AMD Zen 4 desktop CPUs rumored for Q2 2022: new chips made on 5nm node

AMD is hard at work on its next-gen Zen 4 and Zen 5 architectures, with recent rumors teasing new Zen 5 APUs codenamed "Strix Point" and now we have new rumors for the upcoming Zen 4 architecture.

2

The new Zen 4 architecture will be powering AMD's next-gen Ryzen 6000 series CPUs that will be released in the second half of 2022, while we could see an announcement of it by the end of the year. The new Zen 4 architecture is codenamed Raphael and will be made on TSMC's new 5nm process node, with the new CPUs reportedly pack a Navi2-based integrated GPU.

In the meantime, Intel will be introducing its next-gen Alder Lake platform, with the new 600-series chipset and 12th Gen Core processors supporting next-gen technologies with DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 connectivity. AMD won't have a response to Alder Lake until Raphael, with AMD including DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support with Zen 4... Intel will launch with DDR5 + PCIe 5.0 first, AMD will be a few months behind.

• Read more: AMD Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' CPU: Zen 4 cores + Navi2 GPU on 5nm
• Read more: AMD's next-gen Zen 4 CPU rumors: around 40% faster than Zen 3
• Read more: AMD talks Zen 4 CPUs, after Zen 3 stomps all over Intel's best CPUs

We are to expect a pretty big 40% uplift in overall performance on the new Zen 4 architecture compared to the current Zen 3 architecture which powers the kick ass Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. AMD has reportedly made some great IPC (Instructions Per Clock) improvements to Zen 4, with a rumored 25% gain in IPC performance over Zen 3.

The new AMD Strix Point APUs would drop in 2024 powered by ARM big.LITTLE inspired design -- with 8 x large Zen 5 cores and 4 x smaller cores (but we don't know what those 4 x smaller cores would be). We could expect a desktop-focused Zen 5-powered family of CPUs to launch before the APUs -- but we've got Zen 4 to enjoy before now and then.

• Read more: AMD's next-gen Zen 5 teased again, expect it in 2022
• Read more: TSMC rumored to make Intel 5nm CPUs in 2021, high-end 3nm CPUs in 2022

2

Back in November 2020, AMD itself teased the Zen 4 architecture with AMD Executive Vice President Rick Bergman saying: "(Given) the maturity of the x86 architecture now, the answer has to be, kind of, all of the above. If you looked at our technical document on Zen 3, it was this long list of things that we did to get that 19% (IPC gain). Zen 4 is going to have a similar long list of things, where you look at everything from the caches, to the branch prediction, (to) the number of gates in the execution pipeline. Everything is scrutinized to squeeze more performance out".

He continued: "Certainly (manufacturing) process opens an additional door for us to (obtain) better performance-per-watt and so on, and we'll take advantage of that as well".