At CES 2022, AMD announced that the new Zen 4 core will be released sometime in the second half of the year. During AMD’s “Together we move forward_PCs” live event at the end of August, AMD introduced the Ryzen 7000 series of desktop processors with four SKUs aimed at different product segments. Today, AMD officially introduced the Ryzen 7000 with the Ryzen 9 7950X, which sits as the representative of the brand’s performance leadership in x86 processors for desktops.

On paper, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is a 16C/32T behemoth to take the overall performance lead in desktop computing. Their entry point into the market is the Ryzen 5 7600X, featuring 6C/12T and packing all the benefits of a flagship in a more elegant and affordable chiplet-based package. AMD is hoping to reclaim this important performance crown with Zen 4, a new architecture based on TSMC’s 5nm process; prepare for battle. We’ve detailed what Zen 4 brings to the table in terms of the new microarchitecture and tested the new Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5 7600X through our CPU set.

New Zen 4 Core on TSMC 5nm, boost up to 5.7 GHz!

The latest Ryzen 7000 series processors directly replace the Ryzen 5000 series with a new chipset and redesigned microarchitecture on both the front and back of the silicon design.

As of writing, AMD is releasing four processors based on the 5nm Zen 4 core, ranging from the 6C/12T part to the 16C/32T; as with previous Ryzen 5000 (Zen 3) and Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2) releases.

Ryzen 9 7950X: 16 cores, 32 threads, new 170W TDP: $699

Looking at the specifications of the four AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, the top SKU is the Ryzen 9 7950X with sixteen Zen 4 cores (two threads per core, 32T) and two octa-core 5nm CCDs. The Ryzen 9 7950X has a base frequency of 4.5 GHz with a single core turbo frequency of 5.7 GHz, making it the world’s fastest CPU core for the desktop space right now.

AMD also gave the Ryzen 9 7950X a larger TDP of 170 W, which is a 65 W increase over its Ryzen 5000 counterpart, the 5950X (170 W vs. 105 W). This increase in overall power allowed AMD to improve its frequencies. , also gives Precision Boost Overdrive overclocking technology more room to breathe; more power usually means more performance.

Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X

Moving one down the stack is the Ryzen 9 7900X with a 12C/24T and 170W TDP part; The 7950X has a higher base frequency of 4.7 GHz, but a slightly lower boost frequency of up to 5.6 GHz. Through the Ryzen 7 7700X, an 8C/16T SKU, AMD has launched a Ryzen 7 part aimed at mid-range desktop PCs with a single-core boost frequency of up to 5.4 GHz, a base frequency of 4.5 GHz. .

Focusing on the entry-level segment, its Ryzen 5 7600X tries to use the previous series’ 6C/12T offering with a maximum TDP of 105W at an affordable price point. The Ryzen 5 7600X includes a base frequency of 4.7 GHz with a modest (compared to Ryzen 9) boost frequency at a single core of 5.3 GHz.

Comparing apples to apples with similar products from the new Zen 4 generation to the previous Zen 3 generations, the Ryzen 7000 has made some big overall improvements in the chip’s capabilities. Starting at the top end, the Ryzen 9 7950X has a huge improvement in base and boost frequencies, making Zen 4 more efficient than any previous Ryzen generation.

This is made possible in part by the high power efficiency, as the Zen 4 article is basically an improvement on the Zen 3, but manufactured on TSMC’s 5 nm process node (from TSMC 7 nm). This efficiency allowed AMD to increase clock speeds without breaking the bank, while the 105W TDP 7700X saw a 700MHz improvement with no change in TDP. Combined with the 13% TDP improvement, and Ryzen 7000 series chips can provide some significant single-threaded performance gains. And multi-threaded performance doesn’t hold back in the cold either; by increasing the peak TDP to 170W, AMD is able to keep the CPU cores in the 12C and 16C parts at higher sustained turbo clocks and provide better performance there as well.

Of course, one of the main arguments here is that more power is more, which is true for the Ryzen 7000 series. Ryzen 7000’s TJ Max for Precision Boost Overdrive technology stops at 95°C, which means the CPU will use all available thermal headroom to boost performance.

Although this can be overcome when overclocking manually, this opens the maximum TJ Max to 115°C. It should be noted that users will have to use more premium and aggressive types of cooling to squeeze every last drop of performance out of Zen 4. Ryzen 7000’s hot running is explained by AMD’s design choices and implementations. As such, they chose not to bundle their CPU coolers with retail packages, instead directing buyers to fairly powerful third-party coolers.

New AM5 Socket: AM4 Coolers will also support AM5

AMD has also moved to a new chipset called AM5 for the Ryzen 7000. Along with AM5 comes the new LGA1718 socket. Interestingly, AMD has noted that most coolers with AM4 sockets will support the new LGA1718 socket in AM5; this is great for maintaining compatibility from the previous generation.

This also means that AM4 is now a thing of the past, although it currently offers incredible support as well as cheaper DDR4. AMD has of course switched to DDR5 memory support with JEDEC settings on all four CPUs set at DDR5-5200; Improvement in Intel’s 12th Gen Core series support for DDR5-4800.

AMD introduced four new chipsets, two Extreme variants named X670E and B650E, and two regular chipsets originally and simply named X670 and B650. The top-end X670E series will have both PCIe 5.0 lanes to the top PEG slot, with support for PCIe 5.0 storage devices expected in November 2022. As for its regular X670 chipset, the PCIe 5.0 to PEG slot is optional, not mandatory, as it is with the X670E.

The B650 chipsets are designed to be more affordable and therefore only have PCIe 4.0 lanes to the PEG slot. However, they have at least one PCIe 5.0 x4 memory slot. The B650E is intended for low-end boards looking to add PCIe 5.0 to their graphics card, although users looking to use PCIe 5.0 support should opt for the X670E; better boards, better controllers and better specs.

New I/O Die: TSMC 6nm for Ryzen 7000

As we’ve seen from the Ryzen 5000 series before, AMD is using chiplet packaging, with the top SKU housing two core complexes (CCDs) and an all PCIe 5.0, integrated memory controller (IMC) I/O box. , and new for Ryzen 7000, two CU AMD’s rDNA 2 integrated graphics. Some of the key benefits of AMD’s new 6nm TSMC I/O die are more transistors, better efficiency at the manufacturing stage, and most importantly, lower overall power consumption in terms of efficiency.

It’s time to get acquainted with all the new improvements and changes for AMD’s Zen 4 microarchitecture. In the following pages, we will consider:

1. Ryzen 7000 Review: Ryzen 7000 vs Ryzen 5000 specs comparison
2. Socket AM5: A New Platform for Consumer AMD
3. More I/O for AM5: PCIe 5, additional PCIe lanes and more displays
4. AM5 Chipsets: X670 and B650, built by ASMedia
5. DDR5 & AMD EXPO Memory: Memory Overclocking, The AMD Way
6. Ryzen 7000 I/O Die: Finally TSMC and Integrated Graphics
7. Zen 4 Architecture: Power Efficiency, Performance, & New Instructions
8. Zen 4 Execution Pipeline: Familiar Pipelines with More Caching
9. Testbed and Setup
10. Core-to-core latency
11. SPEC2017 Single Thread Results
12. SPEC2017 Multi-Threaded Results
13. CPU Benchmark Performance: Power, Web and Science
14. CPU Benchmark Performance: Simulation and Coding
15. CPU Benchmark Performance: Display
16. CPU Benchmark Performance: Old Tests
17. Gaming Performance: 720p and Below
18. Gaming Performance: 1080p
19. Gaming Performance: 4K
20. The result