AMD’s remarkable rise in recent years means it’s now one of the leading component manufacturers worldwide. Much of the growth has been led by its Ryzen CPUs, which have proven more than a match for Intel.
Like many component manufacturers, AMD isn’t shy when it comes to announcing long-term plans. Alongside the reveal of
Ryzen 6000 Series mobile CPUs earlier this year, the company confirmed its successor was on the way, even revealing some key specs. Here’s everything we know about the Ryzen 7000 Series at this stage.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series release date
At AMD’s CES keynote in January 2022, the company confirmed that the Ryzen 7000 Series was on the way. It even committed to a rough release window – the second half of 2022. It then followed up at Computex 2022, claiming that the Ryzen 7000 Series is on schedule for release sometime in Q3 2022.
On a recent earnings call (reported by Wccftech), CEO Lisa Su confirmed that the initial Ryzen 7000 Series launch would take place “later this quarter”. That’s anytime between now and the end of September, but it’s not clear exactly when that’ll be.
A recent article from DigiTimes is more specific – it says the first new processors could begin shipping in September 2022. Whenever they do launch, the event is also expected to show off new motherboards, suggesting it’ll be high-end desktop CPUs that are announced first.
That’s what the official roadmap shows, with before thin-and-light and extreme laptops covered in 2023 – an official announcement for those is likely to take place at CES 2023, but more chips will be announced at various points next year.
That extreme category will be known as “Dragon Range”, and will be a new entry compared to the Ryzen 6000 Series. They’ll likely then be included in high-end gaming laptops released throughout 2023.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series pricing
There’s been no indication of how much the Ryzen 7000 series might cost so far. That’s hardly surprising – AMD only usually reveals pricing at the launch event. However, the suggested pricing for the latest Ryzen 5000 Series desktop CPUs gives an indication of how much you’ll pay:
- Ryzen 9 5950X – £735.84/US$799
- Ryzen 9 5900X – £505.61US$549
- Ryzen 7 5800X – £413.51/US$449
- Ryzen 5 5600X – £275.36/US$299
These prices represent a US$50 increase on the Ryzen 4000 series. There’s a chance you’ll be expected to pay even more for the next generation, given a new architecture and manufacturing process are being used.
Laptop-focused mobile chips are expected too, although they’re designed to be integrated into devices and not available as standalone components. How much you pay will therefore depend on the other specs, the brand in question and the retailer you buy from.
AMD Ryzen 7000 Series specs and features
Despite being a few months ahead of its expected release, we already have a few key details regarding the Ryzen 7000 Series.
The first major source is AMD itself. At the
Ryzen 6000 Series reveal at CES 2022, the company confirmed that Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs were in the works. We now know they’ll use a 5nm process, as well as debut the upcoming
Zen 4 architecture.
A short clip from the January 2022 keynote was posted to the official AMD Ryzen Twitter account. This highlights the gaming performance you can expect while playing AAA games at 1080p, with all Zen 4 cores speeds apparently running at 5GHz:
See AMD Ryzen 7000 and Zen 4 in action with Halo Infinite! With beautiful gameplay and high framerates, AMD is excited to bring you the ultimate PC and gaming experiences.
#AMD2022
https://t.co/4GRGyPgedC
pic.twitter.com/R6jEPOGxV6— AMD Ryzen (@AMDRyzen)
January 4, 2022
Other key specs mentioned by AMD include support for DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0. These were both suggested in an April 2021 article by
Guru3D.com, which pieced together several sources reporting on the CPUs. Key takeaways include a move to the upcoming Zen 4 architecture, as well as DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0.
AMD then shared more details during its Computex 2022 keynote, including the fact that you’ll need an AM5-enabled motherboard to enjoy the Ryzen 7000 series chips at release later this year. The company also claims that the chips will be able to boost over 5GHz, with a Ghostwire: Tokyo demo showcasing a 5.5GHz clockspeed, matching that of Intel’s Core i9-12900KS.
The Zen 4 architecture the chips are based on will offer a “greater than 15 percent” improvement to single-threaded performance compared to Zen 3, though with the caveat that the new chips may need more power to provide that level of performance.
Inside the Ryzen 7000 chipset you’ll find three chiplets; two 5nm Zen 4 CPU modules and a new 6nm I/O die with integrated RDNA 2 graphics, along with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 controllers and built-in power management. This means every chip will have some kind of graphical power, with a graphics card only needed for gaming or graphical work.
The roadmap in the release date section above was first reported by
Videocardz. It reveals a brand-new category of mobile processors, codenamed “Dragon Range”. AMD says it will deliver the “highest core, thread and cache ever for a mobile gaming CPU”, but still be capable of high-end content creation and productivity.
In
Wccftech’s article reporting a potential September launch date, several other ‘expected features’ are mentioned. Some are things we’re already aware of, but the following haven’t been discussed here before:
- New AM5 platform and LGA1718 socket
- Dual-channel DDR5 support
- 28 PCIe lanes
- 65-120W TDPs, can potentially reach 170W
Wccftech has a strong track record for AMD news, and these features all seem likely.
An earlier roadmap uploaded by
Guru3D.com reveals more detail regarding AMD’s upcoming plans:
The article also mentions that all Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs will come with integrated graphics. This will likely be Navi 2 on the desktop ‘Raphael’ chips, before ‘Phoenix’ brings the new RDNA 3 solution to market. Phoenix will supposedly be pitched as the mobile solution that will eventually make its way into laptops, but it will be available in desktop PCs too. This is where we also expect the Ryzen 7000 G-Series to fit in, offering a high-end gaming experience on more affordable hardware.
In revealing the Ryzen 6000 Series, AMD confirmed its current processors would be exclusively for laptops and other mobile devices. The next generation of desktop CPUs will therefore be the Ryzen 7000 Series, which the company also revealed will use a new AM5 socket known as LGA 1718.
However, as
Wccftech and other sources make clear, there are plenty of things we still don’t know about the Ryzen 7000 series at this stage. The maximum number of cores, max thread count and which server it will use still remain unclear.
As
Videocardz reports, a brand-new Ryzen 7000 Series CPU has appeared in a now-deleted MSI video. An engineering sample of the Ryzen 9 7950X was shown, a processor we haven’t heard AMD mention before. It features up to 16 cores and 32 threads, although there is also the option for an 8-core, 16-thread version. However, it remains to be seen whether this CPU will make it into the Ryzen 7000 Series lineup later this year.
We’ll update this article once more information is revealed. In the meantime, our guide to the
Ryzen 6000 Series takes you through everything you need to know about AMD’s latest mobile CPUs.
