AMD released their newest generation 7000 series Zen 4 CPUs on September 27th, 2022. We are extremely excited to see what AMD has incorporated in their newest generation CPUs that will trickle down to HEDT and HPC.
The Zen 4 CPU is the first 5nm desktop processor fabbed by TSMV. Instead of putting capacitors and resistors on the bottom of the CPU (where the contact pads are) AMD’s new LGA CPU has all the capacitors and resistors on the face of the CPU, resulting in the skeletal octopus design for the IHS.
Let’s look at the specs and changes in this newest generation of AMD Ryzen:
AMD Ryzen Specifications
Ryzen 9 7950X | Ryzen 9 7900X | Ryzen 7 7700X | Ryzen 5 7600X | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cores/Threads | 16C/32T | 12C/24T | 8C/16T | 6C/12T |
Base Clock | 4.5GHz | 4.7GHz | 4.5GHz | 4.7GHz |
Boost Clock | 5.7GHz | 5.6GHz | 5.4GHz | 5.3GHz |
Cache (L2+L3) | 80MB | 76MB | 40MB | 38MB |
Base TDP | 170W | 170W | 105W | 105W |
Price | $700 | $550 | $400 | $300 |
It feels like yesterday that 4.0GHz was a feat to behold, but now our base clock speeds are well above that. In fact, these base clock speeds are almost equivalent to the boost clock speeds of the last generation. The Ryzen 7000 series squeezed a ton of performance out of their CPUs adding almost an additional 1GHz to all their models.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Socket Type
AMD will now forgo the AM4 PGA and move to an AM5 LGA socket similar to that of Threadripper and EPYC. No more bent pins on CPUs anymore… AM5 motherboards only support DDR5 so when upgrading to the 7000 series AMD means that you will need to purchase a whole new platform; motherboard, CPU, and RAM. This can be a turn-off for many PC enthusiasts but we see it as a push toward bringing DDR5 to the mainstream.
AM5 sockets and the Ryzen 7000 series do not come shipped with a stock reference cooler but do support previous generation cooler designs. Keep in mind that this generation of Ryzen will have an increase in CPU temperatures so a cheap cooler could result in thermal throttling and would not use stock Ryzen 5000 series coolers on the newer 7000 series. We would always recommend a large tower cooler or an AIO for optimal cooling.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Performance
This generation of Ryzen delivers higher IPC (instructions per cycle) due to better base and boost clock speeds. They also introduce the AMD version of XMP called EXPO for memory overclocking tuning and RAM memory speed optimization. This means that the utilization of DDR5 is greatly affecting performance due to the inherently higher speeds of DDR5.
If you remember from the last generation and the introduction to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. A higher cache is the new norm for increasing the speed of our CPUs by reducing the long-distance memory fetching from RAM. Zen 4 has increased L2 and L3 cache for fewer memory bottlenecks when executing heavy workloads and playing graphically heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077.
We cannot wait to see what the Zen 4 X3D variant would look like.
Thoughts
We are excited to see AMD compete so strongly against the competition driving compelling results for the next generations of CPUs. If Zen 4 in the consumer market can deliver this much gain, EPYC Genoa and Bergamo Zen 4 are going to be exciting!
Though wattage/power is going up, performance per watt is going down for better utilization of power. AMD is delivering and innovating without holding back. We still remember when AMD was not even considered about 5 years ago but has stepped up their game and now might even take the lead. With more competition, both AMD and Intel will push even harder than before to deliver the best product just to be able to call themselves the best.