Luke and Leo Get Technical (Ep5) – Zen 3 Rumours and Speculation

Zen 3 is still likely to be many months away, but the rumour mill has certainly begun churning. Keeping up with AMD's release cadence from Zen, Zen+, and Zen 2, we initially expected to see Zen 3 around Q4 2020. However, with the ongoing global issues Luke and Leo wonder whether this will still be the case.

What will Zen 3 offer? And what specifically needs to be upgraded from Zen 2? There are suggestions of more cores per Core Complex (CCX) compared to Zen 2 and that could have interesting influences on inter-core and inter-cache latencies.

Also, could we be in for a bizarre series of naming conventions where Ryzen 4000 is skipped on the desktop and we jump to Ryzen 5000 if the release date proves to be 2021?

Timestamps:

0:16 introduction
1:03 Zen 3 in 2020?
1:39 more cores per complex
2:20 let's rewind a little…
3:26 what about cache
5:01 will Zen 3 be a new architecture?
7:23 but do we need a new architecture?
8:43 talking process node
9:30 increasing clock speed
10:54 continuation of AM4?
13:06 Zen 3 at Computex? Or CES 2021
14:13 back to clock speed…
15:10 will naming conventions change?
16:41 Leo drops an ‘EPYC' joke…
17:03 summing up

Zen 3 in 2020?

• Zen 3 is still rumoured for 2020 – what could we see?

Will there be an adjustment to the chiplet topology?

• More cores and cache per Core Complex (CCX) are suggested. What does this mean and what will be the potential outcomes from this?
• Potential for more localised resources to improve characteristics such as latencies

Significant Architectural Changes on the Horizon?

• Will Zen 3 be a brand-new architecture?
• Could we see 10-15% IPC improvement?
• Higher clock speeds would be a reasonable improvement

Will we continue to use AM4? Is there any need for significant changes?

• Hopefully we can still use the excellent AM4 platform
• Which features or characteristics realistically need improvement over Zen 2?

Naming challenges could become realistic

• Zen 3 desktop CPU naming could be awkward and confusing if it launches in 2021

We could be in for a busy end of year

• AMD versus Intel should be interesting in late-2020 / early-2021

Since shooting this video, a specific rumour has surfaced suggesting that Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs, which we have to imagine will be Zen 3-based, are to be launched in September. It will be interesting to see if we get any more information pointing to a September launch as the month would fit perfectly with AMD's previous circa-14-month release cadence for Ryzen desktop processors.

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KitGuru says: As Leo so eloquently puts it – “A shark has to keep moving forward.” AMD will want to continue to apply pressure to Intel and Zen 3 looks like the next opportunity to do so on the desktop market. Is there need for significant changes? Can clock speeds improve? How will the parts be named? Will AM4's promised lifespan be extended? Many questions still remain, and the next few months will certainly be interesting.

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