The presentation of the Ryzen 7000 allowed us to finally confirm things as important as its specifications, launch date and retail prices. We are also clear about what we can expect from these new processors, and in general we can safely say so AMD has done a good joband it made a remarkable generational leap.

We have already told you the most important news of the Ryzen 7000, but there are a few important details that have been somewhat overlookedor that they haven’t received the attention they deserve, which is why we wanted to delve into them by creating this special article, where we look at ten “secrets” about Ryzen 7000 processors that you need to be completely clear, because they will help you now better understand everything that this new generation of processors offers

Keep in mind that everything we tell you is confirmed ie. it is official information and therefore has an “absolute” value. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and we’ll help you out. Without further ado let’s get down to business, make yourself comfortable, you have a lot of interesting things to read.

1.-All Ryzen 7000s have an integrated RDNA2 GPU

AMD didn’t confirm this during the presentation event, but on the official website where the Ryzen 7000 specifications are listed, we could see that this component was eventually integrated into these processors, so the rumors pointing in that direction came true.

The integrated GPU that Ryzen 7000 mounts uses the state-of-the-art RDNA2 architecture, but it has a very basic setup consisting of two compute units and 128 shaders. So they offer good performance only in basic applications and tasks and in old or undemanding games.

For the sake of interest, I remind you that the GPU is listed it is not integrated in the CCD units, but in the I/O chipletand is therefore produced in a node 6nm from TSMC.

2.-Ryzen 7000 will consume up to 230 watts

During the presentation, a significant increase in TDP was confirmed for the most powerful models. Ryzen 9 7900X and 7950X will have a TDP of 170 watts, but their actual consumption at full load it will be able to reach a maximum power of 230 watts, This is important to keep in mind because if we have a tight enough supply, that extra 60 watts can make a big difference in stability.

We will have to wait for the actual consumption figures registered by these new processors, but based on AMD’s data alone, we can already see that Ryzen 9 7900X and Ryzen 9 7950X would be on par with the Core i9-12900Kwhich in my analysis recorded a maximum peak of 226 watts at full load running at stock frequencies.

Increase in maximum consumption is caused by a significant increase in the working frequencyAnd it’s completely understandable.

3.-AMD managed to approach 6 GHz with Ryzen 7000

Although the Ryzen 9 7950X claims a maximum speed of 5.7 GHz in turbo mode with a single active core (single thread), the truth is that it can reach 5.85 GHz in specific situations thanks to Precision Boost Overdrive technology. AMD got closer to 6 GHz.

It is a very important achievement because AMD has moved on from the problems of breaking the 5 GHz marksomething that was not possible with the Ryzen 5000, touch 6 GHz. This shows that ultimately the MCM design could scale to very high operating frequencies, it just needed optimization and maturation to meet this goal.

Working speed of the processor is less important than the CPI of the samebut when the latter is high, the former can make a noticeable difference.

4.-Ryzen 7000 beat Core Gen12 in IPC

This is according to the performance tests published by AMD. In them we saw that the Ryzen 5 7600X outperformed the Core i9-12900K by an average of 5% in games, Quite an achievement for a processor that has 6 cores and 12 threads and runs at 4.7 GHz-5.3 GHz (turbo with one active thread).

The Core i9-12900K has a turbo mode that reaches 4.9 GHz when working with more than four active cores, a frequency that should be similar to the Ryzen 5 7600X’s turbo mode when it also has more than four active cores. Yes both run at almost identical frequencies in games, but the Ryzen 5 7600X wins for 5% the conclusion is just that the other wins because it has a higher IPC.

Overall, the difference derived from the CPI seems to fall within what we expected, i.e. it is large compared to Ryzen 5000 (13% on average) but smaller compared to Core Gen12which means Intel could win the game with Raptor Lake-S.

5.-Thermistor and Ryzen 7000: we have to be careful

And this is thanks to the design of its IHS, which, as we have seen in many images, adopts a very special design known as the “octopus” (octopus), due to eight “pins” coming out of the IHS and making contact with the PCB processor.

This particular design of the IHS will force us to apply thermal paste more carefully, both because of its distribution and quantity. If we apply a lot, it ends up falling off the sides and can spot capacitors.

I believe the classic application formula a small ball about the size of a pea or slightly smaller in the center Proper application of thermal paste in the new Ryzen 7000 will be “old reliable” again. In any case, we have to be careful because cleaning the excess thermal paste is really annoying.

6.-AMD used solder and liquid metal in Ryzen 7000

When the first Ryzen 7000 “delid” leaked, we could confirm that AMD went back to using solder and liquid metalwhich means that the company has taken the utmost care in the construction of its new processors and that we can expect high thermal conductivity.

This is very important because it plays a key role in heat dissipation and ultimately has a significant effect on maximum processor temperaturesto such an extent that the use of low-quality materials can end up making it impossible to regulate CPU temperatures, even if we use a high-performance cooling system.

In this regard, it is important to remember that gold plating on CCDs helps improve heat transfer, and enables direct indium soldering without the use of flux and without the use of harsh chemicals.

7.-The “octopus” design made it possible to maintain compatibility with AM4 coolers

It is one of the most important things that was confirmed in the “delid” that Gamer Nexus did recently. In order to maintain compatibility with AM4 socket coolers, AMD had to face a very tough challenge, leave all capacitors and resistors on the back of the processornext to the CCD units and the I/O chip.

This was made possible by the IHS with an “octopus” finish, which also enabled achieve an ideal surface to maintain compatibility with all AM4 cooling systems without having to make any sacrifices. It was not a whim of AMD, this design has, as we can see, a very important functional role.

You will not need any adapter to reuse the AM4 heatsink on the AM5 motherboard, so don’t worry.

8.-The increase in frequencies in multicore will also be large

And it will contribute to a significant improvement in performance compared to the previous generation. We already told you that the Ryzen 9 5950X has a turbo mode of 4.9 GHz with an active core and that the Ryzen 9 7950X can reach 5.85 GHz, which means an increase of almost 1 GHzimpressive considering we’re talking about a change between two generations.

The fact is that the values ​​in turbo mode will also significantly exceed those recorded by Ryzen 5000. In this sense, it should be recalled that The Ryzen 9 5950X remains at 4.45 GHz with all cores and threads active and likely to be Ryzen 9 7950X already maintains 4.5 GHz in base mode, so it’s very likely that it can run at 5GHz without problems even with all active cores and threads.

With this significant increase in clock frequency, AMD has achieved trigger single thread performancebut he also did the same in multithreading because the differences are significant compared to the current generation.

9.-We will need a more powerful cooling system

And this will be a direct consequence of this increase in maximum consumption, which reaches 230 watts, As we have already said. Obviously the greater the consumption, the more heat producedand to prevent this we will need coolers with higher performance.

To understand, there is nothing better than a direct and simple comparison. Ryzen 9 7950X consumes up to 230 watts, while the Ryzen 9 5950X registers a consumption of o 141 watts (183 watts with PBO). The difference is substantial and in itself explains why we say we’ll need a more powerful cooling system to keep the new top-of-the-line Ryzen 7000 under control.

If you are wondering what exactly you will need, I can already tell you that you can rest easy because any AIO liquid cooling kit with three fans should be more than enough to keep the Ryzen 9 7950X cool.

10.-CCD unit is smaller but has more transistors

The Ryzen 7000 made the jump to TSMC’s 5nm node in its CCD units, which are the ones that contain the CPU cores and caches. Thanks to this the size of the transistors was reduced and the rest of the elements present at the silicon level and its impact at the wafer level were also reduced.

The Zen 4-based CCD occupies an area of ​​70 mm2, while the Zen 3-based CCD occupies 83 mm2. The difference is significant, but the most impressive thing is that despite this reduction in size AMD increased transistor density by 58%.

The Ryzen 7000 CCD unit is located 6.57 billion transistorswhile the Ryzen 5000’s CCD unit has 4.15 billion transistors.