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Today at Computex, AMD CEO Lisa Su announced the series of processors that will launch the new 2 Zen chip-based microarchitecture. Among other things, AMD is unveiling its new level of Ryzen 9 products, which it is using for its 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X processor and that works with a 4.6 GHz boost clock.


All five processors will be PCIe 4.0 enabled and accompanied by the new launch of the X570 chipset, still with the same AM4 socket, meaning that you will still be able to use some AMD 300 and 400 series motherboards.

The new flagship: Ryzen 9 3900X

The Ryzen 3000 series will debut with a new product level for AMD: Ryzen 9. In this case, Ryzen 9 3900X will be the first traditional 12-core AMD desktop processor. The processor is the only one of the group that uses two chiplets, in a 6th 6th configuration. The 3900X will have a base frequency of 3.8 GHz, a turbo frequency of 4.6 GHz, and will tie with 6 MB of L2 cache and 64 MB of L3 cache. This confirms that each chiplet has 32 MB of L3 cache, doubling what we saw on the first generation of the Zen microarchitecture. This CPU has a TDP of 105 W, which is usually a good measure of all-core power consumption for AMD processors and will be enabled to use 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes (16 for GPU, 4 for storage, 4 for chipset).

The Ryzen 9 3900X will have a suggested price tag of .499 and will come with an included sink. AMD has compared this processor in its presentations with Intel's 12-core HEDT processor, the Core i9-9920X,which has a recommended price tag of .1199 and doesn't have a sink.

In this comparison, AMD provided Cinebench R20 performance data by comparing the two processors. AMD states that in single-threaded performance, the 3900X beats the 9920X by 14% and also wins in multi-threaded performance by 6%, all with a lower TDP (165 W versus 105 W).

Ryzen 9 3900X is the new flagship of the mainstream desktop, although AMD clearly has enough leeway on this design to allow for 16 full cores. Most users will expect this to happen in the future, so it will be interesting to see if AMD will strategically play this card.

Mercato mainstream: Ryzen 7 a 65 W

For the Ryzen 7 range, AMD keeps it for 8-core versions. These CPUs have only one internal chiplet and no dummy chiplets.

Ryzen 7 3700X is an eight-core, sixteen-thread CPU with a base frequency of 3.6 GHz and a turbo frequency of 4.4 GHz. It has 4 MB of L2 and 36 MB of L3 (half of the L3 compared to Ryzen 9, because it has only one chiplet), but the amazing thing is that this chip has a TDP of only 65 W. Just on paper, it looks like this processor is one of the most efficient desktop processors with x86 performance ever realized. This is probably the CPU configuration that AMD used in its Cinebench R20 demo at CES, where it showed equivalent multithreaded performance with a system power of 40% less. And the price for these benefits? Only $329.

The other CPU in this range is Ryzen 7 3800X. This will be the direct update from the current Ryzen 7 2700X, comes with eight cores and sixteen threads, with a base frequency of 3.9 GHz and a boost frequency of 4.5 GHz. It doesn't look overly impressive compared to the 3700X with its 105 W TDP, plus only a few hundred MHz more on the base frequency, however, as we saw with the second generation Ryzen, that extra TDP usually helps with technologies like XFR that manage the boost frequencies. AMD has not yet said anything new about the operation of XFR or Precision Boost in the new generation, we have to wait until the closest launch for such information. However, the extra frequency and the extra TDP will cost an extra .70: Ryzen 7 3800X will be sold at the price of .399.

Cheap Builds: Ryzen 5 with six cores

Not mentioned during the keynote, but discussed in the press release, AMD also provided information about its new Ryzen 5 processors.

These processors are still very competitive: users can now purchase a six-core processor for less than 200 dollars. Processor frequencies are commensurate with the market segment position, along with prices, and both CPUs will support all the same technologies (PCIe 4.0, etc.) as superior chips. These chips still use a single chiplet, not a double chiplet design.

Performance

AMD has provided some performance numbers to compare AMD with Intel CPUs. All of these tests use Cinebench R20, which is a floating-point rendering test on which AMD is already doing well, but there are no specific optimizations here for each CPU.

Direct chip comparisons put AMD's single thread performance against Intel at 1%. However, it should be noted that the Ryzen 7 3800X, which increases to its frequency up to 4.5 GHz, is compared with an Intel CPU that instead increases it to 5.0 GHz. The results of multi-threading provide a similar scenario.

Comparing Zen 1 with Zen 2, AMD is promoting the fact that Ryzen 9 3900X offers 32% better threaded single performance than Ryzen 7 1800X,although 32% include an increase in operating frequency. In multi-threaded results, AMD declares a 100% multithreaded performance, which is helped by 50% more cores and higher frequencies.

Other X570 features and motherboards

Aside from the 7 nm chiplets and the price comparison with Intel, there are a few other features to mention. AMD is promoting a direct 15% increasein IPC (Instructions per Cycle) from Zen 1 to Zen 2, thanks to microarchitecture improvements and doubling the cache size on L3. The CPU has 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes: sixteen for the GPU (or other PCIe cards), four for storage, and four for the chipset. The four for storage will likely be linked to the upper M.2 slot.

The new X570 chipset has 16 lanes, four for upstream CPU connection and twelve downstreams for other devices. There is some discontinuity here - we heard from partners that AMD has actually removed four PCIe lanes from the chipset design to bring the 15W to 11W chipset TDP; but the full-fat version of 15 W will be in the next editions of the high-end desktop. Several X570 motherboards are already ready to enter the market, in total about 25 new X570 models. It's clear that now motherboard manufacturers are getting serious about AM4 – some of these boards will likely sell for up to $600. These manufacturers clearly expect AMD to hit Intel hard and have designed the motherboards to match the best they produce for Intel CPUs.

Finally, the release date of all these CPUs will be July 7th.