cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ninja/post/138875
AMD's Ryzen 8000-series CPUs, based on the new Zen 5 microarchitecture, have reached a crucial point on their way to market, with major industry benchmarking utility AIDA64 now recognizing the architecture. The update came from FireWire's latest release notes for the AIDA64 tool, a popular system health and performance evaluation software among professionals and PC enthusiasts. FireWire would have needed detailed information from AMD to implement this preliminary support for Zen 5.
However, this does not necessarily give an exact timeline for when the Zen 5 architecture will hit the market in the form of AMD Ryzen 8000-series desktop processors. AIDA64's preliminary support for Intel's Meteor Lake processors was introduced back in 2021, and these chips are not expected to launch until later this year. According to AMD's roadmap, the release of the Ryzen 8000-series is set for 2024, indicating that the company is on track with its launch plan.
FireWire's release notes also show enhanced support for Intel's upcoming processor generations: Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake. Lunar Lake, with its new microarchitecture, is expected to be released late in 2024 or early in 2025. The upcoming 14th-gen Raptor Lake refresh and Meteor Lake chips, both under the 14th-gen label and expected to launch later this year, will stick with Intel's current hybrid performance-efficiency core design.
Arrow Lake, expected in 2024 and set to be built on TSMC's 3nm process node, has reportedly been dealing with delays. This is not unusual for TSMC, which manufactures the processor wafers for numerous tech giants including AMD, Nvidia, and Apple. With the 3nm node predicted to be highly popular, production schedules are likely to be tight.
AMD's Zen 5 will also be utilizing TSMC's 3nm node, which could be a double-edged sword for the company. Intel secured a significant portion of 3nm production capacity in 2021, ostensibly for an Arc GPU and several server chips. If Intel substitutes Arrow Lake chips into this capacity, it is likely to have a larger stock of its chips at the launch of Arrow Lake compared to AMD's stock of 3nm Zen 5 chips. However, it appears that AMD placed orders for Zen 5 chips before Intel, which means Zen 5 chips may roll off the production line before Intel's Arrow Lake chips. Whether AMD's first-to-market advantage will result in a more successful launch, as seen with the previous Zen 4, remains to be seen.
I'd expect Zen 5 in 2024. AMD has been on a decently consistent release schedule for Zen CPUs.
Zen 1: Mar 2017
Zen+: April 2018 (+13 months)
Zen 2: July 2019 (+15 months)
Zen 3: November 2020 (+16 months)
Zen 4: September 2022 (+22 months)
Lots of clustering around ~15 months, with Zen 4 as the major exception. Zen 4 had to run through the whole pandemic supply chain gauntlet to get released, which explains most of that delay to me. Especially since the supply chain issues hit semiconductors hardest. In theory that'd put Zen 5 in early 2024, but I'd guess somewhere from late spring through early fall.
I want to know when the 3D cache variants of Zen 5 are coming out. I built a good Zen 3 system about a year before those were available. Don't feel like I can justify the expense of going to a 5800X3D when I already have a 5800x, but I'd love to have the 3D cache. Once the Zen 5 versions are out I hope to make a new system around that.