AMD will reveal its next-gen Zen 4 CPUs at CES 2022

By Jacob Roach December 22, 2021

AMD CTO Mark Papermaster confirmed that the company will show off its next-generation Zen 4 CPUs at CES 2022. Tentatively named Ryzen 7000, these processors are said to use a new manufacturing process that could offer up to a 25% boost in single-core performance.

In a recent interview, the executive said “later in the year as it progress, we’ll share more detail on Zen 4 with some mentioned at CES.” We won’t get a launch of the new processors in January, but AMD will reveal more than it has already shown. Papermaster originally announced Zen 4 in October 2020 at AMD’s Ryzen 5000 reveal event.

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Enthusiasts have been anxiously awaiting the new chips, especially as Intel presses forward with its hybrid 12th-gen Alder Lake chips. AMD has confirmed that Zen 4 chips will use a 5nm manufacturing process, and the company will likely continue its partnership with chipmaker TSMC for manufacturing.

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Rumors suggest this move could result in as much as a 40% improvement in overall performance, which isn’t out of the question. TSMC’s N5 node brings a 1.87X improvement in transistor density over the N7 node, which AMD is currently using for its Ryzen 5000 chips. With that level of density, Zen 4 CPUs could mark a major jump in Ryzen’s performance.

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Unlike previous Ryzen CPUs, AMD won’t use the AM4 socket for Zen 4 processors. The company is working on an AM5 socket that uses a Land Grid Array (LGA) design, breaking with AMD’s long history of Pin Grid Array (PGA) sockets. Intel switched to LGA sockets, which keep the CPU pins on the motherboard, years ago. AMD is making that jump for its next-gen chips.

The new socket will show up on 600-series chipsets, which should launch alongside Zen 4 CPUs. AMD has confirmed that the new chipset will support DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0. It’s not clear if the new chipset will support DDR4 memory, as well, especially considering the rising prices of DDR5 modules.

Although AMD will talk about Zen 4 CPUs at CES 2022, the launch is expected much later in the year. Current rumors suggest AMD is aiming for a launch sometime after July. At CES 2022, rumors point to AMD launching new mobile and Ryzen 5000 processors. AMD debuted its 3D V-Cache technology at Computex 2021, and it’s possible we could see chips sporting the technology at CES 2022.

We might hear more about AMD’s APUs, as well. A leak suggested that AMD is working on APUs that will utilize RDNA 2 cores, the same design used in AMD’s RX 6000 graphics cards. These APUs are rumored to use the AM5 socket, though it’s not clear if they’ll also use the Zen 4 architecture.

Regardless, we will be getting a peek behind the curtain in the next couple of weeks. AMD is set to deliver its CES 2022 keynote virtually on Tuesday, January 4, 2022, at 7 a.m. PT. In addition to new Zen 4 chips, the company is also expected to reveal the hotly anticipated Threadripper 5000 Pro series.

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Senior Staff Writer, Computing

Jacob Roach is a writer covering computing and gaming at Digital Trends. After realizing Crysis wouldn't run on a laptop, he…

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