There is no doubt that AMD's looming Zen 4 processors will vie for a spot on the list of best CPUs. The chipmaker will officially announce the Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) chips on August 29; however, a new rumor suggests that the flagship Ryzen 7 7950X could boost up to a spectacular 5.85 GHz.
According to a previous leak, the Ryzen 9 7950X reportedly checks in with a 5.7 GHz boost clock. However, a Weibo user claims that the Fmax (maximum frequency limit) on the 16-core Zen 4 part is higher. As a result, the Ryzen 9 7950X can seemingly boost up to 5.85 GHz. If the rumor is accurate, the Ryzen 9 7950X will sit above Intel's Core i9-13900K (Raptor Lake) chip, which has emerged with a 5.8 GHz boost clock.
The Fmax is the maximum frequency programmed into the Ryzen processor. For example, AMD advertises the Ryzen 9 5950X with a 4.9 GHz boost clock speed. Nonetheless, the Zen 3 peaks at 5.05 GHz, depending on the workload and your cooling. Therefore, the Ryzen 9 7950X has the potential to hit 6 GHz with some manual overclocking and with a suitable cooler.
The Weibo user posted a CPU-Z screenshot of the Ryzen 9 7950X. It would seem that the leaker already has a retail sample of the chip as CPU-Z didn't pick up the Zen 4 part as an engineering sample. CPU-Z doesn't correctly detect Zen 4 processors yet as there as missing details in the report.
Unfortunately, the screenshot doesn't confirm the rumored 5.85 GHz Fmax. However, we see the Ryzen 9 7950X running at 4,848 MHz clock speed. But, again, the leaker didn't reveal the workload or if the 16-core chip was idling.
Interestingly, the hardware tipster claims that the Ryzen 9 7950X sample isn't the top bin, implying that we may see a higher-clocked version. AMD will announce Zen 4 tomorrow, so we'll get all the juicy details around the new chips that will compete with Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors, which aren't a pushover.
