AMD Says Zen 3 Consumer CPUs Will Launch This Year

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By Paul Alcorn
last updated

Nothing stops the Zen train

(Image credit: Fritchenz Fritz)

According to Rick Bergman, AMD's executive vice president of Computing and Graphics, AMD will launch Zen 3 processors for the client market this year. Bergman made the important announcement in the closing lines of a corporate blog post he penned today. 

AMD has already stated that Zen 3 processors are on track for release in 2020, but the company hadn't specified if the chips would be for the data center or the consumer market. We already knew that the Zen 3-based EPYC Milan data center chips are due this year, but Bergman's announcement marks the company's first official acknowledgment that Zen 3 chips for the consumer market will also land this year.

AMD's last few big releases may have been a bit of a disappointment for enthusiasts because both Threadripper Pro and the Ryzen 4000 series of desktop APUs have been targeted specifically for the OEM and system integrator markets, meaning that they won't come to the retail market. In the closing lines of his blog post, Bergman tells us that might change soon:

"So, what's next for AMD in the PC space? Well, I cannot share too much, but I can say our high-performance journey continues with our first "Zen 3" Client processor on-track to launch later this year. I will wrap by saying you haven't seen the best of us yet…"

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(Image credit: AMD)

Bergman does narrow things down to the client (consumer) market but doesn't specify exactly where the 7nm Zen 3 client chips will debut. The Zen 3 chips could land on the desktop PC platform in the form of the long-awaited Ryzen 4000 'Vermeer' processors, or they could come to laptops as a fast follower to the company's Ryzen Mobile chips. AMD's latest mobile processors are just now taking hold in the market and have finally gained some traction, but a quick follow-up would cement AMD's position as a serious contender in the mobile segment that comprises 60% of the consumer x86 market. Intel has its promising Tiger Lake mobile chips launching this year, too, so it would be a good time for a new line of Zen 3 mobile chips to counter Intel's 10nm assault.

However, launching a new Ryen 4000 (codenamed 'Vermeer") desktop PC chip could cement AMD's ever-growing success there, too, and render the Ryzen XT models as a mere stop-gap between big product launches. We're left to speculate for now, but it's clear that AMD has more in store for us as we enter the latter half of the year.

Paul Alcorn
Paul Alcorn
Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech

Paul Alcorn is the Managing Editor: News and Emerging Tech for Tom's Hardware US. He also writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage, and enterprise hardware.

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25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Jimbojan
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.
    Reply
  • Makaveli
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.


    What is intel going to release on sept 2 that is going to offer 20% more performance then zen2 and 3?

    lol we don't even know the performance of Zen 3 yet intels unannounced chip is going to be 20-30% faster.

    Please cite where you are getting this info from?

    From what I can see Rocket Lake is expected to be released in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021. And its expected to have a 20% IPC increase to the current line up. Zen 3 is also suppose to offer 20% IPC over Zen 2.

    So we are looking at both products being faster then Previous gen but you have Rocket lake being 20% faster then Zen 3 ??

    So a 40% IPC increase from intels current line up??
    Reply
  • Pat Flynn
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.

    Would you mind siting your sources for this info? Curious about what Intel has in the pipe.
    Reply
  • atomicWAR
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.

    While I have heard Rocket lake will drop this year, I have yet to hear a date. Do you have a source on that? Also your numbers for performance are on but also off. Rocket Lake is supposed to give Intel a 20% performance boost but AMD's Zen 3 is also supposed to drop this year with a 20% performance boost. At best this puts Intel and AMD neck and neck again...Don't get me wrong I am happy to see this level of competition again but it is hardly the blow out in Intel's favor you seem to be describing. I don't think AMD or Intel Fanboys are going to have solid bragging rights over CPU superiority next gen. But that is just my perspective from the leaks/info available to me. If you have more please list them!!!
    Reply
  • vinay2070
    Pat Flynn said:
    Would you mind siting your sources for this info? Curious about what Intel has in the pipe.

    Lol, He was probably kidding :D
    Reply
  • waltc3
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.

    Heh-heh...sounds like wishful thinking to me...;) Not a chance...;)
    Reply
  • gruffi
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.
    Good joke. Intel says a lot. But they don't deliver for some time now. And that won't change anytime soon. If you mean Tiger Like, it might have 10-20% more single core performance than Renoir. So it could get some credit. But it has only 4 cores. Not enough to beat Renoir overall. Semptember 2nd is just some event. I don't expect a Tiger Lake hard launch. Zen 3 will be a completely different level of performance than Zen 2. I don't see much chances for Intel to compete with it. Definitely not in the desktop market. And the mobile market might switch to AMD even more when they announce Renoir's successor early next year. When Intel finally can launch 7nm products there will be TSMC 5nm products available already. So, it's not really getting better for Intel.
    Reply
  • SkyBill40
    Uh, yeah. Sure, dude.
    Reply
  • willgart
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.
    well...
    in september THIS year Intel will announce something for the future.
    AMD is releasing new product now and later this year, and again next year.

    so the "when" is crutial. because if intel release 20% better performance vs Zen 2 next year, too late.
    20% better than Zen 3 next year, ok.
    if its in 2years... too late.
    Reply
  • drivinfast247
    Jimbojan said:
    Intel is already set Sept 2 ,2020 for its product release, It will have 20 to 30% better performance than AMD's Zen 2 or 3. this will force AMD's asp to go down and/or volume market share to go down. From here on, if Intel can keep up with its 7nm, AMD or NVDA will always behind Intel again, no matter what TSMC will do. Intel exec had said that recently, it will be competitive with TSMC from 2021 on.
    Lol. Riiiight...
    Reply