AMD's 16-core Zen4 Ryzen 9 7950X CPU allegedly boosts up to 5.7GHz

Our sources have finally revealed the specifications of AMD's highly anticipated Ryzen 7000 "Raphael Desktop CPUs" that are based on Zen 4 cores and we can confirm that there will actually be four SKUs at launch, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X.

The AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPU lineup, codenamed Raphael, will launch on September 15th following an announcement later this month, as confirmed in our exclusive leak from the day before. Now, we've been able to get the final specifications of AMD's Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPU family which, as expected, will feature four SKUs based on the Zen 4 core architecture. Again, these SKUs include:

So before we get into the basic specs, we have to point out that the AMD Zen 4 architecture brings with it an 8-10% increase in IPC but the majority of performance benefits come from higher clock speeds and a higher TDP complement of each chip versus the previous generation. AMD highlighted increases of >15% Single-Threaded, >35% Multi-Threaded and >25% Perf/Watt when comparing Zen 4 with Zen 3.

The CPUs will come with an improved cache refactoring, featuring double L2 cache (1MB vs 512KB), shared L3 cache like the previous generation, DDR5 memory support with EXPO (AMD Extended Profiles for Memory Overclocking), And PCIe Gen 5.0 graphics card, support M.2 SSD. So with all that said, let's move on to the specs.

Starting with the flagship of them all, we have the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X that retains 16 cores and 32 threads from the previous two generations. The CPU will feature an impressive base frequency of 4.5GHz and a boost clock of 5.7GHz, making it 200MHz faster than the Intel Alder Lake Core i9-12900KS processor that has a 5.5GHz boost clock on a single core. AMD seems to be extracting every ounce of Hertz that could be on the order of 170W TDP (230W PPT) for the Ryzen 9 chips. As for the cache, the CPU comes with 80MB of that including 64MB of L3 (32MB per CCD). ) and 16MB of L2 (1MB per core).

We don't know the price or performance of the Ryzen 9 7950X yet, but based on hours alone, it should be a worthy successor to the Ryzen 9 5950X and would easily be able to topple the current Intel Core i9-12900K CPU.

Next up, we have another AMD Ryzen 9 chip, the 7900X, which as the name suggests, will come with 12 cores and 24 threads. The CPU comes with a higher base clock of 4.7GHz and an adjustable boost clock of 5.6GHz across a single core. The CPU maintains a 170W TDP and gets 76MB of cache (64MB L3 + 12MB L2). The CPU will be placed in the same ballpark as the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X but with performance that would shake the floor from the bottom of the Core i7-12700K.

Moving on to the Ryzen 7 family, here we have the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, an 8-core 16-thread part. AMD positions this as the perfect spot for gamers, and as such, the CPU will feature a base clock of 4.5GHz and a boost clock of 5.4GHz but at 105W TDP (142W PPT). The CPU will get a 40MB cache array which consists of 32MB L3 from single CCD and 8MB L2 from Zen 4 cores.

Now an interesting thing to mention is that there is still no update from AMD on the Ryzen 7 7800X chip. AMD will likely want to replace this part with a successor to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with Zen 4 cores (3D V-Cache). If that's the case, we can expect an update later this year to the CPU lineup as the V-Cache parts have been confirmed for release in the late fourth quarter of 2022 by AMD itself. Also, based on the segmentation alone, it looks like the Ryzen 7 7700X will be priced really well in the mainstream segment.

Finally, we have a budget-class chip (if you can call it that but the price won't reflect that), the Ryzen 5 7600X. This will be a 6-core, 12-thread part featuring a high base clock of 4.7GHz and a single-core boost frequency of 5.3GHz. The CPU will also run at 105W TDP (142W PPT) which is significantly higher than its 65W predecessor, but again, that's the sacrifice you'll be paying to achieve faster clock speeds. The CPU will hold 38MB of cache which comes from 32MB from L3 and 6MB from L2 at dice.