AMD Zen 4 release date, specs & more: What we know

AMD CEO Lisa Su confirms AMD’s 5nm Zen 4 architecture is coming in the second half of 2022, and it will debut on the Ryzen 7000 series of CPUs. Here’s everything we know so far.

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Zen 4 is on the way in the form of Ryzen 7000 series CPUs and the internet is abuzz with the latest Zen 4 news. It’s hard to believe AMD released its very first Ryzen CPUs in 2017. They were based on the brand new Zen architecture built from the ground up specifically for Ryzen. This is where AMD turned the tide and began to dominate the CPU market as we know it. 

Latest News: Zen 4 and AM5 to release in “Fall 2022” confirms AMD CEO, DR. Lisa Su at Computex 2022.

Dr. Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, has announced that the release date for both Zen 4 CPUs and AM5 motherboards will be scheduled for Fall 2022, meaning we could see Ryzen 7000 CPUs hit the shelves as early as September. Check out our Zen 4 release date page for more details.

Since then we have seen six new generations of Ryzen CPUs, the latest of which is the 6000 series, an adaptation of the current architecture Zen 3 into Zen 3+. This set of CPUs is set to release in laptops that AMD announced at CES, in January this year. They said that the laptops would launch around February 2022, so you can expect to see them any day now. 

Want to know more about the AM5 socket? We have an article for that. Here’s everything we know so far on AM5
Or does the Ryzen 6000 series tickle your fancy? Try everything we know about AMD Ryzen 6000 series article.

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As for Zen 4 there’s very little known but everything we do know will be covered in this article. Some of the topics we will be discussing are: 

  • What is Zen 4?
  • Zen 4 release date 
  • Zen 4 features
  • Zen 4 socket
  • Zen 4 news 
  • Zen 4 leaks

What is AMD Zen 4? 

amd zen 4

Not much is known about the Zen 4 architecture just yet but we do know that Zen 4 is a CPU architecture designed by AMD and it is said to be much improved over its predecessor Zen 3. 

Zen 4 will be built on a smaller process than Zen 3. Zen 3 is built on a 7nm process whereas the Zen 4 architecture will be built on a 5nm process. 

What is an nm process? 

Briefly, an nm process refers to a method in semiconductor manufacturing known as photolithography, where the image of a CPU is etched onto a piece of silicon. The exact method of how this is done is sometimes referred to as the process node and is measured by how small the manufacturer can make the transistors that are essential to the CPU’s operation. These transistors are measured in “nm”. 

The physics of smaller transistors

In very simple terms, the smaller the manufacturer can make the transistors, the less power they require to function and the less resistance they have to face as there’s less physical material for an electrical current to traverse. 

In turn all these things make for a more power-efficient chip. The smaller the transistors, the more you can pack onto an IC (integrated circuit), leading to more computations per second. Smaller transistors also switch faster with fewer electrons required to form the conducting channel below the gate of the transistor, between the source and drain.

In Zen 4 CPU architecture the transistors are smaller, we call the measurement of transistors a “nm process” smaller transistors allow AMD to fit more into each IC. More transistors male for more instructions per cycle (IPC) this determines how powerful or how many instructions a CPU can compute per cycle.

Back to Zen 4

As Zen 4 is constructed on a much smaller nm process, the efficiency increases and so does the power. With the CPU most likely being the same size we can assume there will be a greater number of transistors packed into the same footprint allowing the CPU to make many more billions of calculations per second. This is why everyone makes a fuss over the nm process – it’s a pretty big deal. 

Zen 4 release date 

At CES in January 2022, AMD announced that its new Ryzen 7000 series processors will release in the second half of 2022, presumably alongside the all-new AM5 socket motherboards. 

Here is a historical list of AMDs recent CPU architectures: 

  • Zen – March 2017
  • Zen 2 – August 2019
  • Zen 3 – November 2020

This follows no specific pattern and it’s hard to deduce a release date from this data alone.

However, a recent tweet from Twitter leaker @Broly_x1 says the release date and announcement could be around September 2022. The tweet has since been deleted. We think this could be correct as another prolific Twitter leaker has emerged tweeting about Zen 4s release date.

Greymon55 (who has posted AMD roadmaps in the past) suggests that the 7000 series Zen 4 CPUs release will not be in Q4, despite AMDs indications.

In a response to Hassan Mujtaba from Wccftech, Greymon55 confirmed that the launch is set to go ahead before September 2022. could this mean an August release for Zen 4?

Zen 4 getwinder leak

To substantiate these claims we have another leak suggesting Zen 4’s release date, and this comes all the way from the Chiphell forum by a user named “getwinder”. Getwinder has hinted at more than just the release date though.

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besides the release date, getwinder hinted at IPC increases alongside peak and full core frequency increases.
although we aren’t too sure what previous architecture this is based on, whether that be Zen 3 or Zen 3+.

IPC stands for instructions per cycle and is exactly how it sounds, it is the measure of how many instructions a CPU can complete in one clock cycle. This differs from clock speed as clock speed is the number of cycles a CPU can complete per second. Both of these aspects are integral to a CPUs performance but not one more than another. You need a healthy mix of both IPC and clock speed for a well-balanced and speedy CPU.

If like getwinder suggests we see an 18% IPC improvement, peak frequency increases of 7%, and full core frequency improvements of 8.7%, in a 7950x over the 5950x for example. That’s a 7900x that can theoretically push 5.4GHz and sustain 5GHz all-core. That’s massive and could offer even more exciting results if these numbers happen to be based on the Zen 3 rehash Zen 3+.

AMD Zen 4 release date: Mass production

Twitter leaker Greymon55 suggests that the AMD Ryzzen 7000 series CPU will enter mass production as early as April – May. This lines the CPU up for an August – September release date if AMD production history is to repeat itself.

Zen 4 pre-production and Q3 2022 launch (rumour)

Wccftech reports that announcements regarding AM5 and Zen 4 CPUs are expected to be delivered at Computex 2022, one of the world’s largest tech conventions that usually takes place at the end of May.

based on information gained from a user on a Chinese website Enthusiastic Citizen The Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 CPUs will likely launch alongside the X670 series of AM5 motherboards sometime in mid-Q3 2022, this looks like a similar launch cycle to the Ryzen 5000 series of CPUs. If this is true it looks like an August release might be on the cards. This is in line with rumors of Zen 4 entering mass production early this quarter.

Zen 4 HWINFO Compatability

Twitter leakers aren’t the only source of news when it comes down to the release date of a technology.
HWINFO has recently added support for Zen 4 and AM5 in its latest patch v7.20.

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With HWINFO adding support for Zen 4 7000 series AMD CPUs alongside support for the AM5 platform, comes a possible release window. Historically support for new technology is added to HWINFO three to six months prior to that technologies release, meaning a mid-year release for Zen 5 and AM5 could be on the cards yet.

Zen 4 & AM5 will only support DDR5 RAM

There have been many hints by AMD in the past that AM5 and the Ryzen 7000 series will be based around the DDR5 memory standard and, recently, AMD’s representatives in AMD’s ‘meet the experts’ webinar confirmed that Raphael will be AMD’s first DDR5-based platform. 

This could drive up the upgrade cost significantly and make Zen 4 unavailable to those on a budget. The prices of DDR5 are sky-high right now but are on a downwards path towards more manageable costs. Will it have returned to normal by the time Zen 4 releases sometime in the next few months?

Intel has a significant advantage here offering both DDR5 and DDR4 versions of their LGA 1700 motherboards, allowing users the choice to either stick with DDR4 or invest in DDR5. Moving from DDR4 to DDR5 will require a motherboard upgrade however since DDR4 and DDR5 do not follow the same connection standard.

Zen 4 OpenBenchmarking leak

A new OpenBenchmarking.org submission leaked by Petykemano on Twitter, suggests that one Zen 4 SKU has an all-core boost speed of 5.2GHz, and is packed with all the RDNA2 iGPU goodness.

The submission on OpenBenchmarking.org has since been deleted, but somebody managed to grab a screenshot of the post before it was lost to the void. The Ryzen 7000 series CPU, which goes by the catchy 100-000000666-20_Y identifier, is rumored to be one of the 7800X CPUs – assuming AMD hasn’t changed its hierarchy this time around.

AMD’s Zen 4 CPUs are all built upon TSMC’s 5nm manufacturing process, which promises a massive 30% increase in power efficiency and around 15% better performance. Not only that, but there’s a 1.8X increase in transistor density over AMD’s current 7nm Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, equating to much higher IPCs.

If you would like to read more on the subject, here is our “Zen 4 CPU leaked with 5.2GHZ Boost & RDNA 2 iGPU” news piece.

AMD Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 specs

zen 4 specs

Zen 4 is the next advancement in CPU architecture from AMD and this is going to require an upgrade in hardware to support it, such as the AM5 socket motherboard, DDR5, and new technology to support DDR5 known as RAMP. You can read more about all these technologies in our ‘Everything we know about AM5’ article. 

Zen 4 is presumably bringing the same family of CPUs we’re used to, and that would be…

  • Ryzen 9
  • Ryzen 7
  • Ryzen 5
  • Ryzen 3 

Along with the smaller nm process adding more power, there’s an interesting leak from Twitter user Bits and Chips, stating that the new architecture will also bring more cores to the CPUs.

In the tweet he says, 

“We will see 24 core Zen4/5 CPUs on AM5 socket. Probably the listed SKUs will be:

  • Ryzen 9 = 24/20 core
  • Ryzen 7 = 16/12 core
  • Ryzen 5 = 8/6 core
  • Ryzen 3 = 4/2 core”

All of the Zen 3-based Ryzen CPUs have a maximum of 16 cores so this is a huge upgrade, although more cores and threads do not always mean better performance so it remains to be seen what impact this will have. However, if this is true it will be an extraordinary feat of engineering. 

Bits and Chips state that Zen 4 and Zen 5 will be based on the AM5 platform. It will be very interesting to see if this pans out. 

Bits and Chips has a history of reporting correct component news ahead of time, but this is no guarantee we will see this core count on the Zen 4 based CPUs. 

Besides these expected core counts we do have a few more rumors on the up-and-coming Zen 4 architecture.

AMD Zen 4 & TSMC 

TSMC stands for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and they work directly with AMD to help produce Rzyen CPUs. It’s no different this time with Zen 4 set for launch.

A WikiChip article from way back in March 2020 suggested that with AMD moving to the 5nm process we could see TSMC provide a density improvement of up to 87% compared to the 7nm process. As mentioned before, TSMC works directly with AMD to help produce Ryzen CPUs and transistor density is vital to CPU performance – the more transistors you have, the more calculations you can make per second. We’d love these sorts of gains to make their way to Zen 4. 

A subsequent post on the technology blog Chips and Cheese suggests that we could see as much as a 40% higher transistor density on the new Zen 4 CPUs, raising IPC (instructions per clock) by as much as 25% over Zen 3. 

Including this, a rumor from Mydrivers suggests that 5nm wafers production will be increased by 25% from 120K wafers per month to 150K. This will ensure that there should be plenty of stock for the Ryzen 7000 series Zen 4 CPUs.

Zen 4 motherboards

The AMD Ryzen 7000 series of CPU will sit in the up-and-coming 600 series of the already familiar X, B, and A motherboards.
These motherboards will house the new AM5 socket and will be packed full of the latest features and technological advancements that AM4 is no longer capable of, due to the fact that AM4 as a platform has been running for over five years now.

Zen 4 AM5 socket 

wepc am5

AMD has confirmed that Zen 4 will see its debut on the AM5 socket motherboards. 

We have a full AM5 article but we will summarise what AM5 is here. 

At CES 2021, AMD confirmed that the AM5 socket will be moving from PGA (pin grid array) to LGA (land grid array), LGA socket 1718 to be exact. 

The move has caused mixed feelings among consumers, and we agree it’s a little strange seeing AMD move away from the PGA platform as it’s been the AMD standard for many many years, but the advantages are hard to ignore. 

Essentially, LGA CPUs are simpler and more cost-effective to manufacture thanks in part to the fact they are less delicate and there will be less accidental damage. 

The CPU contacts or ‘lands’ for LGA have a smaller footprint than the pins on a PGA CPU, allowing more lands to be added, and increasing the CPUs functionality. This can mean the CPU packs much more of a punch in terms of connectivity.

These are just some of the points we made in our AM5 article check it out if you want to go more in-depth on  LGA, AM5, chipsets, release dates and more.

A tweet by ExecutableFix on Twitter hints at a few more things, some of which we already know. One interesting point they make in the comments is that the AM5 CPU socket will retain the 40x40mm dimensions. This stacks up as AMD has already confirmed that thanks to a nifty IHS design on the Zen 4 CPUs themselves, AM5 sockets will be compatible with AM4 coolers. 

More Zen 4 spec rumors 

Another Zen 4 leak came courtesy of Moore’s Law is Dead on YouTube and consolidates a lot of the information we already know surrounding Zen 4 such as chips moving to the 5 nm process designed by TSMC. DDR5 RAM will be supported as well as increasing the PCIe 4.0 lanes from 24 to 28. 

New key information included Zen 4 chips improving IPC (Instruction Per Clock) by around 25% over the Zen 3 architecture, and will potentially support a 24 core CPU just as the leaker Bitch and Chips suggested. We think this is unlikely but it would be nice. 

A tweet from the reliable leaker way back in July 2021 suggested that the Ryzen 7000 series may be codenamed, Raphael. Even if this doesn’t come to pass, we think that the name will remain as the idea has since become mainstream. 

News

Leaks

Conclusion 

We’re rapidly approaching the release of Zen 4 now and there’s some serious buzz around the release date and specifications. That’s everything we know about the up-and-coming Zen 4 architecture. We’re very excited to see what the future holds and how much of this turns out to be true. Whether it’s the IPC increases or the massive 24-core count, we’re sure Raphael and the rest of Zen 4 are going to blow us away. 

We’ll update news, leaks, and information on this page as we find it, so check back here daily for all the latest Zen 4 news. 

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Jack Howarth

Jack has been interested in computers and tech since 10 years old when he decided to dismantle his PC to see how it worked. Ever since Jack has had a passion for IT and gaming beyond any other. He loves the data and testing process and allowing himself to take an analytical and technical approach to PC hardware. He's even gone as far as getting educated in cyber security.

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