AMD is known for great value when it comes to its desktop processors, but its Computex 2024 presentation just doubled down on that MO. Not only has the company extended its current-gen AM5 motherboard socket for its brand new 9000 Series CPUs, but it’s releasing even more products for the AM4 platform that launched in 2016.
The AMD Ryzen 9000 Series will launch this July and will utilize a new Zen 5 architecture while remaining compatible with current motherboard chipsets the best CPUs for gaming use already. This means if your system is compatible with AMD’s Ryzen 7000 Series processors, or indeed the 8000G Series, you can upgrade to the new 9000 Series without having to invest in an entirely new system.
The 9000 series flagship will be the Ryzen 9 9950X, which sports 16 Cores and 32 Threads, a 5.7GHz Boost Clock, 80MB of L2+L3 cache, and a 170W TDP. Interestingly, these specs aren’t all that different from the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, which also has 16 Cores and 32 Threads.
The big difference between the two is in their architecture, as Zen 5, the new blueprint for 9000 Series desktop processors, is said to allow for a 16% mean performance increase across the board vs Zen 4. It allows for twice the data bandwidth thanks to a wider pipeline and vectors, two times the instruction bandwidth thanks to a new performance Core design, and the same uplift in AI performance thanks to increased throughput.
Also launching in the 9000 Series is a Ryzen 9 9900X with 12 Cores and 24 Threads, a Ryzen 7 9700X with 8 Cores and 16 threads, and a Ryzen 5 9600X with 6 Cores and 12 Threads.
We don’t have pricing information for the new 9000 Series yet, but its arrival could mean a price drop for the 7000 Series and a wider adoption of those CPUs in the best gaming PCs.
AM4 for my next trick…
As if a new generation of desktop processors wasn’t enough, AMD is yet again adding to the AM4 range with two new desktop CPUs. The Ryzen 9 5900XT also launches in July, packing 16 Cores and 32 threads and up to a 4.8GHz boost clock.
The Ryzen 7 5800XT is armed with 8 Cores, 16 Threads, and up to the same 4.8GHz boost clock. The two will join a refreshed batch of Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 5000 Series processors that released at the end of January. One of these was the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D which brought the brand’s extra-beefy cache technology to older motherboards.
The amount of value that can be squeezed out of the AM4 platform is getting ridiculous. It’s incredible that AMD is still supporting a chipset that arrived back in 2016 - especially when its original 5000 Series processors are still worth buying and offer some of the best budget options found on the shelves.
This attitude really contrasts with Intel, which has supported its current LGA motherboard socket across the 12th, 13th, and 14th Generation of CPUs, but shows no sign of supporting anyone who bought into the 11th Generation.
It’s fantastic that PC gamers who bought into the AMD ecosystem can upgrade older systems using AMD’s architecture - even if the part of me that reviews the best RAM for gaming feels a little antsy about their lack of DDR5 compatibility.
Perhaps most impressively, this support for existing AMD systems has been confirmed to extend even further into the future. A graphic shown during the Computex briefing showed that the AM4 platform will be supported at least until 2025, and the AM5 platform will get support well into 2027, but most likely beyond that.
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