Rumor: Ryzen 7000 CPUs with up to 16 cores at up to 170 watts

Sebastian Schenzinger

It has been more than five years since AMD launched the first processors for the socket AM4 with the Ryzen 1000. The Ryzen 7000 with the AM5 socket is expected to succeed it at the end of 2022 and will no longer use a PGA (Pin Grid Array) but an LGA (Land Grid Array) socket. This means that many important innovations are making their way: DDR5, PCIe 5.0, higher clock rates and an integrated graphics unit. According to the latest rumors, everything should remain the same in terms of the maximum number of cores, but the TDP of the top model should be up to 170 watts.

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Still up to 16 cores, but with up to 170 watts

According to the well-known leaker

Greymon55
As usual, the Zen4 will have models with a TDP of 65 and 105 watts, but the 170 watt class is new. On the other hand, no further information is known about CPUs with a specified 120 watts, which was still being speculated about in August. In an additional post, the leaker states that the 170 watts of a CPU with 16 cores and 32 threads should be available, while an unspecified 12-core processor has to be content with 105 watts. These two processors are likely to be the successors of the Ryzen 9 5950X and the Ryzen 9 5900X.

What is also new is that Zen 4 should have installed an iGPU with 4 CUs as standard, so far integrated graphics units were reserved for Ryzen processors with the G suffix. Since Intel offers most CPUs with or without iGPU, this step would be quite understandable. Even if the integrated graphics unit should of course only need a few watts, these still have to be factored into the package.

A lot is new with Ryzen 7000 and Socket AM5

At the beginning of the year, AMD not only announced the first details about the Ryzen 7000 aka “Raphael” and the associated AM5 socket at the CES, but also presented a sample with 5 GHz on all cores in a live demo. The new CPUs are manufactured by the contract manufacturer TSMC in the N5 node. In contrast to the previous Ryzen processors, AMD no longer relies on the pin grid array with pins, but on an LGA socket like its competitor Intel. The number of contacts is 1,718 and thus almost as many as Intel’s Socket 1700.

Even if the design of the heatspreader has changed fundamentally, AMD states that all coolers suitable for socket AM4 are compatible with socket AM5. In terms of connectivity, AMD is catching up with Intel and also wants to support DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0 with the new processors. The leaker

Greymon55
however, claims to have found out that Zen 4, like Alder Lake, is said to have installed a hybrid memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. If we take a look at the current street prices of DDR5 and DDR4 RAM, that would be a very sensible move. So are for a DDR4 kit with 16 GB and 3600 MHz

at least 69 euros

due in the price comparison, whereas DDR5 memory sticks with 4800 MHz come with a price

from 142 euros

cost twice as much.

AMD itself has repeatedly named the second half of 2022 as the release date, which is a fairly flexible period. First tweeted

Greymon55
that AMD had already brought the release forward to July, only to revise this statement shortly afterwards. According to this, Zen4 is not yet in mass production, which would be absolutely necessary if the launch were to take place in July. Due to the fact that AMD recently introduced seven new Ryzen 4000 and Ryzen 5000 models, we are more likely to expect a release in the fourth quarter of 2022.