AMD Launches New Ryzen 7000 Series Desktop Processors For Holiday Season

In its first live product launch event in several years, AMD launched a new processor architecture, a new desktop PC motherboard architecture, and a new line of desktop processors that deliver almost double the performance and efficiency compared with the company’s previous generation – a grand feat for any company in the semiconductor segment. While AMD has not released all the details of the new architecture and processors, it did provide enough information to indicate how the company once again managed to achieve impressive performance results from what is now the 4^th generation of its very successful Zen processor architecture.

The best way to describe the improvements in the new AMD Ryzen 9 7000 series desktop processors is that they are faster – faster memory with DDR5 DRAM, faster I/O with PCIe Gen 5.0 support for both storage and graphics, and a new front end to get more data into the processor faster than ever before. The company also migrated the Ryzen 9 7000 processor die to a TSMC 5nm process and the I/O die to a 6nm process, from the 7nm and 14nm processes used respectively with processors based on the Zen 3 architecture. The company improved AI performance with support for AVX-512 instructions. In addition, AMD indicated that it enhanced the clocking circuitry throughout the design to further improve performance efficiency.

Unlike the Zen 3 architecture, Zen 4 is not a complete redesign but an enhancement. The big change is to the motherboard architecture with the AM5 socket, introduced earlier this year at Computex. The AM5 socket and motherboard support DDR5 memory, PCIe gen 5, and other features such as higher thermal limits for processors operating at higher frequencies. The new processor supports clock rates up to 5.7GHz (800HMz higher than the Zen 3 generation) and advanced overclocking. Like the previous AM4 socket, AMD is promising to support the new motherboard and socket for several generations. There is one point of compatibility between the two generations. To save costs for OEMs and third-party cooler manufacturers, the new AM5 socket will continue to support the processor coolers designed for the AM4 socket. Every little bit helps.

When comparing the previous top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 5950X processor to the new the new Ryzen 9 7950X, the 7950X demonstrates a 13% improvement in Instruction Per Cycle (IPC) performance, up to a 29% improvement in single-threaded performance, a 44% improvement in multithreaded performance, and a 47% improvement in performance per watt efficiency. With support for AVX-512, the Ryzen 7000 series also increases AI performance by 1.3x and 2.5x using FP32 and Int8 data structures, respectively.

The new product line includes four new processors: the Ryzen 9 7950X, 7900X, 7700X, and 7600X. All four processors are shipping to PC OEMs now and range in price from $249 to $699. That’s higher than the current Ryzen 9 5000 series but priced according to what AMD believes the market will bear for what the company touts as the highest performance desktop processor available. Long gone are the days of AMD products being the lower-performance budget products. Instead, AMD is clearly targeting the premium desktop PC market. The official date for this product launch is September 27^th. Because of the processor pricing and the use of DDR5, new systems based on Ryzen 9 7000 series processors will also be priced at a premium, at least until component pricing comes more in line with the current generation.

AMD also announced four new chipsets to support its new Zen 4 processors: the X670, X670 Extreme, B560 and B560 Extreme. As you might expect, the “X” devices have higher performance than the “B” devices and the “X” and “B” Extreme versions support PCIe Gen 5 for graphics as well as storage. All four chipsets support overclocking. AMD also announced an optimized or “tuned” memory architecture called Expo for overclocked memory. The high-performance XMP memory DIMMs are also supported, but users will likely see higher performance on AMD systems using the Expo memory DIMMs. AMD indicated that 15 Expo memory kits will be available from the leading DIMM vendors at launch.

AMD did not announce any new Threadripper or Ryzen processors with V-cache on the ultra-high-end or mainstream Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 5 processors but promised that these parts are coming. Given the timing, TIRIAS Research anticipates more desktop processor announcements from AMD through the end of 2022 and/or at CES 2023. With the Ryzen 9 series aimed at the high-end of the desktop PC market, gamers and content creators will have something new to add to their holiday wish list.

*All figures were provided by AMD. Tirias Research has not had the opportunity to evaluate the new products. Look for future updates associates as more detail becomes available and we have the opportunity for product reviews.