AMD is going to try to fight back against the threat posed by Intel's 12th gen Alder Lake processors not by Zen 4, but by releasing new Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 chips.
Team Red is releasing the Ryzen 5 5500, 5600, and Ryzen 7 5700X to go up against Intel Alder Lake's mainstream series, reports PC Gamer. All of these CPUs are expected to compete with the i3-12100, i5-12400, i5-12600 and i5-12600K, which have been crushing their price points since release.
This news comes after Team Red has largely focused on high-end and mid-range desktop chips for the Zen 3 generation. While the architecture has had a decent run, however, Intel has released a total of two CPU generations within the same time frame including their excellently reviewed 12th gen processors.
According to WCCFTech, various sources within AMD confirmed the existence of the three new Ryzen 5000 SKUs alongside that of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which was set to compete against the Core i9-12900KS (via PCGamer). The 5800X3D is billed to be the first Team Red CPU to feature a vertically stacked cache.
It is also likely that these new CPUs will be the last ones on the AM4 socket before Team Red releases Zen 4 (which uses the AM5 socket) around the second half of this year.
New Zen 3 CPU Specs
Here's what's under the hood of the upcoming AMD Ryzen 5000 SKUs:
Ryzen 7 5700X: 8 cores, 16 threads, 65W TDP with still-unknown clock speeds (likely low to stay within the 65W TDP limit
Ryzen 5 5500: 6 cores, 6 threads, unknown TDP and clock speeds
Ryzen 5 5600: 6 cores, 12 threads, unknown TDP and clock speeds
There's still no indication for the pricing of these new CPUs, but one thing is for certain: they must be able to undercut the prices of entry-level and mainstream Intel Alder Lake chips to compete. Currently, their closest competitors range from $129 (12100) to $192 (12400), $223 (12600), and $320 (12600K).
Why Zen 3, AMD? Where's Zen 4?
As usual, there's still barely enough news about next-gen AMD Ryzen chips based on the Zen 4 architecture after they were first mentioned during CES 2022. For now, all that is known is they will release during the 2nd half of 2022 (via PCGamesN), and will bring sweeping changes to Team Red's now five-year-old Ryzen formula.
As previously mentioned, the chips are going to use the new AM5 socket which will be LGA instead of PGA (pins are on the motherboard, not the CPU). They will also feature PCIe Gen 5 and super-fast DDR5 RAM, which for now is only supported by Intel's Alder Lake lineup.
Zen 4 is expected to be Team Red's ace in the hole for the resurgent Team Blue's 12th gen Alder Lake chips, which took back a good chunk of desktop CPU market share that they lost to AMD during the past few years.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
