Screenshot of the video (from: Moore’s Law Is Dead / YouTube)
Thanks to the new 5nm process, the prototype sample frequency of the Zen 4 CPU has been increased to 5.2 GHz, so the overall performance is expected to be greatly improved (8-14%) on the basis of Zen 3.
Other changes include the doubling of L2 cache seen in recent EPYC Genoa data / server CPU product line, but L3 cache should be on par with Zen 3.
AVX-512 performance is said to be comparable to that of the same frequency/thread countIntelIce Lake-X is comparable and up 50% from the previous generation Zen 3.
In terms of I/O, Zen 4 CPUs will undoubtedly provide support for DDR5 / LPDDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 bus.
AMD ZEN 4 to ZEN 6 Leak Transforming into a Premium Brand – MLID（via)
Here is a summary of the new architectural improvements in Zen 4:
● IPC performance: 15-24% increase over Zen 3
● Clock frequency: 8-14% increase over Zen 3
● Single Thread (ST) performance: 28-37% increase over Zen 3
● Multi-threaded (MT) performance: similar to or higher than single-threaded
● Cache allocation: 1 MB L2 / 4 MB L3 per core (equivalent to 512KB per core)
● I/O specifications: support PCIe 5.0 / increase the number of lanes
● Memory Controller: Support DDR5-5200+ / LPDDR5
In terms of products, the Zen 4 family is expected to cover the following product lines:
● EPYC / EPYC Genoa 7004 (~Released in 4Q22) – A0 silicon wafer tapeout in March, B0 testing.
● Ryzen / Ryzen 7000 Raphael (~ 2H 2022) – Samples are out and will be officially launched soon.
● Ryzen / Ryzen 7000 Dragon Range (~Q1 2023) – expected to sample in 2022
● Ryzen 7000 Phoenix (~Q1 2023) – following Genoa, in beta.
● Threadripper / Threadripper 7000 Storm Peak (~ 1H 2023) – Planning
After Zen 4, AMD will also launch Zen 4C,But it is said that it is only to defuse the urgent needs of specific customers (mainly in the field of data center CPU).
● AMD has confirmed that EPYC Bergamo is one of the products using Zen 4C cores, providing up to 128 cores and featuring ultra-high computing density.
● In contrast, Zen 4 Genoa has a maximum of 96 cores, but both it and Bergamo will be manufactured on TSMC’s 5nm process.
● In terms of slots, Zen 4 / 4C are compatible with SP5 (LGA 6096), support 12-channel memory and SDCI (Smart Data Cache Injection) and SDXI (Smart Data Acceleration Interface) engines.
Specific accelerator modules are hooked into IO Die, which is said to increase the cache hit ratio of connected devices for optimal CCX calls in latency-sensitive applications. The latter can copy/move data directly between devices without invoking the Zen 4 core.
However, AMD may eventually launch only one Zen 4C product, the EPYC Bergamo 700X, which is expected to be released in ~January 2023, but the A0 tapeout may be completed in June 2022.
Next up is the Zen 5, which is said to be as impressive a leap as the Zen 2 back in the day,And it is expected to arrive after a lapse of 11-15 months. Putting aside the IPC performance improvements over Zen 4, Zen 5 may also completely redesign its data structures (IFC) and caches.
Sadly, the Zen 5 CPU’s frequency boost may come to an end (or little to no improvement), as AMD tends to cram more accelerators into server SKUs while increasing the thread count for consumer SKUs.
The fabled new generation of “Synchronous Hyper-Threading” (SMT4) technology is not here, it’s still 2-Way SMT, but with more cores per chiplet.
In terms of process, it is expected that the Zen 5 core will use the TSMC N3 or N4P process node. However, given recent reports, most of the lineup is expected to arrive in 2024-2025.
Individual models (such as the EPYC Turin) may be a little earlier, and the target is said to be sampling in the fourth quarter of 2023. The rest of the main force will be scheduled to be shipped in the 1-2 quarter of 2024.
Here is a summary of Zen 5 product line estimates:
● Dragon / EPYC 700X (expected to arrive around the second half of 2023)
● Ryzen / Ryzen 8000 Granite Ridge (expected in the second half of 2024)
● Ryzen / Ryzen 8000 Strix Point (expected 1H 2025)
And finally the Zen 6 core architecture:AMD may not continue to use the “Zen” brand after Zen 5, but its replacement may not be until after 2025.
As for higher core counts, clock frequencies, and updated cache/accelerator designs, nothing is known yet. If it changes, the company should share its refreshed product roadmap at an opportune moment.
But what attracts us more is MLID’s revelation that after 2025, AMD will re-establish the “high-end” image of its server/notebook product line.
If this is the case, the red team is bound to increase its efforts in areas such as high-performance computing (HPC)/artificial intelligence (AI)/mobile to compete more head-to-head with competitors such as Intel/NVIDIA.
