AMD Zen 3 and Ryzen 5000 processors are coming (specs, prices, release date)

In an online event that was held on YouTube, AMD's CEO Lisa Su announced the official launch of the company's new Ryzen 5000 series processors. Obviously, the focus of the presentation was underlining the improvements brought by the new Zen 3 architecture and the increase in performance offered by the Ryzen 5000s. Here's what's coming this November, from AMD:

Welcome to AMD's Zen 3 architecture

Zen 3 is AMD's new processor architecture. Like the Zen 2 processors, such as the Ryzen 7 3700X or the Ryzen 9 3950X, the Zen 3 processors are also built using a 7-nanometer manufacturing process. That's the norm until 2022, when Zen 4 comes out and promises to give us a new 5 nm manufacturing process that is going to push AMD's processors even further. AMD's CTO - Mark Papermaster - briefly described some of the main changes between Zen 2 and Zen 3, highlighting the same thing as AMD's CEO: "Gaming starts with AMD!". We can't argue with that yet, at least not until we get to review some of the new processors. For now, though, AMD's statements are really impressive. The Ryzen 5000 processors come with top-notch multithreaded performance, but also excellent single-threaded performance. The latter appears to have been a keynote in the development of the Ryzen 5000s. Outstanding single-threaded performance equals excellent gaming performance, which is something that AMD really wants. The Ryzen 5000 family uses a new core layout and a new cache topology, which makes them able to deliver higher boost clocks, up to 19% more IPC (instructions per cycle/clock) than Zen 2 processors, and a lower cache latency. The 19% IPC leap is the biggest made by AMD between two generations of processors. During the presentation, we learned more details about four of the new Ryzen 5000 models, which will be available on shelves starting November 5th, 2020:

• AMD Ryzen 9 5950X: 16 cores, 32 threads, 4.9GHz boost, 3.4GHz base, 72MB cache, 105W TDP, $799
• AMD Ryzen 9 5900X: 12 cores, 24 threads, 4.8GHz boost, 3.7GHz base, 70MB cache, 105W TDP, $549
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X: 8 cores, 16 threads, 4.7GHz boost, 3.8GHz base, 36MB cache, 105W TDP, $449
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600X: 6 cores, 12 threads, 4.6GHz boost, 3.7GHz base, 35MB cache, 65W TDP, $299

The focal points during the presentation were the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 9 5950X. According to AMD, the Ryzen 9 5950X is the best desktop processor in terms of single-thread performance and offers the best multi-thread performance of any gaming processor. At the same time, the Ryzen 9 5900X was the processor chosen by AMD to showcase the gaming performance of the new CPU generation. Compared to the Intel Core i9-10900K, the Ryzen 9 5900X processor appears to be 7% faster in 1080p gaming. Of course, that's based on AMD's own testing, using benchmarks in a series of games that they've selected. We'll be back during the next weeks and months with more real-life benchmarks.

What is your opinion about AMD's announcements?

At least in theory, the specifications and prices appear to be excellent compared to the competition from Intel. Although the prices look a bit higher than the ones AMD asked for the matching processors from the previous generation, the performance improvements make up for it. That's all we know for now about the new AMD Ryzen 5000 processors. We can't wait to test and review them, and we're pretty sure that you're also eager to see how they perform. Before closing this news article, tell us your thoughts regarding the Ryzen 5000 family. Are these processors what you expected them to be? Will you consider buying one of the upcoming processors? Comment below, and let's discuss.