Hot on the heels of the Ryzen 4000-series (codename Renoir) APU leak, German news outlet Igor's Lab has shared further information on the APUs as well as the preliminary specifications for the upcoming Ryzen 4000-series (codename Vermeer) desktop chips.
Igor's Lab believes that the Ryzen 5 4400G and Ryzen 3 4200G are the other two rumored desktop APUs that'll be joining the Ryzen 7 4700G, which has already blown its cover. The new piece of information claims that Renoir comes with support for a Fabric Clock (FCLK) up to 2,000 MHz. For comparison, the maximum FCLK on AMD's Ryzen 3000-series (codename Matisse) desktop processors is 1,800 MHz or DDR4-3600 (the FCLK and memory clock run in a 1:1 ratio). In theory, Renoir, which presumably has a 200 MHz higher FCLK, should have better memory support and benefit more from higher speeds.
On the desktop side, the Ryzen 4000-series (codename Vermeer) will continue to dwell on TSMC's 7nm FinFET process node. However, the next-generation desktop processors are linked to AMD's new and improved Zen 3 microarchitecture. Igor's Lab got word of the specifications for the engineering samples (ES), and according to the publication's sources, A0 steppings of the Zen 3 chips are already being evaluated in the wild. Although Igor's sources are pretty reliable, the author does suggest a bit of caution when approaching the information from the leak.
AMD Ryzen 4000-Series Vermeer Specifications*
| OPN | Cores / Threads | Base / Boost Clocks (GHz) |
|---|---|---|
| 100-000000059-14_46/37_Y | 16 / 32 | 3.7 / 4.6 |
| 100-000000059-15_46/37_N | 16 / 32 | 3.7 / 4.6 |
| Ryzen 9 3950X | 16 / 32 | 3.5 / 4.7 |
| 100-000000063-07_46/40_N | 8 / 16 | 4.0 / 4.6 |
| 100-000000063-08_46/40_Y | 8 / 16 | 4.0 / 4.6 |
| 100-000000063-23_44/38_N | 8 / 16 | 3.8 / 4.4 |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 8 / 16 | 3.9 / 4.5 |
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
It's important to highlight that the specifications correspond to the ES samples, and A0 steppings (early revisions of the silicon), at that. There's a strong likelihood that specifications may improve with the final revisions. The base and boost clock speeds are pulled from the OPN (Ordering Part Number) codes.
The 16-core, 32-thread Zen 3 chips expose a 3.7 GHz base clock and 4.6 GHz boost clock. The existing Ryzen 9 3950X processor has a 3.5 GHz base clock and 4.7 GHz boost clock. We're looking at an uplift of 200 MHz in the base clock and 100 MHz decrease in the boost clock.
The Zen 3 chips, which have eight cores and 16 threads, appear to have a 4 GHz and 4.6 GHz base and boost clock speeds, respectively. For reference, the Ryzen 7 3800X arrived with a 3.9 GHz base clock and 4.5 GHz base clock. Thus far, the Zen 3 successor seems to have a 100 MHz higher base clock and a 100 MHz lower boost clock.
Originally, AMD only intended to provide support for Zen 3 processors the latest B550 and X570 motherboards. However, after a bit of backlash, the chipmaker has caved in and will extend Vermeer support all the way back to the B450 and X470 motherboards.
Anonymous sources told DigiTimes last month that there is a strong possibility that Zen 3 could arrive around August or as late as September. AMD has the luxury of time to finetune Zen 3. Furthermore, the maturity of Igor's information is unknown. For all we know, AMD could have already revised the initial specifications, but it's clear the company is well underway in the development stages for its Zen 3 processors.
