AMD’s Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs will be released before the end of the current quarter, i.e. no later than September.
As Tom’s Hardware (opens in new tab) reports, CEO Lisa Su confirmed this release timeframe on an earnings call following the reveal of AMD’s fiscal second quarter results.
Su said, “Looking ahead, we are on track to launch our new 5nm Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and AM5 platforms later this quarter with leading performance in gaming and content creation.”
Previously, AMD was telling us to expect its next-gen Zen 4-based processors in the fall, which theoretically could mean October or November, but that definitely brings it down to Q3.
The AM5 platform refers to the new chipset for Zen 4 – it will require a new socket and therefore a motherboard upgrade – and the mention of the launch at the end of Q3 means it will almost certainly be September.
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Of course, technically saying it will be this quarter means the Zen 4 chips could arrive in August or September, but the former seems pretty close, based on what the rumor tells us pretty consistently right now. Namely, September is the month to watch the Ryzen 7000 launch, with the idea of a mid-September release being released a couple of times.
It looks like we’ll be treated to something in the form of an early teaser or reveal in August, mind you, as rumor has it that AMD is ready to do something along those lines for Zen 4 chips at an event on August 5th. So we expect (hopefully) to find out what this is in just a few days, although we don’t expect much in the way of details at this point.
An additional rumor claims that we will see the Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, plus the Ryzen 5 7600X as the initial launch lineup, which is interesting as we were expecting the 7800X rather than the 7700X. With the Ryzen 5000 AMD chose to release the 5800X, not the 5700X, in the initial batch of CPUs released, but with the new lineup, the 7700X would be a better option (for most) as a more affordable 8-core model.
That would make the Ryzen 7000 a slightly more potent force against Intel’s CPUs, which are currently Alder Lake (12th Gen) but are about to transition from Raptor Lake. However, Intel’s 13th-gen processors aren’t expected to go on sale until October, so it looks like AMD could win the race for next-gen processors vying to hit shelves first.
In the aforementioned earnings call, Su also told us that the next-gen RDNA 3 graphics cards are still due for release in late 2022, but they weren’t more specific than that (and, of course, we’ve heard this before – although that’s at minus confirmation that things are still on track).