AMD
AMD released more information about its next-gen Ryzen 9000 processors and its Zen 5 CPU core architecture this week ahead of their launch in late July. The company reiterated some of the high-profile performance claims it made last month — low-to-mid double-digit performance increases over Zen 4 in both single- and multi-threaded tasks. But AMD also bragged about the chips’ power efficiency compared to the Ryzen 7000, noting that they will reduce power usage despite the performance boost.
Prioritize energy efficiency
AMD says it has lowered the default power limits for three of its four Ryzen 9000 processors — the Ryzen 5 9600X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Ryzen 9 7900X — compared to the Ryzen 7000 versions of the same chips. Despite the lower default power limits, all three chips still feature double-digit performance improvements over their predecessors. AMD also says the Ryzen 9000 CPU temperatures are up to 7 degrees Celsius lower than the Ryzen 7000 chips at the same settings.
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The Ryzen 9000’s low double-digit performance gains come despite the fact that the company has lowered the default TDP for most of its chips. These TDP settings determine how much power an AMD CPU can use (though they don’t necessarily determine how much power it can use). will Uses).
AMD
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Since the TDPs have been reduced, AMD claims that the Ryzen 9000 chips will have greater overclocking capability than the Ryzen 7000.
AMD
It’s worth noting that we generally tested the original Ryzen 7000 CPUs at multiple power levels, and for most chips — most notably the 7600X and 7700X — we found that increased TDP levels didn’t help performance much in the first place. The Ryzen 9000’s TDP reduction may have been possible in part through architectural improvements or a newer manufacturing process, but AMD already had some room to lower those power usage numbers without impacting performance too much. TDP is also better viewed as a proxy for power Limit It is not the actual amount of power the CPU will use for any given workload, even when maxed out.
However, we appreciate AMD’s focus on power efficiency for the Ryzen 9000 series, especially since Intel’s high-end 13900K and 14900K processors have suffered from crashes that It seems It could be due to excessive power usage and improper motherboard configurations. Intel hasn’t made a definitive statement about what the problem is, but it’s plausible (and probably likely!) that this issue is a result of these chips’ high tolerance for extreme heat and electricity.
Users who want to push the power limits and try overclocking can still push the Ryzen 9000 CPUs even further — AMD notes that all the chips have more room for automatic Precision Boost Overdrive overclocking, specifically because the default power limits leave a bit more performance on the table. But as long as the chips still perform well at their default settings, people who just want to build a PC without doing much tinkering will be better served by chips that run cooler and use less power.
More clock time for AM5 socket
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AMD has committed to supporting the AM5 socket until “2027+,” two years longer than the “2025+” it promised in late 2022.
AMD
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The Ryzen 9000 will launch alongside several slightly updated chipsets, although existing AM5 boards will be able to use these chipsets after a BIOS update.
AMD
There’s another small but noteworthy change to AMD’s chipset lineup, and it’s good news for anyone who’s already invested in a Socket AM5 motherboard or has plans to do so in the near future: AMD has officially extended its guaranteed support timeline for the socket through at least 2027 and is leaving the door open for support beyond that point. That’s a two-year extension of the “2025+” timeline the company set in late 2022.
Of course, “support” can mean a lot of different things. AMD still officially supports the AM4 socket with new CPU releases and continues to rely on AM4 as a budget platform as AM5 socket costs remain stubbornly high. But these “new” releases have all been repackaging of various late-2020 Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, rather than truly new products. Still, AMD’s official commitment to the longevity of the AM5 socket makes it a little It’s easier to recommend for people who upgrade their CPUs regularly.
The Ryzen 9000 chips will be able to slot into any existing AM5 motherboard after a BIOS update. The company is also announcing a lineup of 800-series chipsets for the new motherboards, though they generally come with only minor improvements over the 600-series chipsets they replace. The X870E and X870 will definitely have USB 4 ports, and the X870 supports PCIe 5.0 speeds for the GPU slot where the X670 only supports PCIe 4.0 speeds for the GPU slot. The lower-end B850 chipset still supports PCIe 5.0 speeds for SSDs and PCIe 4.0 speeds for GPUs, while the lower-end B840 chipset is limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds for everything. The B840 also won’t support CPU overclocking, though it’s still capable of RAM overclocking.
List image by AMD