AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Sets A New Standard From US$299

AMD has been really pushing the limits with Ryzen and with great success. The series has seen numerous breakthroughs in key technologies and it is without a doubt really popular. With that said, here's the next step in which the company is embarking on to pave the future. Ryzen 7000 series is finally here.

Source: AMD

Now bear with us here for a moment, for we weren't actually allowed to take photos or videos of the entire event while we are here in Austin, Texas. But we'll try our best to sum it up as much as we can and share with you our thoughts about the brand-spanking new CPUs and more. With that said, let's get on with it.

As AMD has already mentioned, expect a next-generation improvement in the "Zen" Core Architecture with "Zen 4" as well as the new AM5 Platform. Back then, AMD actually hinted at a rough estimation of 8-10% uplift in IPC performance but now, they have actually managed up to a 13% uplift in IPC performance overall. To that end, the new Ryzen 7000 series will also feature up to a maximum of 5.7GHz and up to a 29% increase in single-threaded performance.

And of course, without a doubt, the top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 7950X with 16 Cores & 32 Threads is the first to be featured in which AMD claims much better performance as compared to the Intel Core i9-12900K. In the specific demo they showcased using V-Ray Benchmark 5, the Ryzen 9 7950X was able to output 30,210 V-Rays as compared to the 18,646 V-Ray that the Core i9-12900K was able to achieve. That's a roughly 62% increase in performance but perhaps, more importantly, the Ryzen chip was able to do so while being 47% better energy efficient as well.

In fact, AMD claimed that all the Ryzen chips across the stack for the 7000 series will actually perform faster in single-threaded performance as compared to the Core i9-12900K. One specific demo using F1 2022 was showcased, pitting the Ryzen 5 7600X against the Core i9-12900K and it is key to note that the Ryzen 5 7600X is actually 11% faster than the Core i9-12900K in overall average frame rates. Across numerous titles, that performance gain translates to about a 5% faster gaming performance at 1080p across the board.

So at this point, you might already get the gist. Ryzen 7000 series is definitely going to offer much better performance, and in some cases pretty substantially, as compared to the Ryzen 5000 series. While more performance is always great, power efficiency is definitely a big topic now especially given what the blue team is doing. Well, with the Ryzen 9 7950X and Ryzen 5950X as an example, you can expect up to 62% lower power draw at the same performance or up to 49% more performance at the same power draw. And to be slightly more specific, if you're limiting the chips to a 65W TDP, the 7950X will see up to a 74% increase in overall performance. At 105W TDP, that's about 37% and at 170W TDP, it's about 35%.

Now we will know much more about the architecture once we actually have more information, but "Zen 4" is only about half the topic. The other key major contributing factor is the platform itself. AM4 has been a really good friend to us for the past few years. That one single platform was able to last us across 5 CPU architectures, supported over 125 processors and way too many motherboards to count. 6 whole years and that's been nothing short of amazing.

Source: AMD

But it is time to move forward and with AM5, the first major difference you'll notice is the use of the LGA1718 socket which will support up to 230W of socket power delivery, alongside DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. One great thing to note is that despite the new platform, AMD has made sure that it'll still work and be compatible with AM4 coolers. So if you have a fancy cooler in your rig right now, rest assured that you can still use it. But perhaps best of all, just like with AM4, AMD is planning to support the AM5 platform for the long run. At the very least, till 2025.

Curiously, AMD did also unveil something new which they call EXPO. This stands for EXtended Profiles for Overclocking. In essence, this is a one-click DDR5 overclocking capability for Ryzen 7000 series CPUs with selected RAM kits. AMD has promised over 15 kits at launch with even kits that will support up to DDR5-6400. For context, the current standard is usually DDR5-4800 or DDR5-5200. So with 6400, that is quite the step up for sure. Speed is also substantially increased with the use of PCIe 5.0 and AMD is working with various partners to really expand and make use of the PCIe 5.0 ecosystem. Expect many different drives from brands such as Sabrent, Samsung, Corsair and much more, starting November 2022.

Now as for the motherboards themselves, AMD has also expanded their range in which they now offer Extreme versions within the series. For the enthusiasts, there will be the X670 Extreme and X670, while for the value-oriented, there will also be the B650 Extreme alongside the B650. No further specific information with regards to the motherboards as of yet, but we'll be sure to take look once they are available. The X670 series will be available from September while the B650 series will be available come October and the motherboards will start from a price of US$125.

But perhaps most importantly, you would want to know the official pricing for the CPUs and what will be available at launch. So here's a quick summary. AMD will be launching 4 CPUs in total at the start.

Interestingly enough, the prices are lower this time around especially for the Ryzen 9 7950X. It is in fact a full US$100 lower as compared to the Ryzen 9 5950X at launch. All the CPUs will be available starting from September 27th 2022.

For those who might still be waiting, don't fret. AMD has revealed a solid roadmap on what's to come and apart from Zen 4, there will also be "Zen 4 3D V-Cache" and a new sub-architecture in the form of the "Zen 4c" in the very near future.

In any case, we're really excited to see Ryzen 7000 series finally be available and we're looking forward to really putting it to the test. It might just be the next upgrade that we're looking for.