Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced "together we advance_PCs," a livestream premiere to unveil next generation AMD PC products. Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su, CTO and EVP Mark Papermaster, and other AMD executives will present details on the latest "Zen 4" architecture that powers upcoming AMD Ryzen processors and the all new AM5 platform built around the latest technologies including DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, all designed to drive a new era of performance desktop PCs.

The show will premiere at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, August 29, on the AMD YouTube channel. A replay can be accessed a few hours after the conclusion of the event at AMD.com/Ryzen.

CORSAIR, a world leader in enthusiast components for gamers, creators, and PC builders, today announced its readiness for the new AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors and accompanying motherboard chipsets. Featuring all new Zen 4 CPU architecture, AMD Ryzen 7000 Series chips deliver a substantial performance boost over previous-generation processors, and CORSAIR has the components to help support this generational upgrade. Those looking to build a new AMD system can take advantage of the free online CORSAIR PC Builder to help shortlist compatible parts for their new system.

CORSAIR has been working closely with AMD in the lead-up to the AMD Ryzen 7000 Series launch, and has already updated its PC Builder database to include the new processors so that you can curate a parts list for a powerful new AMD PC in minutes. The CORSAIR PC Builder takes your chosen CPU, graphics card, and motherboard and checks them for compatibility against a vast database of PC parts, coming up with a comprehensive list of CORSAIR parts guaranteed to work with your system. From a correctly sized case and appropriate fans, to a PSU rated to power your build and even RGB lighting, the CORSAIR PC Builder takes the guesswork out of building your new Ryzen 7000 Series powered PC. The CORSAIR PC Builder is even able to intelligently optimize the parts selected, so that you don't overspend or bottleneck your build with a mismatched component.

AMD has reportedly pushed market-availability date of its next-generation Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" desktop processors from September 15 to September 27, 2022. This would clash with the rumored product-announcement date of the Intel 13th Generation Core "Raptor Lake" processor series. If true, this is possibly a move designed to prevent Intel from sharing performance numbers of Ryzen 7000-series processors in the product-announcement presentation of "Raptor Lake," as Intel can only compare the chips it is announcing with competing AMD products that are available in the market at the time.

A September 27 market availability could still mean a late-August product announcement along the sidelines of Gamescom, with product reviews in the following weeks. It's just that the market availability date is now pushed to late-September. Intel's launch cycle for "Raptor Lake" could see a late-September announcement, but it remains to be seen if product availability is immediate, or timed weeks later. The 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processor is built on the same LGA1700 package as current "Alder Lake," and compatible with existing Intel 600-series motherboards with a UEFI firmware update; although will be launched alongside new Intel 700-series chipset motherboards. AMD's Ryzen 7000-series product launch will be timed with those of compatible Socket AM5 motherboards based on the AMD 600-series chipset, and a new line of DDR5 memory modules featuring the AMD EXPO technology.

Here's the first render of an AMD Ryzen 7000-series retail box. Shown here, is what a Ryzen 9 7000-series PIB package could look like. It shows what is possibly a thick cardboard box with the processor window located front and center, instead of one of the sides. The front face features a prominent dark AMD Arrow logo with the processor window in the middle. The side features a Ryzen motif with the "9" brand extension shown prominently. From the looks of it, the Ryzen 9 7000-series box appears to have a tray-type design, in which an inner tray slides out from the sides. It's possible that the Ryzen 7 7000-series and Ryzen 5 7000-series come in a simpler monolithic paperboard box.

The source of this render also revealed to VideoCardz that the Ryzen 7 7700X will launch at an identical SEP pricing to the Ryzen 7 5700X, which is USD $299. The 7800X, on the other hand, could be priced higher than the 5800X launch SEP, which could put it around $399. Similarly, the Ryzen 9 7900X and 7950X could be priced higher than the 5900X and 5950X. AMD is expected to unveil the Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" desktop processors at an even on August 29, with market-availability slated for September 15.

GIGABYTE today showed off its upcoming AMD X670E and X670 chipset-based Socket AM5 motherboard lineup for the Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" desktop processors due to launch in September. Given AMD's push for PCI-Express Gen 5 connectivity beyond just the PEG slot, the new X670E chipset, with multiple Gen 5 M.2 slots, covers the upper end of the GIGABYTE AORUS motherboard series, with the X670E AORUS Xtreme and the X670E AORUS Master. The lower-end of the lineup is based on the X670, with the AORUS Pro and AORUS Elite tiers.

Both the X670E and X670 offer at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot (which can be further split into two x8 Gen 5 slots); and at least one PCI-Express 5.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot wired to the AM5 processor. The X670E is differentiated in having an additional Gen 5 M.2 slot that is wired to the SoC, besides downstream Gen 5 PCIe connectivity from the chipset. The AORUS Xtreme leads the pack with a monstrous 18-phase VRM that uses 105 A DrMOS, an 8-layer PCB, four Gen 5 M.2 slots, the highest-grade onboard audio with ESS-made headphones DAC, AQuantia 10 GbE, WiFi 6E, and a plethora of overclocker-friendly features.

With AMD making it clear in investor-communications that its next-generation Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" desktop processors will launch before October 2022; the countdown to their launch started. Wccftech got hold of a possible set of key dates. Apparently, August 28 is the big date on which AMD will formally announce its Ryzen 7000 Socket AM5 desktop processor lineup.

Following the August 28 announcement, the review NDA—the date on which you can read the first reviews of the retail products—is reportedly set at September 13. Market availability follows two days later, starting September 15. This is when you can actually buy the processor and compatible motherboards off the shelves. There's no word on a pre-order date; but it's always advisable to catch reviews before committing to purchase something that ships before launch date. These dates align with a mid-June leak of the launch date by AMD in a retailer promotion meeting held in China.

During this year's Flash Memory Summit, Phison, a company known for SSD controllers and now flash drives, demonstrated a system running AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors based on Zen 4 architecture. What is interesting about the shown specification is that the system was running an engineering sample of an upcoming Zen 4-based CPU with the latest storage technologies at impressive speeds. Using a Phison PS5026-E26 SSD controller, also called E26, the PCIe 5.0 SSD is powered by Micron's latest 232-layer TLC NAND flash. This new NAND technology will also bring greater densities to the market by promising higher endurance, higher read/write speeds, and better efficiency.

With AMD's upcoming AM5 platform, support for PCIe 5.0 SSDs is a welcome addition. And we today have some preliminary tests that show just how fast these SSDs can run. In CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4, it achieved over 10 GB/s in both read and write. We know that the E26 controller is capable of 12 GB/s speeds, so more fine-tuning is needed. Being an early sample, we expect final specifications to be better. The system is powered by an engineering sample of a six-core, twelve-threaded Zen 4 CPU running at unknown clocks, codenamed 100-000000593-20_Y. We can expect to see more of this technology once AMD's AM5 platform lands and Phison-powered SSDs hit the shelves in September.

AMD in its Q2-2022 financial results call with analysts, confirmed that the company's next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processors based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture will debut this quarter (i.e. Q3-2022, or before October 2022). CEO Dr Lisa Su stated "Looking ahead, we're on track to launch our all-new 5 nm Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and AM5 platforms later this quarter with leadership performance in gaming and content creation."

The company also stated that its next-generation Radeon 7000 series GPUs based on the RDNA3 graphics architecture are on-track for launch "later this year," without specifying whether it meant this quarter, which could mean launch any time before January 2023. AMD is also on course to beating Intel to the next-generation of server processors with DDR5 and PCIe Gen 5 support, with its EPYC "Genoa" 96-core processor slated for later this year, as Intel struggles with a Q1-2023 general availability timeline for its Xeon Scalable "Sapphire Rapids" processor.

An alleged AMD Ryzen 7000 pre-release sample was shown running DDR5-6400 memory speed, which is already a 23 percent memory overclock on top of the DDR5-5200 native memory clock speed support. We've known since April that the Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors are being designed with a focus on good memory overclocking headroom, and this is the first instance of an enthusiast-class memory speed on this platform. The feat was pulled off by Toppc, a professional overclocker affiliated with MSI.

The most interesting aspect of this feat is the density. The machine is shown featuring 64 GB of memory—something currently only doable with 32 GB quad-rank (double-sided) DIMMs; or by populating all four slots on the motherboard with 16 GB dual-rank (single-sided) DIMMs, or a 2DPC setup, which would make this feat all the more impressive. The CPU-Z screenshot by Toppc reveals a DRAM clock of 3202 MHz (DDR5-6404), and timings of 32-38-38-96. The Socket AM5 Ryzen 7000 desktop processors only support DDR5 memory type (no backwards-compatibility with DDR4), and AMD states that since it is betting solely on DDR5 (with no DDR4 sidewheels), enthusiasts can expect a good memory overclocking experience.

An innocuous search through the media asset-bank on the AMD website revealed the processor model numbers of the four Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" chips the company plans to debut its next-generation lineup with. These include the Ryzen 9 7950X, the Ryzen 9 7900X, the Ryzen 7 7700X, and the Ryzen 5 7600X. Older reports theorized that AMD could stick to a slim launch cycle with just 4 SKUs to be launched initially, and the series expanding to cover various price-points, later in 2023. The company didn't provide any specifications of these processors. It is rumored that AMD could announce these processors as early as in August, with availability slated for mid-September, 2022.

An AMD engineering sample CPU with the model name 100-000000593-20_Y has appeared in a couple of graphics rendering tests, paired with an NVIDIA RTX A4000 GPU. The CPU appears to be a 6-core Ryzen 7000-series chip that was fitted to a Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master motherboard. Based on the leaked information that was dug up by @TUM_APISAK, it has a clock speed of 4.4 GHz, but little else is known about the CPU. Basemark might not be the most widely used test out there and both the tests that were run, were GPU rendering tests. However, courtesy of @harukaze5719, we have some graphs comparing the alleged Ryzen 7000-series CPU with a Ryzen 9 5950X which is using the same GPU.

The first test is an OpenGL test where the 6-core CPU beats the 16-core CPU by a not insignificant 9.5 percent overall, but by more than 11 percent when it comes to the minimum frame rate in the benchmark. This is a significant performance lead, although in the Vulcan test, the difference is somewhat smaller with a 7 percent lead for the 6-core CPU. It's unclear how well these tests scale with more CPU cores, so we wouldn't read too much into either of these benchmark results, but it seems like AMD's Zen 4 architecture will deliver on what AMD has promised based on these early tests. We've independently verified that the numbers are in the ballpark of the engineering samples that AMD's partners have today, which means that these numbers haven't been faked in any way. Keep in mind that AMD is still working on its AM5 platform and it's still early days. We understand that AMD has recently fixed a few platform bugs that would've been showstoppers if AMD had launched the AM5 platform with them still present.

NVIDIA is reportedly looking to reduce orders for 5 nm wafers from TSMC as it anticipates a significant drop in demand from both gamers and crypto-currency miners. Miners are flooding the market with used GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards, which gamers are all too happy to buy, affecting NVIDIA's sales to both segments of the market. Before the crypto-currency crash of Q1-2022, NVIDIA had projected good sales of its next-generation GeForce GPUs, and prospectively placed orders for a large allocation of 5 nm wafers from TSMC. The company had switched back over to TSMC from Samsung, which makes 8 nm GPUs from the RTX 30-series.

With NVIDIA changing its mind on 5 nm orders, it is at the mercy of TSMC, which has made those allocations (and now faces a loss). It's incumbent on NVIDIA to find a replacement customer for the 5 nm volumes it wants to back out from. Chiakokhua (aka Retired Engineer), interpreted a DigiTimes article originally written in Chinese, which says that NVIDIA has made pre-payments to TSMC for its 5 nm allocation, and now wants to withdraw from some of it. TSMC is unwilling to budge—it could at best hold off shipments by a quarter to Q1-2023, allowing NVIDIA to get the market to digest inventory of 8 nm GPUs; and NVIDIA is responsible for finding replacement customers for the cancelled allocation.

AMD is allegedly preparing an upgraded quad-core APU with Zen 4 and RDNA3 architectures for a next-generation Steam Deck device according to Moore's Law is Dead. The report claims that the chip is referred to as a "Van Gogh Successor" internally with a die size between 110 mm² and 150 mm² resulting in an increased production cost. The chip should feature 4 Zen 4 cores and 8 threads offering 25% - 35% higher performance per clock (PPC) with a maximum boost of 4 GHz. The RDNA3 graphics will include 8 Compute Units with significantly higher PPC compared to their RDNA2 counterparts which combined with the updated CPU could see a performance improvement up to 50%. These rumors have not been confirmed with any potential Steam Deck processor far from being announced or released anytime soon.

15th September, 2022, is when AMD will debut its Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" desktop processors. The launch strategy of these chips looks similar to that of the Ryzen 5000 series. The company is preparing a lean launch lineup with just four SKUs—the Ryzen 9 7950X, the Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7800X, and the Ryzen 5 7600X. These SKUs succeed the 5950X, 5900X, 5800X, and 5600X, which made up the previous launch lineup. AMD in its recent interview with us, made it clear that 16-core/32-thread is the maximum core-count for the 7000 series, which would make the 7950X such a chip. The core-counts of the other SKUs are not known. All these models are built in the Socket AM5 package, featuring PCI-Express Gen 5 and DDR5 interfaces. But wait, there's more.

Although AMD led us to believe that it's going all-in with DDR5, we're hearing a spectacular rumor that suggests otherwise. Apparently, the company is designing Socket AM4 processors with "Zen 4" chiplets, possibly paired with the existing cIOD that supports PCI-Express Gen 4 and DDR4 interfaces. The rumor surfaced among sources lower down the supply-chain (resellers). It seems like AMD isn't convinced it could target the lower-end of the market with AM5 just yet, and isn't 100% confident that affordable DDR5 memory will come through in time. The "Zen 4" + AM4 processors would compete with Intel 600-series chipset motherboards that have DDR4 and PCIe Gen 4 connectivity. Trouble is, you can upgrade your Intel LGA1700 motherboard to one that has DDR5+PCIe Gen5 while keeping your processor; but you can't do so with an AM4 Zen 4 processor (you're stuck on AM4). AMD still gets to sell some processors, and those with AM4 platforms can rejoice.

An engineering sample of AMD's next-generation Ryzen "Phoenix Point" mobile processor has been powered up, and made its first appearance on the Geekbench user-database. "Phoenix Point" is a monolithic silicon mobile processor built on the TSMC N5 (5 nm EUV) process, featuring "Zen 4" CPU cores, and a significantly faster iGPU based on the RDNA3 graphics architecture; along with a DDR5/LPDDR5 memory interface, and PCI-Express Gen 5.0 capability. An engineering sample with an 8-core/16-thread CPU, with the OPN code "100-000000709-23_N," hit the radar. AMD could debut Ryzen "Phoenix Point" in the first quarter of 2023, possibly with an International CES announcement.

Based on a report in the Taiwanese media, AMD is quickly becoming a key customer for TSMC and is expected to become its third largest customer in 2023. This is partially due to new orders that AMD has placed with TSMC for its 5 nm node. AMD is said to become TSMC's single largest customer for its 5 nm node in 2023, although it's not clear from the report how large of a share of the 5 nm node AMD will have.

The additional orders are said to be related to AMD's Zen 4 based processors, as well as its upcoming RDNA3 based GPUs. AMD is expected to be reaching a production volume of some 20,000 wafers in the fourth quarter of 2022, although there's no mention of what's expected in 2023. Considering most of AMD's products for the next year or two will all be based on TSMC's 5 nm node, this shouldn't come as a huge surprise though, as AMD has a wide range of new CPU and GPU products coming.

AMD in its 2022 Financial Analyst Day presentation announced the codename for the second generation of Ryzen desktop processors for Socket AM5, which is "Granite Ridge." A successor to the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael," the next-generation "Granite Ridge" processor will incorporate the "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture, with its CPU complex dies (CCDs) built on the 4 nm silicon fabrication node. "Zen 5" will feature several core-level designs as detailed in our older article, including a redesigned front-end with greater parallelism, which should indicate a much large execution stage. The architecture could also incorporate AI/ML performance enhancements as AMD taps into Xilinx IP to add more fixed-function hardware backing the AI/ML capabilities of its processors.

The "Zen 5" microarchitecture makes its client debut with Ryzen "Granite Ridge," and server debut with EPYC "Turin." It's being speculated that AMD could give "Turin" a round of CPU core-count increases, while retaining the same SP5 infrastructure; which means we could see either smaller CCDs, or higher core-count per CCD with "Zen 5." Much like "Raphael," the next-gen "Granite Ridge" will be a series of high core-count desktop processors that will feature a functional iGPU that's good enough for desktop/productivity, though not gaming. AMD confirmed that it doesn't see "Raphael" as an APU, and that its definition of an "APU" is a processor with a large iGPU that's capable of gaming. The company's next such APU will be "Phoenix Point."

AMD in its recent interview with TechPowerUp had asserted that 3D Vertical Cache (or 3DV Cache), isn't a one-off technology and that it would be a continual part of its roadmap. In its 2022 Financial Analyst Day presentation, the company confirmed this, by announcing variants of its CPU chiplets that have 3DV Cache, extending to both the upcoming "Zen 4" microarchitecture, and the upcoming "Zen 5," which it unveiled today.

EPYC "Genoa" is codename for the upcoming line of server processors based on the "Zen 4" CPU microarchitecture, with CPU core-counts of up to 96-core/192-thread. These feature the standard "Zen 4" CCD. The company hasn't yet announced the last-level cache (L3 cache) size of the standard "Zen 4" CCD. The company will launch the EPYC "Genoa-X" processor, which much like the EPYC "Milan-X," will incorporate 3DV Cache, with a stacked L3 cache die on top of the chiplet. "Genoa-X" is slated for a 2023 debut.

It appears that AMD's Zen 4 based CPUs are making their ways into the hands of overclockers and so far at least one has already been delidded. Although we only get to see the IHS itself, it's clearly very thick compared to what we've seen in the past, although it appears to be fairly straightforward to remove, if it wasn't for the fact that the two CCD's and the IOD are soldered to it. Unlike current CPUs, which have a solid seal, the Zen 4 CPUs appear to only have the IHS glued to the CPU packaging in a few spots.

Judging by the looks of the area where the CCDs and the IOD attach to the IHS, this looks like a destructive delidding, although it could just be leftovers from the soldering material. The IHS has clearly been coated with some materials for a good solder interface as well, but this is nothing new, as we've seen this on delidded, soldered CPUs in the past. The person who shared this picture should most likely not have done so and as such, we won't be posting a link to the source.

DDR5 memory pricing has been declining faster than expected, with average pricing for modules based on the latest standard dropping by as much as 20% in a month's time. As reported by ComputerBase, pricing for 1 GB of DDR5 has fallen from around €15 by the end of 2021 down to around €5/GB at time of writing. At current pricing, an entry-level, 32 GB DDR5 kit DDR5-4800 memory (JEDEC standard) has fallen from a high of €430 down to a much more palatable €154.

The price decline comes as good news for anyone aiming to upgrade their PC in wake of AMD's Socket AM5 launch for its Zen 4 architecture, which the company has already confirmed will only support the latest RAM standard. AMD itself must be riding the sea of relief, as high DDR5 pricing could significantly shape the company's next-gen platform's value compared to arch-rival Intel, which already offers DDR4 and DDR5 support with its Alder Lake chips. Expectations place the same memory support for the next-gen Raptor Lake platform. Prices for DDR4 memory seem to have hit a bottom, however, as pricing hasn't significantly moved in around six months. Like with all new technologies, expect the price difference to eventually change in favor of DDR5 memory, as manufacturers adjust their outputs towards adoption.

The mention of "170 W" in one of the slides of AMD's Computex 2022 reveal of the upcoming Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" desktop processors, caused quite some confusion as to what that figure meant. AMD issued a structured clarification on the matter, laying to rest the terminology associated with it. Apparently, there will be certain SKUs of Socket AM5 processors with TDP of 170 W. This would be the same classical definition of TDP that AMD has been consistently using. The package-power tracking (PPT), a figure that translates as power limit for the socket, is 230 W.

This does not necessarily mean that there will be a Ryzen 7000-series SKU with 170 W TDP. AMD plans to give AM5 a similar life-cycle to AM4, which is now spanning five generations of Ryzen processors, and the 170 W TDP and 230 W PPT figures only denote design goals for the socket. AMD, in a statement, explained why it needed to make AM5 capable of delivering much higher power than AM4 could—to enable higher CPU core-counts in the future, more on-package hardware, and for new capabilities like power-hungry instruction-sets (think AVX-512). AMD has been calculating PPT as 1.35 times TDP, since the very first generation of Ryzen chips. For a 105 W TDP processor, this means 140 W PPT, and the same formula continues with Ryzen 7000 series (230 W is 1.35x 170 W).The AMD statement follows.

To usher in the new era of DDR5 and satisfy the demands for precise, high-performance, real-time computing, and computer multi-tasking in servers, data centers, and industrial computers, the world-leading memory brand TEAMGROUP is officially announcing today that TEAMGROUP's DDR5 Industrial Server Memory is now in mass production. The DDR5 Industrial Server Memory targets applications in high-end servers and large databases and is integrated with TEAMGROUP's patented technology, welcoming a total upgrade for next-generational servers such as Intel Eagle Stream and AMD Zen 4 Genoa.

TEAMGROUP's DDR5 ECC DIMM and DDR5 R-DIMM Industrial Server Memory modules can reach speeds of up to 6400MT/s and storage capacities of up to 128 GB, with total energy consumption reduced to 1.1 V. TEAMGROUP has also introduced Row Hammer Protection Technology to support the DFE (Decision Feedback Equalization) function to offer robust support for data storage. The memory is equipped with TEAMGROUP's patented "TRUST technology", which stands for Temperature, Robust, Unique, S.M.A.R.T. technology, and Trusty. With the TRUST technology, the industrial server memory can ensure reliable performance under harsh environments of high temperatures, high humidity, sulfurization, vibration, and shock as well as improving the overall reliability and durability of the product to guarantee that the memory can satisfy the diversified demands of next-gen servers. In addition, the DDR5 Industrial Server Memory has adopted a brand new framework. The greatest difference between the DDR5 and DDR4 server memories is that the power management is now transferred onto the DIMM, in other words, TEAMGROUP has optimized redundant circuit designs on the server, providing its DDR5 products a greater system stability, lower power consumption, better performances, larger capacities, and more stable signals.

AMD is launching two distinct classes of next-generation enterprise processors, the 4th Generation EPYC "Genoa" with CPU core-counts up to 96-core/192-thread; and the new EPYC "Bergamo" with a massive 128-core/256-thread compute density. Pictures of the "Genoa" MCM are already out in the wild, revealing twelve "Zen 4" CCDs built on 5 nm, and a new-generation sIOD (I/O die) that's very likely built on 6 nm. The fiberglass substrate of "Genoa" already looks crowded with twelve chiplets, making us wonder if AMD needed a larger package for "Bergamo." Turns out, it doesn't.

In its latest Corporate presentation, AMD reiterated that "Bergamo" will be based on the same SP5 (LGA-6096) package as "Genoa." This would mean that the company either made room for more CCDs, or the CCDs themselves are larger in size. AMD states that "Bergamo" CCDs are based on the "Zen 4c" microarchitecture. Details about "Zen 4c" are scarce, but from what we gather, it is a cloud-optimized variant of "Zen 4" probably with the entire ISA of "Zen 4," and power characteristics suited for high-density cloud environments. These chiplets are built on the same TSMC N5 (5 nm EUV) process as the regular "Zen 4" CCDs.

Computex 2022 is what's being referred to as a hybrid show and although most of the motherboard manufacturers chose not to exhibit this year, Gigabyte was at the show and we got to take a closer look at its new AM5 motherboards. Gigabyte was only showing four models, but on the plus side, the staff at the booth was more than happy to share details about the boards with us. The four boards on display were the X670E Aorus Xtreme, the X670E Aorus Master, the X670E Aero D and the X670 Aorus Pro AX. Note that these were early board revision and the E is missing in the model name from three of the models, which suggests that AMD hadn't informed the board makers about this distinction between its chipsets until earlier this month when rumours about it started to appear online.

Gigabyte will have a full lineup of boards coming later this year when AMD launches its AM5 platform, although based on the information we were given, the majority of its boards will be based on the B650 chipset. We should point out that there will be high-end B650 motherboards that will be priced similar to lower-end X670 models, which means that buying AM5 motherboards will be highly dependent on what features you favour. Unfortunately no B650 motherboards were on display and we won't be sharing any details of these models at this time. As for the X670E versus X670 chipsets, as there are of course two per board, it seems like the difference comes down to PCIe 5.0 or PCIe 4.0 for the x16 PCIe slot as the major differentiator between Gigabyte's different SKUs.

AMD today unveiled its next-generation Ryzen 7000 desktop processors, based on the Socket AM5 desktop platform. The new Ryzen 7000 series processors introduce the new "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with the company claiming a 15% single-threaded uplift over "Zen 3" (16-core/32-thread Zen 4 processor prototype compared to a Ryzen 9 5950X). Other key specs about the architecture put out by AMD include a doubling in per-core L2 cache to 1 MB, up from 512 KB on all older versions of "Zen." The Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will boost to frequencies above 5.5 GHz. Based on the way AMD has worded their claims, it seems that the "+15%" number includes IPC gains, plus gains from higher clocks, plus what the DDR4 to DDR5 transition achieves. With Zen 4, AMD is introducing a new instruction set for AI compute acceleration. The transition to the LGA1718 Socket AM5 allows AMD to use next-generation I/O, including DDR5 memory, and PCI-Express Gen 5, both for the graphics card, and the M.2 NVMe slot attached to the CPU socket.

Much like Ryzen 3000 "Matisse," and Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" desktop processor is a multi-chip module with up to two "Zen 4" CCDs (CPU core dies), and one I/O controller die. The CCDs are built on the 5 nm silicon fabrication process, while the I/O die is built on the 6 nm process, a significant upgrade from previous-generation I/O dies that were built on 12 nm. The leap to 5 nm for the CCD enables AMD to cram up to 16 "Zen 4" cores per socket, all of which are "performance" cores. The "Zen 4" CPU core is larger, on account of more number-crunching machinery to achieve the IPC increase and new instruction-sets, as well as the larger per-core L2 cache. The cIOD packs a pleasant surprise—an iGPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture! Now most Ryzen 7000 processors will pack integrated graphics, just like Intel Core desktop processors.