Introduction
We are at Computex 2024 this year, and there are many new and exciting things to talk about. Among these, is the AMD keynote and AMD announcements for new hardware that will be coming this year in 2024. At this time these are just announcements to give us an idea of what to expect out of the new hardware to come and of course specifications and SKU lineups.
Actual launch dates will come this summer, and after, so that we can actually get our hands on the hardware to test the performance claims. The announcements today are the first official information that is being released to the public and will allow the public to get a glimpse into what is coming.
AMD started off the presentation by showing us all the sectors that AMD currently has influence, i.e. hardware and software solutions provided. These include connectivity, healthcare, industrial automotive, cloud, PCs, gaming, and of course AI. AMD has a three-pronged strategy for AI platforms with a broad portfolio of hardware from CPUs to GPUs to dedicated AI accelerators, open software, and partnering with deep co-innovation.
To facilitate this new AI-driven world, AMD is focusing on two new architectures at Computex 2024, the Next-Gen CPU Cores based on Zen 5 and of course the Next-Gen NPU Cores based on XDNA 2. These architectures directly power new products that AMD is announcing at Computex this year. The AMD Ryzen CPUs for desktop and gaming PCs, and the AMD Ryzen AI series for mobile and laptop AI PCs.
AMD also talks about its integrations into many consumer spaces, such as consoles, handhelds, and gaming desktop PCs. This is very true, as we’ve seen many handheld gaming systems crop up recently and most are utilizing AMD hardware, and of course the consumer console systems as well, AMD really is everywhere. This allows developers to have a greater synergy with hardware across devices.
AMD Ryzen 9000 Series based on Zen 5
The big announcement I know all of you are here for is the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series CPUs also known as Granite Ridge based on the Zen 5 architecture. AMD claims it is the world’s most powerful desktop consumer processor, still based on the AM5 platform, PCIe 5.0, and DDR5, and still maintains the AM5 platform is a “long life platform” so you can upgrade over time.
AMD says the Zen 5 architecture is not just a trivial update to Zen 4 but rather is a “sweeping update” to the architecture. It has vastly improved branch prediction for accuracy and latency, higher throughput with wider pipelines and vectors, and a deeper window size across design for more parallelism. This delivers up to twice the instruction bandwidth, twice the data bandwidth, and twice the AI performance and AVX512 throughput. AMD is quoting about a 16% IPC uplift in PCs compared to Zen 4, claiming it is a big leap.
The top-end SKU of Zen 5 will be the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU. As we might have figured, this is a 16-core/32-thread CPU that is built as the best for gamers and creators. It has a boost clock up to 5.7GHz and 80MB of L2+L3 cache at a TDP of 170W. While these specifications are similar to the Ryzen 9 7950X, AMD says don’t let that fool you, due to the architectural improvements in the Zen 5 architecture we should see a performance uplift. According to the benchmarks provided by AMD, it provides a substantial uplift compared to the competition’s 14900K even in gaming, depending on the game of course.
AMD goes on to say that it believes AM5 is the best platform for the ultimate content creator AI platform. For example, AMD AM5 motherboards can support PCIe 5.0 graphics lanes which help when using your GPU for direct-to-processor storage and graphics simultaneously providing more bandwidth. This can also affect content creators who utilize multiple video cards, so bandwidth is important. AMD is also saying that it is faster with AVX512 and AI performance in low-latency CPU situations.
AM5 Platform
This is a big one folks, AMD is officially extending its AM5 platform longevity claims. Previously, AMD committed to “through 2025+” but now, it is extending that to “through 2027+ or beyond” so they are adding 2 years to the timetable. AMD is also showing how the Socket AM4 has existed since 2016 and will not exist through 2025. There have been a lot of people worried that Zen 5 would be the last iteration on the socket AM5 platform. However, AMD is now officially saying 2027+ which indicates we will see at least one more iteration on AM5, maybe even two more, we will see.
AMD X870/X870E Chipsets
AMD is also announcing that there will be two new chipsets on the AM5 platform, X870 and X870E. That’s right, AMD is making the leap from the X600 series of chipsets and jumping up to the X800 series now. The X870 and X870E chipset motherboards will have USB 4.0 support standard on all motherboards. It is a feature attached to the chipset and will be available to everyone.
You will also get PCIe Gen5 on Graphics and NVMe on all X870 and X870E motherboards, so the non-E also gets full PCIe Gen5 on both this time around. Also, there will be higher EXPO memory clocks supported on X870/E motherboards. It is important to note that the previous generation Ryzen 7000 series processors also work on these chipsets, and the other way around, Ryzen 9000 CPUs will work on 600 series chipset motherboards, it’s all compatible.