AMD To Commence Mass Production of Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Zen 4 Desktop CPUs Next Quarter

AMD's Ryzen 7000 Zen 4 Desktop CPUs are allegedly entering mass production as early as next month, reports Greymon55.

AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs Powered By Zen 4 Cores Enter Mass Production As Early As Next Month, Alleges Rumor

The rumor states that Raphael, the codename for AMD's Ryzen 7000 'Zen 4' Desktop CPU lineup, is going to enter the mass production stage. It is also reported that the packaging plant is prepped up and will commence mass production either in the coming month (April) or early May.

The packing plant has already prepared all the work and will start mass production next month or early May.

— Greymon55 (@greymon55) March 29, 2022

Given the previous timeline of Zen 3 'Vermeer' and Zen 3D 'Warhol', these chips usually take 4 to 5 months to reach the market after mass production commences. So in that case, we could expect the AMD Ryzen 7000 'Zen 4' Desktop CPU lineup in September or October at the earliest which is aligned with the 2H 2022 launch timeframe that AMD had confirmed at CES 2022. This also places the new family right around the same time as Intel's 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPU lineup.

Here's Everything We Know About AMD's Raphael Ryzen 'Zen 4' Desktop CPUs

The next-generation Zen 4 based Ryzen Desktop CPUs will be codenamed Raphael and will replace the Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 Desktop CPUs that are codenamed, Vermeer. From the information we currently have, Raphael CPUs will be based on the 5nm Zen 4 core architecture & will feature 6nm I/O dies in a chiplet design. AMD has hinted at upping the core counts of its next-gen mainstream desktop CPUs but recent rumors have pointed out up to 16 cores and 32 threads for the flagship part with TDPs up to 170W.

The brand new Zen 4 architecture is rumored to deliver up to 25% IPC gain over Zen 3 and hit clock speeds of around 5 GHz. AMD's upcoming Ryzen 3D V-Cache chips based on the Zen 3 architecture will be featuring stacked chiplets so that design is expected to be carried over to AMD's Zen 4 line of chips too.

AMD Ryzen  'Zen 4' Desktop CPU Expected Features:

• Brand New Zen 4 CPU Cores (IPC / Architectural Improvements)
• Brand New TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD
• Support on AM5 Platform With LGA1718 Socket
• Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support
• AMD RAMP (Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile) Support
• 28 PCIe Gen 5 Lanes (CPU Exclusive)
• 105-170W TDPs (Upper Bound Range ~170W)

As for the platform itself, the AM5 motherboards will feature the LGA1718 socket which is going to last quite some time. The platform will feature DDR5-5200 memory, 28 PCIe lanes, more NVMe 4.0 & USB 3.2 I/O, and may also ship with native USB 4.0 support. There will be at least two 600-series chipsets for AM5 initially, the X670 flagship and B650 mainstream. The X670 chipset motherboards are expected to feature both PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 memory support but due to an increase in size, it is reported that ITX boards will only feature B650 chipsets.

The Raphael Ryzen Desktop CPUs are also expected to feature RDNA 2 onboard graphics which means that just like Intel's mainstream desktop lineup, AMD's mainstream lineup will also feature iGPU graphics support. In regards to how many GPU cores there will be on the new chips, rumors say anywhere from 2-4 (128-256 cores). This will be lesser than the RDNA 2 CU count featured on the soon-to-be-released Ryzen 6000 APUs 'Rembrandt' but enough to keep Intel's Iris Xe iGPUs at bay. More information on Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs here.

AMD Mainstream Desktop CPU Generations Comparison: