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AMD Announces Ryzen 5000 Series Processors

AMD has announced its first ZEN3 based Ryzen 5000 processors. In this article, we'll recap what has been announced and what we can expect. Man, it has been a long wait. But then again, has it really been that long? ZEN2 processors have not been around that long, but yeah, AMD has been talking about ZEN3 with a bit of a smile on their faces for a long time now.

The pressure has been on for AMD, Intel is in a tough spot, and AMD on the Ryze (pun intended). ZEN was good, ZEN2 was great, and ZEN3 (the codename behind the processor architecture) promised an updated architecture with even better IPC (overall performance). The bar has been raised thanks to chiplet designs that offer better yields and the fact that AMD is continuously pushing the boundaries of the chip-fabrication foundries. And let's face it, 7nm production has been a sweet spot for AMD. They have good yields ever since the initial launch, and well, it just works.

ZEN3 the new Gaming and performance king?

A lot has been said and spoken about ZEN3; AMD single and multi-threaded performance has been great overall, but has been struggling a bit more with high FPS and CPU bound games. That last bit is not solely due to the processor, as the gaming industry has been on an Intel intravenous drip for a decade, and optimized their procs the best. This thesis is wider than that as AMD has had architectural disadvantages in its core design and cluster design I should state. AMD's Zen and ZEN2 die to hold 8-cores per processor die. Within that real-estate, you'll notice that the eight cores are clustered in two groups of four. In there are some latency issues to be found. 

The solution to that is twofold; the first brute force your way out of there with increased IPC (your raw per clock cycle performance). You can do that by making more efficient buffers, caches, and stronger performing cores. Of course, a second methodology is something we see at intel, raise that clock frequency as high as possible. Overall we can say that Intel is king in High turbo clock frequencies, but a notch weaker in IPC. On the other hand, AMD has been very strong on IPC but less so in absolute peak clock frequencies. Now it isn't that AMD procs perform badly in games, as that isn't the truth whatsoever, but the lacking 5% or 10% game performance in the most extreme situations (GeForce RTX 3090 / CPU bound games / high FPS games), no it's the fact that they cannot pass intel in that segment that is haunting them. It creates a reputation, and no matter how good the processor series and its infrastructure have been, the first thing that people ask me is this "is it faster than Intel in games'. 

A unified 8-core design?

Two paragraphs ago, I told you that the solution at hand was twofold; I explained one. A second solution to bypass any performance degradation in gaming is to eliminate inter-core and inter CCX latencies. ZEN2 already addressed that to some extent, with a few efficiency solutions to be found at cache levels. However, of course, getting rid of the inter-core complex partition latencies is another thing. ZEN3, from what we understand right now, will not offer a two core complex (CCX) of 4 cores each per die (CCD), but a single core complex of 8 cores per die (CCD), and that is an easy win in latency.

Zen 3 will continue to use an MCM (multi-chip module), or chiplet design; it will use two CCDs and one I/O die. There will only be one CCX per CCD, and this CCX will consist of eight cores. There is be a total of 32MB of L3 cache (ZEN2 had 16MB per CCX ) shared across all eight cores in the CCX. Zen 2 offered 32MB of L3 cache per CCD, but that had to be shared between the two CCX complexes. There's also 512KB of L2 cache per core within the CCX, for a total of 4MB of L2 cache per CCD. Overall, IPC performance improvements are expected to hit roughly 19% per thread and add to that clock frequency and Turbo bins seen over ZEN2, that number might end up being 20 to 25% accumulated.  AMD has confirmed this paragraph at the moment of writing, so a single 8-core die (!)

Technology node

From AMD's materials, which stated "7nm+," it was initially assumed by the media that the 7nm process would be the new EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography from TSMC (N7+). A shift to N7+ would be expected to lower power consumption by 10% and offer up to a 20% increase in transistor density. This would also allow for higher clock speeds at the same power consumption.[4] AMD has clarified that they did not mean any specific process by "7nm+" and that they would be using an improved version of 7nm (N7), which includes the possibility of the DUV (deep ultraviolet) N7P process or some other unnamed process.

The announcements

AMD confirmed that the upcoming ZEN3 based processors are to be called the Ryzen 5000 series. And that brings the Mobile APU and Desktop lineup in the same numbering. It is the first time that AMD has now explained this itself for the codename Vermeer products. The processors that AMD will announce on tonight are based on the Zen 3 architecture and, like the CPUs, based on Zen 2, are fabbed at 7nm.

AMD Zen3 features:

• AMD Zen3 officially has a 19% IPC uplift
• Advanced Load/Store Performance and Flexibility
• 2X Direct Access L3 Cache Per Core
• Unified 8-core Complex (CCX)
• Wider Float and Int Engines
• “Zero Bubble” Branch Prediction

AMD called Thursday night's presentation 'Where Gaming Begins, AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Dekstop processors'. That indicated that AMD would emphasize the performance of the Zen 3 processors in games. AMD CEO Lisa Su announced the processors, four initially:

• Ryzen 5 5600X (6c/12t)
• Ryzen 7 5800X (8c/16t)
• Ryzen 9 5900X (12c/24t)
• Ryzen 9 5950X  (16c/32t)

CPU	Cores / Threads	Clock speed/turbo (GHz)	Cache (total)	PCIe lanes  CPU+x570 chiplet)	MSRP
Series 5000
Ryzen 9 5950X	16/32	3.4 / 4.9	72MB	tba	$799
Ryzen 9 5900X	12/24	3.7 / 4.8	70MB	tba	$549
Ryzen 7 5800X	8/16	3.8 / 4.7	36MB	tba	$449
Ryzen 5 5600X	6/12	3.7 / 4.5	35MB	tba	$299
Series 3000
Ryzen 9 3950X	16/32	3.5 / 4.7	72MB	40	$ 749
Ryzen 9 3900XT	12/24	3.8 / 4.7	70 MB	40	$ 499
Ryzen 9 3900X	12/24	3.8 / 4.6	70MB	40	$ 499
Ryzen 7 3800XT	8/16	3.9 / 4.7	36MB	40	$ 399
Ryzen 7 3800X	8/16	3.9 / 4.5	36MB	40	$ 399
Ryzen 7 3700X	8/16	3.6 / 4.4	36MB	40	$ 329
Ryzen 5 3600XT	6/12	3.8 / 4.7	35MB	40	$ 249
Ryzen 5 3600X	6/12	3.8 / 4.4	35MB	40	$ 249
Ryzen 5 3600	6/12	3.6 / 4.2	35MB	40	$ 199
Ryzen 3 3300X	4/8	3.8/4.3	18MB	40	$ 120
Ryzen 3 3100	4/8	3.6/3.9	18MB	40	$ 99

Compatibility

The new ZEN3 based Ryzen 5000 series processors will be drop-in compatible with the Series 500 chipset motherboard. There will also be 'select' Series 400 chipset support for motherboards that have a 32MB BIOS. In short, for Ryzen 4000, aka ZEN3 processors that are released, it is recommended to have a B550 or X570 motherboard. With motherboards like B550 and X570, you thus are guaranteed to get optimal support for Zen 3 processors when they get released. Much like before, support will be added through firmware updates that motherboard manufacturers will make available and already made available by many manufacturers. Please check their website for BIOS updates.  Initially, AMD had no plans to introduce “Zen 3” architecture support for older chipsets. While they wish could enable full support for every processor on every chipset, the flash memory chips that store BIOS settings and support have capacity limitations.  So on Series 400 chipset, you need to have a board with 32MB BIOS storage; please check this with your manufacturer.

Availability

All processors will launch on November 5th, and AMD claims to have the proper volume of the product available at launch when reviews go-live is yet to be announced but logically can be assumed to be the same day.

We'll end this preview the press-release just posted by AMD

AMD Launches AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors: The Fastest Gaming CPUs in the World

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors built on new “Zen 3” core architecture delivers across-the-board leadership performance for gamers and content creators 

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) introduced the highly anticipated AMD Ryzen 5000 Series desktop processor lineup powered by the new “Zen 3” architecture. Offering up to 16 cores, 32 threads, and 72 MB of cache in the top-of-the-line AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors dominate in heavily threaded workloads1 and power efficiency2. In contrast, the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor offers up to a 26% generational uplift in gaming performance3. With extensive improvements throughout the core, including a unified 8-core complex with direct access to 32MB L3 cache, the new AMD “Zen 3” core architecture delivers a 19% generational increase in instructions per cycle (IPC)4, the largest since the introduction of “Zen” processors in 2017.

“Our commitment with each generation of our Ryzen processors has been to build the best PC processors in the world. The new AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors extend our leadership from IPC4, power efficiency2 to single-core5, multi-core performance1 and gaming6,” said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, client business unit, AMD. “Today, we are extremely proud to deliver what our community and customers have come to expect from Ryzen processors – dominant multi-core1 and single-core performance5 and true gaming leadership6 – all within a broad ecosystem of motherboards and chipsets that are drop-in ready for AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors.”

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors
Featuring a remarkable 19% IPC increase4 over the prior generation in PC workloads, the “Zen 3” architecture pushes gaming and content creation performance leadership6,1 to a new level. “Zen 3” architecture reduces latency from accelerated core and cache communication and doubles the directly accessible L3 cache per core while delivering up to 2.8X more performance-per-watt versus the competition2.

The top of the line 16 core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X offers:

• The highest single-thread performance of any desktop gaming processor5
• The most multi-core performance of any desktop gaming processor and any desktop processor in a mainstream CPU socket1

The 12 core AMD Ryzen 9 5900X offers the best gaming experience by:

• Average of 7% faster in 1080p gaming across select game titles than the competition
• Average of 26% faster in 1080p gaming across select titles generationally

AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processor Line-up and Availability:

AMD 500 series motherboards are ready for AMD Ryzen 5000 Series desktop processors with a simple BIOS update. This broad ecosystem support and readiness include over 100 AMD 500 series of motherboards from all major motherboard manufacturers. AMD Ryzen 5000 Series desktop processors announced today are expected to be available for purchase globally on November 5, 2020.

AMD Ryzen Equipped to Win Game Bundle

The AMD Ryzen Equipped to Win game bundle program is back with the highly anticipated next chapter in the Far Cry® series, Far Cry® 6. Customers who purchase an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor between November 5th, 2020, and December 31st, 2020, will receive a complimentary copy of Far Cry® 6 Standard Edition – PC digital when released10. Additionally, customers who purchase an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, or AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT processor between October 20th, 2020, and December 31st, 2020 will also receive a free copy of Far Cry® 6 Standard Edition – PC digital10.