Seems that everyone forgets that chips like 7950X may be limited by AM4 power limits.
So top-end Zen4 is unlikely on AM4.
I can envision something like this:
- Zen 4 plus different I/O die for DDR4/AM4
- targeting platform cost unreachable by 7xxx DDR5
- naming could be 6xxx as that would show it's tier below 7xxx
- likewise no confusion with existing Zen3 lineup, as only laptops have 6xxx
- most probably without iGPU same as current high end AM4
But I do expect this as sort of half-gen to help the transition, and I do hope that AM5 will get R3 and APUs before Q2 2023, otherwise Intel will stomp all over them. They HAVE to have a response to next gen Intel across the range, because they already lack proper response for Alder Lake in some segments, and Raptor Lake will be hard to counter with just 4 SKUs in 7xxx series and trying to plug holes with 5xxx (desktop) and 6xxx (laptop) against even a minor revision let alone a good showing of Raptor Lake.
Well, just 2 more months until full reveal, or so they say