (in the 16-core/32-thread Zen 4 prototype compared to the Zen 4 processor). Ryzen 9 5950X).

Specifications of the new generation Ryzen 7000 and Zen4 cores

Other key specs about the architecture laid out by AMD include doubling the L2 cache per core to 1MB, an increase of 512KB overall older versions of "Zen". Ryzen 7000 CPUs will boost frequencies above 5.5GHz. Based on the way AMD has phrased its performance claims, the "+15%" figure appears to include the IPC gains, as well as the gains from higher frequencies, as well as the performance gains from DDR4 to DDR5. 

With Zen 4, AMD is introducing a new set of instructions to accelerate AI computing. The move to AMD's Socket AM5 allows the use of next-generation I/O, including DDR5 memory and PCI-Express Gen 5, for both the graphics card and an M.2 NVMe slot connected to the CPU socket.

As with the Ryzen 3000 "Matisse" and Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer" processors, the Ryzen 7000 is a multi-chip unit with up to two "Zen 4" CCDs (CPU core dies) and an I/O controller. The CCDs are built on the 5nm silicon manufacturing process, while the I/O mold is built on the 6nm process, which is a major upgrade over the previous generation of I/O molds built on the 12nm process.

Better manufacturing technology all around, a big surprise!

Notably, the 5nm jump for CCD enabled AMD to cram up to 16 Zen 4 cores per socket, all of which are "performance" cores. Zen 4 CPU cores are larger, due to an increased number of internal components that deliver said IPC increases and new instruction sets, as well as a larger L2 cache per core. The pleasant surprise here is that the cIOD packs an integrated GPU based on the RDNA2 architecture! graphical. So now most Ryzen 7000 processors will pack an integrated graphics solution, just as they do with Intel Core desktop processors.

The Socket AM5 platform is capable of providing up to 24 PCI-Express 5.0 lanes of the processor. 16 of these threads are for PCI-Express (PEG) graphics slots, while four go to the M.2 NVMe slot attached to the CPU. And if you remember, Intel "Alder Lake" processors have 16 5th-gen paths to PEG, but the CPU-attached NVMe slot works as standard only with Intel.

Better Memory, More Capable Expansion Ports

In any case, the processor features dual-channel (four sub-channels) DDR5 memory, similar to "Alder Lake", but without DDR4 memory support. The platform also offers up to 14 USB ports at 20Gbps, including Type-C ports. With the integrated graphics solution now available for most processor models, motherboards will have up to four DisplayPort 2 or HDMI 2.1 ports. The company will also standardize the Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth WLAN standards it co-developed with MediaTek, making motherboard designers move away from Intel-made WLAN solutions.

different slices

The new processors will be launched in the fall of 2022 when the AMD AM5 platform will come with three motherboard chipset options - AMD X670 Extreme (X670E), AMD X670, and AMD B650. The X670 Extreme is likely made by reusing the new 6nm cIOD die as the motherboard chipset, which means the 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes will work toward building an "all Gen 5" platform.

It's also very likely that the X670 (non-extreme) is actually a revamped X570 chip, which means you'll get up to 20 4th generation PCIe lanes from the chipset while keeping the attached PCIe Gen 5 PEG and NVMe connections from the CPU. central. The B650 chipset is designed to offer Gen 4 PCIe PEG and Gen 5 NVMe standards attached to the CPU, and will likely come with Gen 3 connectivity from the chipset.

AMD is betting big on the next generation of M.2 NVMe solid-state storage with the PCI-Express Gen 5 standard, and we can say that it has become the first PCIe Gen 5-based M.2 desktop platform. The company is said to be working with Phison to optimize the first stage of storage that will be based on the platform's Gen 5 SSD standard. Also, all major motherboard vendors are ready for Socket AM5 motherboards. AMD showed off a few of them, including the ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, ASRock X670E Taichi, MSI MEG X670E ACE, GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Xtreme, and BIOSTAR X670E Valkyrie.

Innovative new technologies

AMD is introducing as many innovations at the platform level as it has Smart Access Memory with the Radeon RX 6000 series, which is based on PCIe Resizable BAR technology by PCI-SIG. The new AMD Smart Access Storage technology builds on Microsoft DirectStorage by adding awareness of the AMD platform and improving its handling of AMD CPU and GPU architectures. DirectStorage enables direct transfers between the storage device and GPU memory, without having to route data through the CPU cores as usual.

Reported performance results

It's worth noting here that by taking a closer look at AMD's announced results, we found that the "15% IPC gain" number was measured using Cinebench and comparing the Ryzen 9 5950X (not the 5800X3D), on a Socket AM4 platform with DDR4-3600 CL16 memory, to the 4th generation DDR4-3600 CL16 processor. New with the new Zen 4 platform powered by DDR5-6000 CL30 memory.

In the presentation, we also saw a live beta comparison between the "Ryzen 7000 Series" processor and the Intel Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" processor. It is worth noting here that AMD did not reveal the model of the microprocessor, but only indicated that it comes with 16 cores, and if we follow the naming of Zen 3, it is likely that the processor will come with the name of the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X. The comparison ran Blender rendering software, which loads all CPU cores. And here we've seen how the Ryzen 7000 chip gets the job done in 204 seconds, compared to the i9-12900K and its 297-second time, which is a huge 31% difference - which is quite impressive.

However, it's worth noting that the memory configurations in this comparison were a bit mismatched, and we don't know exactly why. Intel works with DDR5-6000 CL30, while Ryzen was tested with DDR5-6400 CL32 - this means lower latency for an Intel processor, and higher frequency for Ryzen which of course gives some preference to the latter. But although we would have liked to see identical memory usage, from what we have seen previously, it is expected that the differences due to memory configuration will be very small.

However, all of that will become clear with the official launch and our official reviews, of course, don't miss it!

launch date

AMD is targeting a fall 2022 launch of its Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" desktop processor family, which will put us on a date between September and October. The company is likely to detail the "Zen 4" microarchitecture and the list of Ryzen 7000 processors further in the coming weeks. You can watch the full show again on YouTube from the link below. 

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