GIGABYTE released UEFI firmware (BIOS) updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards encapsulating the AMD AGESA ComboAM5 PI 1.1.0.1a microcode. This latest version of AGESA has sparked speculation that some of AMD's upcoming Ryzen 8000G desktop APUs are in fact based on the newer "Hawk Point" silicon, and not "Phoenix." AMD released its Ryzen 8040 series "Hawk Point" mobile processors earlier this month, with a faster NPU that results in an up to 40% increase in AI interference performance over that of "Phoenix." "Hawk Point" is essentially identical to "Phoenix," including its first generation XDNA architecture based NPU, however the NPU's clock speed has been dialed up. If AMD is building some of its Ryzen 8000G desktop APU models on "Hawk Point" instead of "Phoenix," then we have our first solid hint that AMD is bringing Ryzen AI to the desktop platform, and that the Ryzen 8000G will end up being the first desktop processors with an NPU.

AMD is expected to be building at least two APU models based on the "Hawk Point" silicon, the Ryzen 7 8700G, and the Ryzen 5 8600G. The lower models, namely the 8500G and Ryzen 3 8300G, are expected to be based on the smaller "Phoenix 2" silicon, with a hybrid CPU that combines two "Zen 4" cores with up to four "Zen 4c" cores. The "Zen 4c" cores may feature an identical instruction set architecture (ISA) and IPC to the regular "Zen 4" cores, but have tighter Vcore limits, and operate at lower clock speeds. This makes the two available "Zen 4" cores the de facto "performance" cores, and AMD flags them as UEFI CPPC "preferred cores," ensuring the OS guides a bulk of its processing traffic to them. Both "Phoenix" and "Hawk Point" feature an identical CPU setup, with up to eight "Zen 4" cores.

Courtesy of serial leaker @momomo_us we now have an indication on potential pricing for AMD's upcoming 8000G-series of APUs for the AM5 socket. The Ryzen 8000G-series APUs are expected to use the same CPU cores as AMD's Zen 4 based Ryzen 7000-series CPUs, but paired with a new I/O design in a monolithic die. The leaker has provided pricing from what is said to be three different shops and for three different SKUs, with the Ryzen 5 7600 as the reference point in all three cases. All three shops list the Ryzen 5 7600 at a higher price than Amazon, so it's unlikely that we're looking at MSRP pricing here.

The Ryzen 5 8500G has a price range of US$190-240, followed by the Ryzen 5 8600G which comes in at US$240-310 and finally the Ryzen 7 8700G which is listed at US$340-440. The price span is rather large, which makes it impossible to draw any conclusions of what the MSRP will be. Tom's hardware managed to dig up a pair of retailers, including what appears to be the one with the lowest pricing in the leak, which is DirectDial. The other retailer that Tom's Hardware located was Zones, but that pricing doesn't match any of the initial leaks, but are somewhat towards the higher numbers. AMD is expected to announce the new series of APUs at CES early next year.

AMD continues to release new Ryzen 5000 series processor models for the Socket AM4 platform to this day, with new processors expected to launch next month. That's over 6 years of longevity for the platform, considering that AMD has extended official Ryzen 5000 series support all the way back to its first line of AM4 motherboards based on the 300-series chipset. The company plans a similar longevity for Socket AM5. In an interview with Overclockers UK, AMD's client channel business head David McAfee said "I think that we certainly recognized that the longevity of the AM4 platforms was one of the biggest reasons that led to the success of Ryzen and as we think and as we think about the future, 2025 and beyond, that decision to move to a next-generation of socket is one that's going to be really thought through really really carefully. We know the impact that moving to a new socket brings and we want to stay on AM5 for as long as we possibly can. We are firmly committed to 2025 and beyond and we will see how long that promise lasts beyond 2025."

AMD Socket AM5 is designed to deliver up to 230 W of package power, and has a contemporary I/O that includes a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface (4x 40-bit sub-channels); and 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (x16 PEG, two x4 NVMe, and x4 chipset bus), besides the usual SoC connectivity. With the upcoming Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" APUs, we could expect to see that the socket even wires out modern display I/O such as DisplayPort 2.1 with USB type-C, and the bandwidth for 12-bit HDR up to 68 billion colors. AMD debuted Socket AM5 with the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with "Zen 5" expected to launch in 2024. It's conceivable that the company's 2025 client architecture, "Zen 6," could also see its desktop presence on AM5, given that DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5 will remain relevant till at least that time.

Mini PC designer Geekom is bring three innovative desktops to the 2024 International CES, based on the very latest mobile processors by Intel and AMD. These boxes are hinged on MoDT (mobile on desktop) hardware, meaning that energy efficient mobile processors are crammed into compact desktop cases, and wired out with all the connectivity they can put out. The three mini PC models Geekom is launching includes the IT14 Pro, the A8 Max, and the APro8 Max. The Geekcom IT14 Pro comes in a 0.7-liter chassis (about the size of a NUC), and is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" processor configured with 6P+8E+2LP cores, or 16-core/22-thread. The desktop relies entirely on the maxed out Arc iGPU with all its 8 Xe cores enabled (128 EU). The NPU is also enabled. The company didn't reveal the memory, storage, or WLAN configuration of this desktop, yet.

The A8 Max is based on a similar 1-liter class chassis, but uses an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS or Ryzen 9 8940HS "Hawk Point" processor, both of which are 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4," and configured with the full Radeon 780M iGPU available (12 CU or 768 stream processors). The star attraction here is the updated Ryzen AI NPU, which drives up the AI inference performance of these chips to 39 TOPS, compared to 34 TOPS of the Intel "Meteor Lake" chips. The APro8 Max is a based on a physically larger chassis that looks a bit like a game console. It's based on mostly the same hardware as the A8 Max, but with an added Radeon RX 7600M XT discrete GPU, which should give it the ability to offer maxed out AAA gaming at 1080p, or power productivity workloads at 4K UHD. We shoud know more about these three in Vegas next month.

Market research by Korean publication Danawa DPG provides valuable insights to how desktop AMD Ryzen processor users are charting their upgrade paths given the long upgrade longevity of AMD sockets. The research follows a 10-month date range from December 2022 to October 2023, and tracks the sales of motherboards based on various AMD chipset models. We're shown that toward the turn of the year, AMD B550 chipset motherboards sell the most. This is when AMD Ryzen 5000 Socket AM4 processors top sales for the company, Given that the B550 fully supports CPU overclocking, and that there are plenty of feature-packed B550 motherboard models, it explains why the B550 covers a wide price-band.

AMD launched the Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" to lukewarm response in September 2022, mainly because the platform lacked DDR4 memory support that was relevant at the time, and hence wasn't as flexible to consumers as Intel's LGA1700. Its launch caused price-cuts for Ryzen 5000 series processors, clearing out some upgrade headroom for those on the AM4 platform still using Ryzen 3000. Off to a slow start, we see its successor from Socket AM5, the B650 chipset, rise steadily over the time period, and for two reasons—DDR5 memory became affordable over the course of 2023; and AMD breathed life into the Ryzen 7000 series with the introduction of the Ryzen 7000X3D series, which restored gaming performance competitiveness to Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake." The B650 has everything you need right now for a Ryzen 7000X3D build, given that both the GeForce RTX 40-series and Radeon RX 7000 series are PCIe Gen 4 graphics cards; and that the B650 has at least a Gen 5 NVMe slot. If you absolutely need a Gen 5 x16 slot, there's the premium B650E chipset to go with.

AMD's upcoming server processor, the 5th Gen EPYC "Turin," has been pictured as an engineering sample is probably being evaluated by the company's data-center or cloud customers. The processor has a mammoth core-count of 192-core/384-thread in its high-density cloud-focused variant that uses "Zen 5c" CPU cores. Its regular version that uses larger "Zen 5" cores that can sustain higher clock speeds, also comes with a fairly high core-count of 128-core/256-thread, up from the 96-core/192-thread of the "Zen 4" based EPYC "Genoa."

The EPYC "Turin" server processor based on "Zen 5" comes with an updated sIOD (server I/O die), surrounded by as many as 16 CCDs (CPU complex dies). AMD is expected to build these CCDs on the TSMC N4P foundry node, which is a more advanced version of the TSMC N4 node the company currently uses for its "Phoenix" client processors, and the TSMC N5 node it uses for its "Zen 4" CCD. TSMC claims that the N4P node offers an up to 22% improvement in power efficiency over N5, as well as a 6% increase in transistor density. Each of the "Zen 5" CCDs is confirmed to have 8 CPU cores sharing 32 MB L3 cache memory. A total of 16 such CCDs add up to the processor's 128-core/256-thread number. The high-density "Turin" meant for cloud data-centers, is a whole different beast.

Here is our first look at the higher end of AMD's Ryzen 8000G series Socket AM5 desktop APU lineup. The company is planning to bring its 4 nm "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" monolithic silicon to the socketed desktop platform, to cover two distinct markets. Models based on the larger "Phoenix" silicon cater to the market that wants a sufficiently powerful CPU, but with a powerful iGPU that's fit for entry-level gaming, or graphics-intensive productivity tasks; whereas the smaller "Phoenix 2" silicon ties up the lower end of AMD's AM5 desktop processor stack, as it probably has a lower bill of materials than a "Raphael" multi-chip module.

The lineup is led by the Ryzen 7 8700G, a direct successor to the Ryzen 7 5700G "Cezanne." This chip gets the full 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4" CPU, along with its 16 MB shared L3 cache; and the full featured Radeon 780M iGPU with its 12 compute units worth 768 stream processors. The CPU features a maximum boost frequency of 4.20 GHz. This is followed by the Ryzen 5 8600G, which is based on the same "Phoenix" silicon as the 8700G, but with 6 out of 8 "Zen 4" cores enabled, and a maximum CPU boost frequency of 4.35 GHz, and the 16 MB L3 cache left untouched. It's likely that the Radeon 780M is unchanged from the 8700G.Update 13:59 UTC: A CPU-Z screenshot of the Ryzen 7 8700G surfaced, which confirms that it features the maxed out Radeon 780M iGPU

ASRock Industrial releases state-of-the-art 4X4 BOX 8040 Series Mini PCs and 4X4 8040 Motherboard Series, powered by AMD Ryzen 8040 Series APUs, crafted to elevate trusted performance and AI PC capabilities. Featuring up to 8 "Zen 4" cores/ 16 threads and AMD Radeon 700M graphics, the Series integrates AMD Ryzen AI with 16 NPU TOPS, delivering up to 1.6x surge in AI processing performance over its predecessor. With support of dual-channel DDR5 5600 MHz memory up to 96 GB, the 4X4 BOX 8040 Series comes with enriched I/O connectivity in a compact fanned box. It enables 4K quad-display outputs, five USB ports, including two USB4, accommodates dual storages, and offers dual LAN up to 2.5G, along with Wi-Fi 6E support. The new Series, marked by a significant speed boost with lower power consumption, paves the way for accelerated generative AI workloads, tailoring heightened experience in content creation, gaming, entertainment, office productivity, commerce, and many other AIoT applications through the quintessential AI PC for you.

ASRock Industrial's 4X4 BOX 8040 Series offers versatile selections: 4X4 BOX-8840U, 4X4 BOX-8640U, powered by AMD Ryzen 8040 Series (Ryzen 7 8840U/ Ryzen 5 8640U). With integration of CPU, GPU, and NPU, the AMD Ryzen AI upgrades to 16 NPU TOPS and 39 total TOPS (NPU+CPU+GPU), reaching up to 1.6x surge in AI processing performance and a notable 40% speed increase in running AI LLM models than prior gen AMD APUs. Featuring 4 nm "Zen 4" architecture with up to 8 cores/ 16 threads, along with AMD Radeon 700M RDNA 3 graphics, and dual-channel DDR5-5600 MHz SO-DIMM memory up to 96 GB. The 4X4 BOX 8040 Series marks a leap forward in AI processing, allowing users to re-imagine dynamic applications on their AI PC, such as enhancing productivity, delivering AI-inspired visuals/content, running AI models right on PCs for various AIoT use cases.

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is designed to be a middle-of-the-market processor SKU from Intel's next generation "Meteor Lake" processor family. It comes with a CPU core configuration of 14-core/18-thread. That's 4P+8E+2L (four performance cores, eight efficiency cores, two low-power island cores), although with a full featured Xe-LPG iGPU that has all 8 Xe cores (128 EU) enabled. The chip is normally rated for a 28 W power envelope, although OEMs such as Lenovo have developed a custom 65 W "power mode," which raises the base power value.

A Chinese PC enthusiast with access to an unreleased Lenovo notebook based on this processor, including Lenovo's 65 W Mode toggle, benchmarked it, and compared it with a notebook powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS "Phoenix" processor (8-core/16-thread, "Zen 4," Radeon 780M iGPU with all 12 compute units enabled); and another notebook powered by Intel's current middle-of-market chip in the H-segment, the Core i5-13500H "Raptor Lake" (4P+8E, Xe-LP iGPU with 5 Xe cores or 80 EU). The results were a little unexpected. The Xe-LPG iGPU of the 125H is shown beating both the Radeon 780M of the Ryzen, and the Xe-LP iGPU of the i5-13500H, with the highest 3DMark Time Spy and Fire Strike scores in the comparison. The Xe-LPG iGPU is 15% faster than the Radeon 780M in Time Spy, and 6% faster in Fire Strike. It's a whopping 70% faster than the Xe-LP iGPU of the "Raptor Lake" chip in this comparison. Things are shockingly different on the CPU performance front for the "Meteor Lake" chip.

Intel's upcoming Sierra Forest Xeon server chip has debuted on Geekbench 6, showcasing its potential in multi-core performance. Slated for release in the first half of 2024, Sierra Forest is equipped with up to 288 Efficiency cores, positioning it to compete with AMD's Zen 4c Bergamo server CPUs and other ARM-based server chips like those from Ampere for the favor of cloud service providers (CSP). In the Geekbench 6 benchmark, a dual-socket configuration featuring two 144-core Sierra Forest CPUs was tested. The benchmark revealed a notable multi-core score of 7,770, surpassing most dual-socket systems powered by Intel's high-end Xeon Platinum 8480+, which typically scores between 6,500 and 7,500. However, Sierra Forest's single-core score of 855 points was considerably lower, not even reaching half of that of the 8480+, which manages 1,897 points.

The difference in single-core performance is a matter of choice, as Sierra Forest uses Crestmont-derived Sierra Glen E-cores, which are more power and area-efficient, unlike the Golden Cove P-cores in the Sapphire Rapids-based 8480+. This design choice is particularly advantageous for server environments where high-core counts are crucial, as CSPs usually partition their instances by the number of CPU cores. However, compared to AMD's Bergamo CPUs, which use Zen 4c cores, Sierra Forest lacks pure computing performance, especially in multi-core. The Sierra Forest lacks hyperthreading, while Bergaamo offers SMT with 256 threads on the 128-core SKU. Comparing the Geekbench 6 scores to AMD Bergamo EPYC 9754 and Sierra Forest results look a lot less impressive. Bergamo scored 1,597 points in single-core, almost double that of Sierra Forest, and 16,455 points in the multi-core benchmarks, which is more than double. This is a significant advantage of the Zen 4c core, which cuts down on caches instead of being an entirely different core, as Intel does with its P and E-cores. However, these are just preliminary numbers; we must wait for real-world benchmarks to see the actual performance.

Acer today announced the new Nitro V 16 (ANV16-41) gaming laptop, built for casual players looking for a well-balanced device with modern features and more. The latest Nitro V laptop is powered by the new AMD Ryzen 8040 Series processors with Ryzen AI technology built in and up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs with DLSS 3.5 to deliver versatile performance, long-lasting battery life, and AI-powered technologies. Even in the heat of battle, the Nitro V 16 stays cool through innovative thermals highlighted by a dual fan system and keeps users at the center of the action with stunningly immersive visuals.

"Acer and AMD continue to collaborate in bringing AI-backed gaming experiences with the latest Nitro laptop powered by the new AMD Ryzen 8040 Series processors," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, Acer Inc. "Combined with fast refresh rate display options, enhanced features, and loads of improvements across the board, the Nitro V 16 brings an exciting new AI-ready gaming laptop to the table for all types of gamers."

AMD today announced the new Ryzen 8040 mobile processor series codenamed "Hawk Point." These chips are shipping to notebook manufacturers now, and the first notebooks powered by these should be available to consumers in Q1-2024. At the heart of this processor is a significantly faster neural processing unit (NPU), designed to accelerate AI applications that will become relevant next year, as Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 12, and software vendors make greater use of generative AI in consumer applications.

The Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" processor is almost identical in design and features to the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix," except for a faster Ryzen AI NPU. While this is based on the same first-generation XDNA architecture, its NPU performance has been increased to 16 TOPS, compared to 10 TOPS of the NPU on the "Phoenix" silicon. AMD is taking a whole-of-silicon approach to AI acceleration, which includes not just the NPU, but also the "Zen 4" CPU cores that support the AVX-512 VNNI instruction set that's relevant to AI; and the iGPU based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, with each of its compute unit featuring two AI accelerators, components that make the SIMD cores crunch matrix math. The whole-of-silicon performance figures for "Phoenix" is 33 TOPS; while "Hawk Point" boasts of 39 TOPS. In benchmarks by AMD, "Hawk Point" is shown delivering a 40% improvement in vision models, and Llama 2, over the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" series.

GIGABYTE Technology: Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in high-performance servers, and IT infrastructure, today announced the GIGABYTE G383-R80 for the AMD Instinct MI300A APU and two GIGABYTE G593 series servers for the AMD Instinct MI300X GPU and AMD EPYC 9004 Series processor. As a testament to the performance of AMD Instinct MI300 Series family of products, the El Capitan supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory uses the MI300A APU to power exascale computing. And these new GIGABYTE servers are the ideal platform to propel discoveries in HPC & AI at exascale.⁠

Marrying of a CPU & GPU: G383-R80
For incredible advancements in HPC there is the GIGABYTE G383-R80 that houses four LGA6096 sockets for MI300A APUs. This chip integrates a CPU that has twenty-four AMD Zen 4 cores with a powerful GPU built with AMD CDNA 3 GPU cores. And the chiplet design shares 128 GB of unified HBM3 memory for impressive performance for large AI models. The G383 server has lots of expansion slots for networking, storage, or other accelerators, with a total of twelve PCIe Gen 5 slots. And in the front of the chassis are eight 2.5" Gen 5 NVMe bays to handle heavy workloads such as real-time big data analytics and latency-sensitive workloads in finance and telecom. ⁠

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today showcases the B650MT motherboard, featuring the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 processor, the best workstation setup ideal for office users and businesses. The BIOSTAR B650MT motherboard delivers exceptional performance, efficiency, and security to meet the demands of the modern workplace; with support for up to 96 GB of DDR5 memory, it ensures seamless multitasking and exceptional system responsiveness. Offering a versatile storage solution with an M.2 slot and four SATA III ports, this motherboard provides lightning-fast data access and ample storage capacity. BIOSTAR's signature features, including Super Durable Solid Caps, Super Durable Inductor, and Super Hyper PWM, guarantee a dependable and long-lasting system.

With the latest AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 processor, BIOSTAR's B650MT motherboard sets up an ideal platform for business and casual use. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 processor offers a compelling blend of top-notch performance, cutting-edge security features, and energy efficiency, making it an excellent fit for the modern-day business sector. Powered by the groundbreaking AMD Zen 4 architecture, this desktop processor comes equipped with integrated AMD Radeon Graphics, simplifying integration, management, and administration tasks. With six cores and twelve threads, fast clock speeds reach up to 5.10 GHz, making it ideal for multitasking and demanding tasks.

TYAN, an industry leader in server platform design and a subsidiary of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, debuts its new server line-up for 4th Gen AMD EPYC & AMD Ryzen Processors at SC23, Booth #1917, in the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO, November 13-16.

AMD EPYC 9004 processor features leadership performance and is optimized for a wide range of HPC, cloud-native computing and Generative AI workloads
TYAN offers server platforms supporting the AMD EPYC 9004 processors that provide up to 128 Zen 4C cores and 256 MB of L3 Cache for dynamic cloud-native applications with high performance, density, energy efficiency, and compatibility.

AMD today announced at Smart Production Solutions 2023 the AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processor family, optimized for the high-performance requirements of industrial markets. By combining "Zen 4" architecture and integrated Radeon graphics, Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors deliver performance and functionality not previously offered for the embedded market. With its expanded features and integration, Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors are ideal for a wide range of embedded applications, including industrial automation, machine vision, robotics and edge servers.

The Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processor is the first embedded processor to use next-generation 5 nm technology with a 7-year manufacturing availability commitment. The new embedded processor integrates AMD Radeon RDNA 2 graphics that eliminates the need for a discrete GPU for industrial applications. And because embedded applications require additional operating system software options, Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors include support for both Windows Server and Linux Ubuntu, on top of Windows 10 and Windows 11. Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors also include up to 12 high-performance "Zen 4" CPU cores, which combined with its integrated features and wide operating system choices, offers unparalleled ease of integration for system designers.

AMD's "Phoenix" monolithic processor silicon drives the company's Ryzen 7040 series mobile processor lineup, and possible some of its upcoming Ryzen 7000G desktop processor models. It is the first chip from the AMD camp to feature an AI accelerator, besides up to 8 "Zen 4" CPU cores, and a large iGPU based on the latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, with up to 12 compute units, the latest display I/O and media acceleration capabilities. Over the course of its lifecycle, AMD realized that it can't use the nearly 200 mm² silicon built on the expensive 4 nm node to power lower-end processor SKUs, and so developed the smaller 137 mm² "Phoenix 2" silicon that lacks the AI accelerator, has a smaller iGPU with just 4 compute units, and a unique hybrid CPU with 2 "Zen 4" and 4 "Zen 4c" cores. We're now hearing that the company is designing even more derivatives.

The PCI ID Repository discovered two new IDs believed to reference the iGPU models of "Phoenix 3" and "Phoenix 4" chips. At this point we have no clue what the two chips could be, and what the mixture of their CPU, iGPU, and AI accelerator components could be, especially given that AMD is able to carve out Ryzen 3 SKUs from "Phoenix 2." We speculate that "Phoenix 3" and "Phoenix 4" could reference rebranding such as "Escher," although it could even be entirely new chips with different combinations of "Zen 4" and "Zen 4c" cores.

ASRock began rolling out UEFI firmware updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards that encapsulate AMD AGESA 1.1.0.0 ComboAM5PI microcode. This would be the second release of AGESA to support AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000G "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" desktop APUs that the company reportedly plans to launch later this year. The AGESA 1.1.0.0 microcode comes with the SMU version 76.72.0 for "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2," and continues with version 84.79.223 for "Raphael" and "Raphael-X" processors.

Unlike several past generations of Ryzen branded desktop APUs that only had 2-3 processor models in the retail channel, AMD is reportedly planning a slightly bigger lineup of APUs for the Socket AM5 platform, consisting of Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, and possibly Ryzen 7 processor models, and their Ryzen PRO variants. The Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 models are expected to be based on the "Phoenix 2" silicon that has a combination of two "Zen 4" and four "Zen 4c" CPU cores and an iGPU with 4 compute units; while it is rumored that at least one Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processor model will be built on "Phoenix," which has up to eight "Zen 4" cores, and a large iGPU with up to 12 compute units. So far we haven't seen reports of AMD bringing Ryzen AI to the desktop platform.

BOXX Technologies, the leading innovator of high-performance computer workstations, rendering systems, and servers, today introduced APEXX T4 PRO, a workstation featuring new, AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX- Series processors. The most powerful AMD platform ever, Ryzen Threadripper PRO delivers state-of-the-art performance for a variety of creative industries.

"The new AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000-WX Series provides an outstanding platform for APEXX T4 PRO," said BOXX founder and VP of Engineering Tim Lawrence. "The number of processing cores and innovative features, optimized by BOXX liquid cooling which is essential for high performance CPUs, will empower VFX artists, animators, motion media editors, architects, engineers, and data scientists, to create faster than ever before."

AMD today launched its first client processors that feature the compact "Zen 4c" CPU cores, with the Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors for thin-and-light notebooks. The "Zen 4c" CPU core is a compacted version of the "Zen 4" core without the subtraction of any hardware components, but rather a high density arrangement of them on the 4 nm silicon. A "Zen 4c" core is around 35% smaller in area on the die than a regular "Zen 4" core. Since none of its components is removed, the core features an identical IPC (single thread performance) to "Zen 4," as well as an identical ISA (instruction set). "Zen 4c" also supports SMT or 2 threads per core. The trade-off here is that "Zen 4c" cores are generally clocked lower than "Zen 4" cores, as they can operate at lower core voltages. This doesn't, however, make the "Zen 4c" comparable to an E-core by Intel's definition, these cores are still part of the same CPU clock speed band as the "Zen 4" cores, at least in the processors that's being launched today.

The Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors formally debut the new 4 nm "Phoenix 2" monolithic silicon. This chip is AMD's first hybrid processor, in that it has a mixture of two regular "Zen 4" cores, and four compact "Zen 4c" cores. The six cores share an impressive 16 MB of L3 cache. All six cores feature 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache. There is no complex hardware-based scheduler involved, but a software based solution that's deployed by AMD's Chipset Software, which tells the Windows scheduler to see the "Zen 4" cores as UEFI CPPC "preferred cores," and prioritize traffic to them, as they can hold on to higher boost frequency bins. The "Phoenix 2" silicon inherits much of the on-die power-management feature-set from the "Phoenix" and "Rembrandt" chips, and so are capable of a high degree of power savings with underutilized CPU cores and iGPU compute units.

With Windows 11 23H2 setting the stage for increased prevalence of AI in client PC use cases, the new hardware battleground between AMD and its rivals Intel, Apple, and Qualcomm, will be in equipping their mobile processors with sufficient AI acceleration performance. AMD already introduced accelerated AI with the current "Phoenix" processor that debuts Ryzen AI, and its Xilinx XDNA hardware backend that provides a performance of up to 16 TOPS. This will see a 2-3 fold increase with the company's 2024-25 mobile processor lineup, according to a roadmap leak by "Moore's Law is Dead."

At the very top of the pile, in a product segment called "ultimate compute," which consists of large gaming notebooks, mobile workstations, and desktop-replacements; the company's current Ryzen 7045 "Dragon Range" processor will continue throughout 2024. Essentially a non-socketed version of the desktop "Raphael" MCM, "Dragon Range" features up to two 5 nm "Zen 4" CCDs for up to 16 cores, and a 6 nm cIOD. This processor lacks any form of AI acceleration. In 2025, the processor will be succeeded with "Fire Range," a similar non-socketed, mobile-friendly MCM that's derived from "Granite Ridge," with up to two 4 nm "Zen 5" CCDs for up to 16 cores; and the 6 nm cIOD. What's interesting to note here, is that the quasi-roadmap makes no mention of AI acceleration for "Fire Range," which means "Granite Ridge" could miss out on Ryzen AI acceleration from the processor. Modern discrete GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD support AI accelerators, so this must have been AMD's consideration to exclude an XDNA-based Ryzen AI accelerator on "Fire Range" and "Granite Ridge."

AMD is giving final touches to its Ryzen 7000G series desktop APUs that bring the 4 nm "Phoenix" monolithic processor silicon to the Socket AM5 desktop package. The star attraction with these processors is their large iGPU based on the latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, featuring up to 12 compute units worth 768 stream processors, and full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set support. These processors should be able to provide 720p to 1080p gaming with entry-medium settings, where you take take advantage of FSR for even better performance. At this point we don't know whether the Ryzen AI feature-set will make its way to the desktop platform. "Phoenix" features an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the latest "Zen 4" microarchitecture.

An interesting development here is that not only is AMD bring the "Phoenix" silicon to the desktop platform, but the processor models highlighted in this leak reference the smaller "Phoenix 2" silicon. This chip is physically smaller, features a CPU with two "Zen 4" and four "Zen 4c" cores; and an iGPU that has no more than 4 compute units worth 256 stream processors. The OPN codes of at least three processor models surfaced on the web. These include the Ryzen 5 PRO 7500G (100-000001183-00), the Ryzen 5 7500G (100-00000931-00), and the Ryzen 3 7300G (100-000001187-00). No specs about these chips are known at this point. The PRO 7500G and regular 7500G are expected to feature the full 2+4 core configuration, while the 7300G could probably feature a 2+2 core configuration. If the company does plan a 7600G and 7700G, those would likely be based on "Phoenix" with 6 or 8 regular "Zen 4" cores.

Noctua today announced its new NH-U14S TR5-SP6 and NH-D9 TR5-SP6 4U CPU coolers for AMD's TR5 (sTR5/sTRX5/sWRX9) and SP6 sockets for the just-released 7000 series Threadripper HEDT (High-End Desktop) and Threadripper PRO workstation processors as well as 8004 series EPYC server CPUs. While the 14 cm NH-U14S TR5-SP6 provides maximum cooling performance at minimum noise levels, the 9 cm NH-D9 TR5-SP6 4U combines excellent efficiency with a compact size for full 4U compatibility. In addition to the two cooler models, Noctua also introduced the new NM-TR5-SP6 mounting kit that allows upgrading existing TR4-SP3, DX-4677, DX-4189 and DX-3647 line coolers to support the new TR5/SP6 sockets of TRX50 and WRX90 motherboards.

"The amount of computing performance that AMD's new TRX50 and WRX90 platforms with their Zen 4 based Threadripper and Threadripper Pro processors provide is downright stunning", says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "At heatloads of 350 W and more, you'll certainly want a premium grade cooling solution to go with them though. This is where our new TR5-SP6 models step in!"

Today, AMD announced the much-anticipated AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors and reintroduced the Threadripper processor lineup to the high-end desktop space with the Ryzen Threadripper 7000 Series processors, setting a new standard for computing performance and innovation in the industry.

AMD is introducing the Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 WX-Series processors, which will be available later this year to DIY customers, SI partners, and through OEM partners, including Dell Technologies, HP, and Lenovo. Designed for professionals and businesses that demand top-tier performance, reliability, expandability, and security, these processors provide the unparalleled multi-core performance of "Zen 4" Threadripper 7000 Series processors. Additionally, they are bolstered by AMD PRO technologies and offer the enterprise-level security and management features modern businesses require, and feature up to 96 cores and 192 processing threads of incredible performance for the workstation market.

AMD Ryzen processors with 3D Vertical Cache technology, denoted with the "X3D" brand extension on processor model numbers, are showing unexpected popularity numbers with close to a quarter of respondents to a TechPowerUp Frontpage Poll question saying that they use one. In August, we asked our readers if they use a Ryzen X3D processor. The question was "Are you using an AMD Ryzen X3D CPU with 3D V-Cache?" This was a few months into the launch of the Ryzen 7000X3D processor series that restored the gaming performance leadership for AMD against Intel's 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors.

Since the poll went live in August, we've seen 31,862 responses. From these, 14,732, or 46% say that they use a classic Ryzen processor (one without 3D V-cache). followed by 9,780 or 31% saying they use an Intel processor; an impressive 4,316 or 14% saying they use a Socket AM4 Ryzen 5000X3D series processor (5800X3D or 5600X3D); followed by 3,034 or 10% saying they use the latest 7000X3D series "Zen 4" processors. The X3D series together make 7,350 votes, or 23%.