AMD continues its Computex tradition by hosting the first keynote in the much-awaited event. Computex has been the venue of AMD Ryzen CPU product announcements and teasers. This Computex 2022 is no different as AMD CEO Lisa Su shares key updates on the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and the AM5 platform. Alongside the new CPU and socket announcement are the different motherboard chipsets and motherboards from AMD brand partners.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Processors
The highlight of the AMD Computex Keynote is the official announcement of the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors. The new Ryzen 7000 CPUs feature a lot of first times from AMD, many of which are to keep up with the trending CPU architecture design with multiple physical core types as seen on the latest Apple and Intel silicon. AMD transitions to an LGA socket via the all-new AM5 platform. Unlike 12th Gen Alderlake CPUs, the new Ryzen 7000 series will exclusively support DDR5 memory. In the keynote, Lisa Su shared a demo clip of an unnamed Ryzen 7000 CPU running Ghostwire: Tokyo with the clock speeds around 5.3Ghz to 5.5Ghz.
AMD Zen 4 Core Architecture
The new Ryzen 7000 series are built under the new Zen 4 Core Architecture which uses a hybrid core setup similar to Intel’s Alderlake architecture. The two main chiplets are Zen 4 CPU cores made in the 5mn TSMC lithography and there’s also an all-new I/O die built on 6nm that serves as an interconnect and houses the RDNA iGPU, DD5 and PCIe 5.0 controllers. The new Zen 4 core architecture offers twice the amount of L2 Cache and a 15 percent single thread performance uplift compared to the Zen 3 architecture. AMD is also aiming for boost frequencies more than 5Ghz for the new chips. Its also noted that AMD will heavily include AI compute acceleration in the instruction set for these processors.
AM5 Motherboards
A new processor family under a new AM5 socket will require a new platform of motherboards to accompany the next generation Zen 4 core processors. These new motherboards will support the latest technologies such as WiFi 6E, PCIe Gen 5, and DDR5 memory. Similar to previous iterations, the new motherboards will have three chipset tiers to fit a wide range of consumers that have different requirements and budget capacities. The B650 chipset is AMD’s entry level chipset for AM5 and will support PCIe Gen 5 storage. The X670 chipset on the other hand has support for overclocking the new Ryzen 7000 processors as well as PCIe Gen 5 support for graphics aka a PCIe Gen 5 x16 slot.
AMD also introduced the X670E chipset which follows the recently released X570E line of motherboards. The X670E motherboards are simply the top of the line premium motherboards for consumers offering more bandwidth and full PCIe Gen 5 connectivity. Flagship X670E motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte, and MSI were also shown.
Based on the available slides and information, it seems like the new Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and AM5 motherboards will not support DDR4 memory which will likely translate to a higher overall platform cost versus Alderlake as the latter has support for the now-dated DDR4 memory. What offsets the aforementioned cost is AMD’s announcement that existing AM4 coolers will be compatible with the new AM5 motherboards so users won’t have to shell out the extra money to get a compatible cooler should they choose to upgrade.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Pricing and Availability
As of writing, no pricing has been announced and there are no leaks to get an estimated price of these processors. Based on AMD’s release history, we should expect Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 variants to be released first with the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 midrange to entry-level chips arriving a quarter later. The new Ryzen 7000 CPUs and AM5 motherboards will be available starting Fall which translates to either an end of Q3 or the start of Q4 2022 availability.
Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.
