Zen 5 will be AMD’s next architecture for high-performance x86 processors, and as the name suggests will replace the current Zen 4. It should be out sometime next year, although we still don’t have a confirmed final date so there may be a delay, keep that in mind.

The sources I have had the chance to consult ultimately disagree. Some point to the first half of 2024 as the Zen 5 release date, while others point to the second half of this year. Personally, I am inclined to think that it will most likely end at the end of 2024, although I repeat again that we don’t have anything official yet.

On a technical level, Zen 5 will mark a leap for AMD 4nm node, which represents a minor development from the current 5 nm node. This should result in a slight improvement in efficiency and a minimal reduction in transistor size. This node will be used in chiplets (CCD units) and the I/O unit should be manufactured in a 5nm node.

In theory, this new architecture will retain the CCD unit configured with 8 cores and 16 threads, thanks to SMT technology, it can handle two threads per core. This refutes rumors that pointed to an increase in the maximum number of cores per chip, as well as those that talked about the use of more advanced SMT technology, which would allow working with four threads per core.

All this is quite plausible because at the end configurations with more than 8 cores and 16 threads are still underutilized in the mainstream consumer marketand processors with more multithreading capability only make sense in very specific cases.

Consider, for example, that most games still don’t take full advantage of a 6-core, 12-thread processor, and that only some professional applications they can really squeeze processors with more than 8 cores and 16 threads.

Zen 5 could significantly improve IPC

Since the introduction of the first generation of Zen processors at AMD managed to significantly increase the CPI generation after generation. The only exception was Zen+, but keep in mind that this was an intergenerational refresh, a simple revision of Zen. The IPC increase was big with Zen 2 and Zen 3, and with Zen 4 we also saw a significant jump.

CPI is expected to improve with Zen 5 between 20 and 25 percent. These are very good values, perhaps too good to be true. Along these lines, I would like to remind you what happened with Zen 4, and that the first rumors said that it was going to improve IPC by 24%, and Ultimately, said improvement ended up being 13%.

That’s why I think we should take this first data with great cautionand be a little less optimistic. Indeed, achieving an increase in CPI is increasingly difficult, and achieving these levels (up to 25%) is even more difficult. If you want my opinion, I think we’ll move again between 10% and 15%.

In order to achieve a significant increase in IPC with Zen 5, AMD will introduce important changes at the microarchitecture level, among which I would highlight the new increased L2 cache per corewhich could reach 1.5 MB, logical disk enhancement and in the bandwidth of the execution unit to load and save instructions, and also talks about Modifications in the L3 cache.

Don’t forget that we are talking about IPC improvements, i.e. changes that will allow for increased performance per core without taking into account the increase in clock frequencies. According to the source, the new Zen 5 processors will not have a significant increase in operating speed over the current generation, which makes sense because it would end consumption and firing temperatures.

On a frequency level, I think we are most likely to see a maximum increase between 100 and 200 MHz, depending on each specific model, although perhaps in some specific case reaches 300 MHz in turbo mode. If we add to this possible IPC improvements and frequency increases, the increase in performance per core compared to Zen 4 would of course be much higher.

We don’t have more information at the moment, and it’s a shame, because there are other important things in the “ink shop”, such as if this new generation will be able to work with faster RAM in 1:1 modeand if it will feature an integrated GPU based on the architecture RDNA3 from AMD. I can confirm that it will use the same socket as the Ryzen 7000 and that the AM5 platform will remain alive through 2024.

In the coming months, new information will emerge and we will be able to discover more about this new AMD architecture which will compete with the successor Raptor Lake-S.