AMD Zen 5 CPUs rumored to offer 'totally ludicrous' performance boost to the tune of 30%

AMD's Zen 5 processors will boast "totally ludicrous" performance gains, or that's the fresh claim from a regular YouTube leaker.

This is RedGamingTech (RGT) who recently aired a leak on Zen 5 and now has a follow-up video, backing up those claims, and adding some further details.

As RGT noted before, the leaker is hearing from multiple sources - trusted ones apparently - that previous leakage suggesting 15% IPC gains with Zen 5 were actually underselling the silicon. (Note that this is the kind of level Moore's Law is Dead - MLID for short, another YouTube leaker - is claiming Zen 5 will deliver, or maybe a touch more).

We're told that more sources are now chiming in for RGT and informing the leaker to expect a 30% performance boost in some applications - as a typical level - and that this kind of uplift is seeming more certain.

Although RGT still cautions being careful around this info, and that gains may be more along the lines of 20% (as noted in his previous video). Indeed, we'd double down on that - keep your skeptical hat very firmly on here.

Still, this is a hopeful indication that maybe Zen 5 will turn out a bit better than expected, even if the big gains mentioned here aren't realized. (And we should note that in the past, MLID has specifically warned against believing this kind of generational gain is incoming).

RGT reckons, though, that the initial silicon (A0) has simply turned out better than expected, and that clock speeds won't be dailed back either - indeed we may see boost levels of up to 6GHz, in theory (here's that saltshaker again, use it liberally).

Stoking the hype

The hype is clearly being stoked by RGT, and we guess time will tell. As Zen 5 is now rumored to be in production, we should get some more spillage soon enough, and perhaps actual performance benchmarks to go on. That's when we'll know which way the wind is really blowing.

With Zen 5 expected to be released in the second half of 2024, the belief is that these CPUs will beat Intel's Arrow Lake to the market, with the latter perhaps not arriving until very late in the year. That will be a major advantage for Team Red, too, as what might be Ryzen 8000 or 9000 desktop processors will be facing off against some decidedly aged opposition in the form of Raptor Lake Refresh. (A generation that really isn't all that meaningfully better than Raptor Lake, the 14700K excepted).

Finally, it's worth considering that RGT has a few revelations on Zen 6, though this is more recapping as far as we're aware, and the gist is that the following generation after Zen 5 will be a more modest step forward. That'll still mean reasonable gains, just not to the tune of the purported boost talked about here for Zen 5.

• Read more: AMD Ryzen 8950X CPU leak suggests slower performance than expected
• Read more: Ryzen 7000 X3D owners may get the ability to tweak the CPU to run faster