AMD announces Ryzen 5000 series processors and Zen 3 architecture

The wait is no more. AMD lifted the curtains off of its Ryzen 5000 series processors and its Zen 3 core architecture at its “Where Gaming Begins” conference yesterday.

Zen 3, like Zen 2, uses a separate CPU die and I/O die on the same package. The CPU die is manufactured using TSMC’s 7nm node, while the I/O die is made on the 12nm node. Separating the I/O die and CPU dies help with yields as smaller chips are easier to manufacture.

AMD’s Zen 3 architecture continues to improve on Zen 2’s modular design. In the previous generation, AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series desktop processors used multiple core chiplet dies (CCD) consisting of two 4-core compute core complexes (CCX) connected over the Infinity Fabric Interconnect. Each CCX had its own, separate 16MB cache. With Zen 3, AMD has unified the pools of cache into a single 32MB pool, thus decreasing latency and increasing resource sharing across the cores.

AMD has also reworked the front to back operation stack, including widening the integer and floating-point execution units (EU), load/storage operations, and the branch predictor. AMD also announced a feature called “Zero Bubble” that hides latency, a major roadblock of previous generations of Zen architectures.

All-in-all, AMD claims that Zen 2 will have 19 per cent higher instructions per clock while being 24 per cent more power-efficient compared to Zen 2. Further, it underscored Zen 3’s single-threaded performance by demonstrating the Ryzen 9 3900X achieving 631 points in Cinebench R20, a rendering benchmark. The company claimed that this is the first processor to break the 600 points barrier in the benchmark.

The initial launch lineup on Nov. 5 will have four SKUs: the Ryzen 9 5950X, Ryzen 7 5900X, Ryzen 7 5800X, and the Ryzen 5 5600X.

There is a price hike this time around. All Ryzen 5000 series processors cost $50 more than the products they’re designed to replace. Moreover, AMD has pulled the stock coolers from the Ryzen 7 5900X and the Ryzen 7 5800X which, in the previous generations, granted it a big value lead compared to Intel processors.

For the first time in a long time, AMD processor prices have outpaced Intel’s. At MSRP, the Ryzen 7 5800X costs US$125 more than Intel’s Core i7-10700K ($499 vs. $374), which brings it into price parity with Intel’s consumer flagship CPU, the 10-core Core i9-10900K. The price difference narrows on the mid-range, though, with the Ryzen 5 5600X being just $37 more than the Core i5-10600K (US$299 vs. US$260). The increased prices hint at AMD being confident that its products will win against Intel’s Comet Lake-S. With that said, Intel’s Rocket Lake processors–built on Intel’s 14nm process–is expected to land March 2020 to challenge the market.

Finally, the Ryzen 5000 series will be the last generation of processors to use the AM4 socket. The socket is now 4 years old and has lasted through three generations of Ryzen processors.

Motherboards with AMD’s 500 series chipsets will natively support the new Ryzens. Motherboards with the 400 series chipsets, however, will have to wait until January for the new beta BIOS to be released. The upgrade is forward only for X470 and B450 motherboards, meaning that once the BIOS is flashed, they will no longer support older generations of Ryzen processors. To avoid a “no-boot” situation, users will need to provide proof that they’ve purchased a Zen 3 desktop processor and a 400 series motherboard before they can download the BIOS.

AMD has also confirmed that its 5nm products are on track and that its graphics solutions built on “Big Navi” will be announced on Oct. 28.

Read our previous coverages for backgrounders on the topics covered here.

• Understanding Intel Comet Lake-S: what does it really offer?
• AMD Zen 3 processors will be incompatible with 400 series and older motherboards
• AMD releases new mainstream Ryzen 3 processors and B550 chipset

Correction: Intel Rocket Lake is set to arrive in March 2021, the article has been amended to increase accuracy.