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AMD used its Computex 2022 keynote to release the Ryzen 7000 range of desktop CPUs. These are the first PC processor cores on a 5nm process and they promise DDR5, PCIe 5.0, and integrated RDNA 2 graphics.
It’s the end of an era and the start of a new one. See, the Ryzen 7000 range will be AMD’s first CPU in five years that needs a new socket. That’s the AM5 socket, which brings PCIe 5.0 support and other improvements.
These are the first desktop chips to use a 5nm process and they’re also able to boost over 5GHz, with AMD showing a 5.5GHz clock speed during the presentation.
That’s on par with Intel’s flagship i9-12900KS, a commendable feat for AMD which has been chasing performance and not clock speed with prior generations.
The biggest boost might not be the clock speeds, but the “greater than 15 percent” faster single-threaded performance over the Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000). Many games and applications still require only a single core, so this will improve your desktop experience.
The other interesting thing about Ryzen 7000 is that every chip will have some level of integrated graphics. That means you will only need a dedicated graphics card for intensive applications or games.
That also means you’ll be able to get your system running (or keep it running) if you’re waiting for a GPU to arrive. That’s no small thing, as GPU scarcity due to cryptomining and supply chain slowdowns is still a real issue.
The AM5 platform means you’ll need a new motherboard
Motherboards for AM5 will come from one of three tiers, depending on what you need to do with them:
- X670 Extreme: Extreme overlocking, PCIe 5.0 on everything
- X670: Enthusiast overclocking, PCIe 5.0 on storage, optional on graphics
- B650: Mainstream pricing, PCIe 5.0 on storage
That means you’ll get at least one NVMe m.2 storage slot on every tier, for super-speedy PCIe 5.0 SSDs. AMD says this is 60-percent faster in sequential reads than PCIe 4.0, so we’re excited. Paired with Microsoft’s DirectStorage, this could mean 1-second loading times in some titles.
All three tiers have up to 24 lanes of PCIe 5.0 bandwidth, and up to 14 USB 3.x ports. Some of those ports will support 20Gbps and USB-C. The motherboards can also have up to four display outputs, with a mix of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.
Will AM5 get the long-term support that the outgoing AM4 platform got from AMD? That has a special place in my heart, as I was at the New Horizon release event in 2016.
AMD has put five generations of Ryzen processors in five years into the AM4 platform. We can only hope they’ll do the same level of support with AM5.
While we know a lot about the upcoming CPUs, AMD didn’t mention specific model numbers, pricing, or release dates. We’ll let you know more as soon as we get details, ahead of the fall release window.
Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
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