AMD Zen 4 Rumors Galore — 20% IPC Gains, 16+ Core Flagship CPUs, DDR5-5200 Support, etc.

The upcoming Zen 4 processors from AMD have garnered quite a lot of attention and, frankly, there’s a very good reason why. They are, in many ways, a glimpse into the future of personal computing. Now, don’t mistake this for any marketing fluff because it’s not. Instead, AMD have already proven that they mind very little for the status quo and that they’re more than willing to go the extra mile in their fight with Intel.

They’ve made numerous advancements (both in terms of CPU design and manufacturing) and have left their perennial rivals in the dust. Intel has been fighting back to the best of their ability, but nowadays, if you’re building a PC (regardless if it’s for gaming or some other workload), you almost always go with AMD — they’re basically impossible to beat from a price-to-performance standpoint. Doubly so if you need their multi-core prowess.

AMD Zen 4 rumors have been fairly scarce up to this point, but that’s slowly starting to change (at long last). We still don’t have any concrete proof, but the source of these rumors and oh-so-interesting tidbits has a very solid track record, so there’s a fair bit of credence behind these claims. Still, take everything you read with a grain of salt, as these things could shift and change at any moment!

AMD Zen 4 | Huge Gains Across the Board

First of all, all Zen 4 processors will be manufactured on TSMC’s 5nm process node, with their IODs (Input/Output dies) being made manufactured in 6nm. But that’s all technical mumbo-jumbo to the average user. What is important, however, is that we’re getting somewhere between a 20% and 25% increase in IPC which, in short, is absolutely massive. Moreover, Zen 4 CPUs will feature 8-core chiplets which should, in turn, result in up to a 50% performance-per-watt gain when compared to Zen 3 (which was already pretty darn powerful).

24-core designs are currently being worked on, but they might not be released immediately, and even when they do hit the market they’ll cost a pretty penny (as was expected). 16-core designs, therefore, will be sold as AMD’s marquee offerings.

As for RAM, DDR5-5200 (running in Dual Channel) is currently being targeted, although it’s still unclear whether AMD will manage to hit that goal. The odds are certainly on their side, though.

Let’s Talk Release Dates

AMD is expected to ship Zen 4 processors in Q3 2022. Still, this is a relatively flexible time frame, given the current semiconductor shortages. According to Moore’s Law is Dead, Zen 4 could launch in Q2, but there’s also a very real chance that it “could slip into Q4.” Either way, we’re still a ways off.

AM5, however, is set for an early 2022 launch with Rembrandt APUs — most of which will surely be in high demand by budget-oriented gamers who are focused mostly on esports titles.

Last but certainly not least, Zen 5 is supposedly going to be more of an iterative update and could follow Zen 4 a lot faster than expected (similar to what happened with Zen 2 and Zen 3).

In any case, we can’t wait to see what the folks over at the AMD have been working on and, needless to say, if even half of these claims end up being correct, they’ll stand a chance of dealing a veritable coup de grâce to Intel!