Skip to main content

AMD Ryzen 7000 could hit new performance highs — at a price

AMD Ryzen 7000 is just around the corner, and now, we’ve come to know the rumored specifications of the first four CPUs of the lineup, including the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and the Ryzen 5 7600X.

The specs certainly paint a positive picture of the upcoming Zen 4 range, with intensely high clock speeds, huge cache sizes, and a performance uplift that could reach up to 35%. Unfortunately, there might be one letdown for overclocking enthusiasts, as the CPUs will allegedly only allow undervolting.

Recommended Videos

16C 5.7G 16M+64M
12C 5.6G 12M+64M
8C 5.4G 8M+32M
6C 5.3G 6M+32Mhttps://t.co/XzYfCiwoPL

— HXL (@9550pro) August 4, 2022

Multiple sources reported on the alleged specifications for the first four AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, including Wccftech which cites its own anonymous informants, as well as @9550pro on Twitter. Seeing as the reports are consistent across the board, it just might be time to get excited — although of course, we won’t know anything for certain until AMD itself drops the big news.

In line with previous predictions, it seems that AMD will only be launching four processors to start with, and the rest of the lineup will follow at a later date. Wccftech notes that we can expect an up to 10% instructions per cycle (IPC) boost alongside a performance boost of around 15% in single-threaded operations and 35% in multi-threaded. AMD is also aggressively targeting the performance-per-watt, promising an up to 25% uplift in that regard. This could certainly be a good idea for AMD, assuming that Intel Raptor Lake will be as power-hungry as rumors say.

Alongside tweaks made to the core counts and clocks, AMD will also serve up a much larger L2 cache as well as support for PCIe Gen 5.0 and DDR5 RAM (and only DDR5 RAM). Now, let’s look at the specs we can expect to see on the new AMD processors.

Starting with the flagship AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, we’re not seeing an increase in the core count, but the frequencies are now sky-high. The CPU is said to come with 16 cores and 32 threads as well as a base clock of 4.5GHz that can be boosted up to 5.7GHz. Despite hitting such numbers, the power requirements could be worse — Wccftech reports that this model will have a TDP of 170 watts and package power tracking (PPT) of 230 watts. The cache is huge, hitting a combined total of 80MB, 64MB of which is the L3 cache.

The Ryzen 9 7900X comes next with slightly worse specs but is still very much worthy of a high-end gaming rig. We’re getting 12 cores and 24 threads, a base clock of 4.7GHz, and a boost clock that maxes out at 5.6GHz. The cache size drops down to 76MB, but the TDP remains at 170 watts.

What follows are two mid-range Ryzen processors, the Ryzen 7 7700X and the Ryzen 5 7600X. The former comes with 8 cores and 16 threads, a 4.5GHz base frequency with a boost of up to 5.4GHz, and a vastly reduced TDP of just 105 watts. The cache was scaled down to 40MB. There have been no mentions of a possible Ryzen 7 7800X just yet.

AMD Ryzen processor render.
AMD

Lastly, we have the Ryzen 5 7600X with just six cores and 12 threads. While the core count is modest in comparison to its more powerful siblings, the clock speeds are still kept high, with a 4.7GHz base and a 5.3 single-core boost clock. The TDP remains at 105 watts, which is a massive increase from the current-gen counterpart which sits at 65 watts.

As mentioned above, overclocking enthusiasts might be disappointed with the new range — it seems that AMD is leaving very little to no room for overclocking. This was also the case with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, and while you’ll still be able to undervolt the CPU, you may not be able to bring these clock speeds much higher than they are now.

According to the latest leaks, the new AMD Ryzen 7000 “Raphael” lineup is set to release on September 15 following an official announcement on August 29. Stay tuned — we’ll keep you posted on all the exciting details.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
AMD’s new flagship chip just did something unprecedented
A hand holding AMD's Ryzen 9 9950X.

AMD's upcoming flagship desktop chip, the Ryzen 9 9950X, hasn't even hit the market yet, but early benchmark results are already showing promising performance. According to a recently shared benchmark score, the 9950X can reach impressive boost clock speeds of up to 6GHz.

X (formerly Twitter) user @9950pro posted a screenshot of a Geekbench 6 result for a Ryzen 9 9950X engineering sample. The CPU was paired with an Asus ROG Crosshair X670E motherboard and 32GB of DDR5 memory. Notably, the clock speeds reached 5.95GHz — nearly 300 MHz above its stock maximum boost clock. In these tests, the overclocked chip scored 3,706 points in single-core performance and 26,047 points in multi-core performance, highlighting its substantial capability.

Read more
Don’t buy the Ryzen 7 7800X3D right now. Here’s what to get instead
A hand holding AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor.

Amazon Prime Day 2024 deals are out in full swing, so if you're in the market for a gaming CPU, you might gravitate toward the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. While it's true that it's discounted right now, it's not the only CPU to get a deep price cut for Prime Day -- and you could get a potentially better CPU for less. Similarly, these deals are making one thing clear -- there's no need to wait for Zen 5.

AMD's 3D V-Cache CPUs are known for their gaming prowess, and while they've received multiple price cuts since launch, you'd be hard-pressed to find them cheaper than this. Let's take a closer look at the deals:

Read more
AMD didn’t even need its best CPU to beat Intel
A render of a Ryzen 9000 CPU.

Looks like the competition between AMD and Intel is about to start heating up again. AMD's upcoming second-best processor, the Ryzen 9 9900X, was just spotted in an early benchmark -- and the results are shockingly good. If this is what AMD can do with a 12-core CPU, what's going to happen when the 16-core version of Zen 5 appears in tests?

The happy news (for AMD fans, at least) comes directly from the Geekbench 6.2 database, and it all comes down to a benchmark of what appears to be a retail sample of the Ryzen 9 9900X. The chip scored an impressive 3,401 points in the single-core score, and 19,756 points in the multi-core score. That puts it far above its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7900X, but that's not its only success.

Read more