AMD Ryzen 7000 processors: Everything you need to know

AMD has finally let the cat out of the bag and revealed their next generation desktop processors, the Ryzen 7000 series. It’s more than just their new lineup of processors though, as it also brings with it a whole new motherboard socket platform too.

Starting off with the new chips, these all feature the Zen 4 architecture built on TSMC’s 5nm process, making it the world’s first desktop processor in 5nm. This brings with it several improvements, such as a 13% average increase in IPC compared to Zen 3. Notably, the shift to 5nm also brings with it faster clockspeeds, a smaller die size as well as much improved efficiency.

We’ll go into specifics in a bit, but Zen 4 is purportedly able to deliver up to 74% better performance at a locked 65W TDP over its last generation chips, dropping to 37% and 35% better performance at 105W and 170W TDP respectively. It’s also capable of using up to 62% less power for the same performance compared to Ryzen 5000 chips. Then there’s also a 6nm I/O die in these Ryzen 7000 processors too, enabling hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding, some light graphics work as well as multi-display support.

As for the specific processors announced, we’re looking at four SKUs. The top of the range is the Ryzen 9 7950X, which features 16 cores and 32 threads, running at a 4.5GHz base frequency with boost clocks of up to 5.7GHz. It features 80MB of total cache and has a 170W TDP. AMD is claiming up to 48% improvements in content creation performance and up to 35% improvements in gaming performance for the Ryzen 9 7950X compared to the Ryzen 9 5950X. Below that is the Ryzen 9 7900X, which has 12 cores and 24 threads running at 4.7GHz base frequency with boosts of up to 5.6GHz. It too has a rated 170W TDP, with 76MB of total cache.

Below the two enthusiast options, we have the Ryzen 7 7700X, a processor with 8 cores and 16 threads running at a 4.5GHz base frequency with boosts of up to 5.4GHz. It has a total cache of 40MB and a 105W TDP. Notably, the Ryzen 5 7600X also has a rated TDP of 105W, up from the Ryzen 5 5600X’s 65W. It has 6 cores and 12 threads clocked at a base speed of 4.7GHz, with boost speeds up to 5.3GHz. It also has 38MB of total cache, and AMD says you can expect up to 40% improvements in gaming on their midrange option compared to the last generation Ryzen 5 5600X. In fact, AMD even claims it has better gaming and single core performance than the Intel Core i9-12900K.

These four processors will all be made available globally from 27 Sept onwards. AMD also expects supply to keep up with demand this time, hopefully avoiding a repeat of the Ryzen 5000 launch when there was a shortage of processors. Here’s how much the first batch of Ryzen 7000 processors will cost:

• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, 16C/32T, 4.5GHz/5.7GHz, 80MB, 170W – USD699 (~RM3,132.57)
• AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, 12C/24T, 4.7GHz/5.6GHz, 76MB, 170W – USD549 (~RM2,460.34)
• AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, 8C/16T, 4.5GHz/5.4GHz, 40MB, 105W – USD399 (~RM1,788.12)
• AMD Ryzen 5 7600X, 6C/12T, 4.7GHz/5.3GHz, 38MB, 105W – USD299 (~RM1,339.97)

Another thing to note about these new processors is that they’ll all be using the new AMD Socket AM5 platform, bidding farewell to the AM4 platform that had served AMD users for so long. The biggest update here of course is the switch to a land grid array socket instead of the classic pin grid array setup, moving the pins from the bottom of the CPU chip to the motherboard socket. It’s basically just moving to what Intel’s been doing for years now, and the main benefit here is that it’ll likely reduce accidental damage to the pins when you’re not careful. You’ll also apparently be able to use most AM4 coolers with AM5 too.

As for the actual Socket AM5 motherboard chipsets themselves, there will be four chipsets at launch, namely:

• AMD X670 Extreme
• AMD X670
• AMD B650 Extreme
• AMD B650

It mostly follows the traditional nomenclature for AMD motherboards, with the X-series chipsets meant for enthusiasts looking to do extreme overclocking and the like, while the B-series chipsets will still allow CPU and RAM overclocking but are designed mostly for mainstream users in mind. They will all support quad channel DDR5 and will come with at least one PCIe 5.0 slot for M.2 storage. The two ‘Extreme’ chipsets will also have PCIe 5.0 for the graphics card slot, while the non-Extreme boards will come with PCIe 4.0 slots instead.

The two X670 boards will be available globally together with the Ryzen 7000 processors on 27 September, while the other two B650 boards will be available sometime in October. Also, AMD is promising support for AM5 at least until 2025, so we’ll be seeing at least a few more generations of Ryzen on AM5 still.

Another thing worth mentioning is that AMD is also now offering the new Extended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO) standard. Basically, if you’re already familiar with the Intel XMP memory overclocking feature, AMD’s EXPO is a similar thing except optimised and tuned specifically for Ryzen 7000. AMD says there will be at least 15 memory kits with EXPO support debuting on 27 September too, with speeds of up to DDR5-6400.