AMD Reportedly Embraces DDR5 and USB 4.0 For Next-Gen CPUs In 2022

AMD Ryzen Threadripper

AMD Ryzen Threadripper (Image credit: AMD)

Gamers Nexus has received an internal roadmap from an insider in the tech industry that purportedly outlines AMD's plan to support DDR5 memory and the USB 4.0 interface starting from 2022.

Roadmaps are great as they tell us what we to expect from a company in the near future. However, we should still approach them with a bit of caution since not everything that's inside the roadmap is written in stone. Companies often modify their roadmaps as time progresses, and with the current coronavirus pandemic disrupting the hardware world, there's no telling if the alleged AMD roadmap will pan out as planned.

Barring any setbacks, 2022 will be the year that AMD introduces support for DDR5 and USB 4.0 on its desktop offerings. The processors will leverage the Zen 4 microarchitecture, meaning they should retain support for the PCIe 4.0 interface. Don't expect to see PCIe 5.0 for at least another couple of years. The platform will seemingly arrive with native support for USB 4.0 though. 

AMD's latest roadmap show that the fourth-generation EPYC (codename Genoa) processors, which will be produced on the 5nm process node, are scheduled for 2022. Things are still a bit blurry on the mainstream side, though. The current Ryzen 3000-series (codename Matisse) is based on Zen 2 while the upcoming Ryzen 4000-series (codename Vermeer) is rumored to be on Zen 3. The reasonable assumption is that the Ryzen 5000-series should exploit the Zen 4 microarchitecture that is, of course, assuming AMD doesn't roll out anything in between the Ryzen 4000-and 5000-series.

As per Gamers Nexus' information, AMD 2022 APUs will reportedly employ the Zen 3+ microarchitecture, which isn't a big shocker since APUs have always been a step behind Ryzen offerings. Nevertheless, the future APUs will get to take advantage of DDR5 memory, so that's a big plus. It should be common knowledge by now that AMD's APUs excel with fast memory so DDR5 should help maximize the performance on the future processors, especially with DDR5 slating to span up to 8,400 MHz. AMD will allegedly bring DDR5 LP5 support for mobile premium and gaming products, too.

Existing Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APUs feature the Zen 2 microarchitecture. The next wave of APUs, which we expect to be Ryzen 5000-series, is likely to benefit from Zen 3. The rumored codename for Ryzen 5000-series is Cézanne, in honor of Paul Cézanne, who was famous French artist between the late 19th century and the early 20th century.

Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • JayNor
    Intel roadmaps show Sapphire Rapids with DDR5 and PCIE5 in 2021.
    Several roadmap leaks of Tiger Lake show lpddr5 and PCIE4 support in 2020.

    So, I'm curious about the subtitle ... "Staying one step ahead of Intel."

    "Lagging one Step behind Intel" would be more accurate.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    JayNor said:
    Intel roadmaps show Sapphire Rapids with DDR5 and PCIE5 in 2021.
    Intel always supports next-gen memory on servers two to three years ahead of it becoming mainstream. Even the desktop chips usually have dual-standard memory controllers at least a year ahead.
    Reply
  • gggplaya
    Knew AMD would be better at this thanks to the separate I/O die. Which should ease and speed up adoption of new standards.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    gggplaya said:
    Knew AMD would be better at this thanks to the separate I/O die. Which should ease and speed up adoption of new standards.
    We had external I/O chips for ages. What's old is new again, more or less. They figured out how to glue external I/O together to get near-integrated performance. Soon Intel is going to be doing the same thing with their active interposer, and AMD will probably switch to a similar setup too at some point.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Consumer and enterprice stuff is different. Enterprice can take expensive ddr5. In normal customs market ddr5 would be considered too expensive!
    Intel Also have had tendency of not caring the price too much so it may move to ddr5 earlier than amd, but in this market situation not so sure.
    They did move ddr4 earlier than amd...
    Reply
  • dstln
    JayNor said:
    Intel roadmaps show Sapphire Rapids with DDR5 and PCIE5 in 2021.
    Several roadmap leaks of Tiger Lake show lpddr5 and PCIE4 support in 2020.

    So, I'm curious about the subtitle ... "Staying one step ahead of Intel."

    "Lagging one Step behind Intel" would be more accurate.

    FYI LPDDR5 isn't the same as DDR5, and I'm not sure why you're touting Intel getting PCIE4 a year after AMD?

    This is a great example of rabid fanboyism at its worst.
    Reply
  • usiname
    JayNor said:
    Intel roadmaps show Sapphire Rapids with DDR5 and PCIE5 in 2021.
    Several roadmap leaks of Tiger Lake show lpddr5 and PCIE4 support in 2020.

    So, I'm curious about the subtitle ... "Staying one step ahead of Intel."

    "Lagging one Step behind Intel" would be more accurate.

    Intel has 7nm for 2019 in their roadmap XDDDD and they are 3.5 years ahead XDD

    http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/intel_tech_lead.png
    Reply
  • klownthegoblintechie
    JayNor said:
    Intel roadmaps show Sapphire Rapids with DDR5 and PCIE5 in 2021.
    Several roadmap leaks of Tiger Lake show lpddr5 and PCIE4 support in 2020.

    So, I'm curious about the subtitle ... "Staying one step ahead of Intel."

    "Lagging one Step behind Intel" would be more accurate.


    Well based on history, if it is anything like going from mature DDR3 to early DDR4, not a whole lot of gains to be had -> https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/asrock-fatal1ty-z170-gaming-k4-d3-ddr4-vs-ddr3,4431-2.html

    Would be interesting to see what products and performance comes from AMD and Intel both.

    We live in interesting times, from FP DRAM -> EDO DRAM -> SD DRAM -> the first DDR -> the failed RDRAM -> DDR2 -> DDR3 -> DDR4 -> ? - Whatever the future holds.
    Reply
  • usiname said:
    Intel has 7nm for 2019 in their roadmap XDDDD and they are 3.5 years ahead XDD

    http://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/intel_tech_lead.png
    More rabbid fanboyism right here. Intel has no 7 nm chips to this day and no PCIe 5.
    Reply
  • beers
    Mandark said:
    More rabbid fanboyism right here. Intel has no 7 nm chips to this day and no PCIe 5.
    I think it was a joke since we obviously don't have any 7nm Intel parts in the market.
    klownthegoblintechie said:
    Well based on history, if it is anything like going from mature DDR3 to early DDR4, not a whole lot of gains to be had
    Sure, although you gain the advantage of having the platform to expand upon and can utilize the more mature standard down the line on the same system. Also the goals for the DDR5 standard were more well defined for double bandwidth of DDR4 as opposed to a slew of incremental changes.

    As of 2017 there were functional DDR5 DIMMs to the standard, so we'll at least have a few years of standard maturity once the consumer space supports those on their next gen implementations.
    Reply