AMD’s Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” CPU and the respective AM5 platform don’t seem to be going through a smooth launch plan. Several rumors have sprung up prior to the 29th August unveil which state the chips might face a short delay.
AMD Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” Desktop CPUs & AM5 Platform Faces Delay As BIOS Issues Mount Up
While AMD has confirmed that it will be hosting the official unveiling on the 29th of August, the actual sales won’t open up for a few weeks or even a month later. Earlier we reported in our own exclusive that the launch might be postponed to the 27th of September, the same day as Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPU unveil.
Now there are more rumors (I don’t know if even calling them a rumor is appropriate now considering these reports are coming from actual reviewers and also several insiders working closely with motherboard manufacturers who are aware of what’s going on) that the launch has indeed been delayed and AMD has asked to sign a new NDA, more or less confirming the new launch date.
The following was published by nApoleon, Chiphell’s resident tech reviewer and editor in the forums:
One thing I want to make clear is that the 29th August event will be an “Unveil” and not an actual “Launch” which was always meant to be in September. The launch was previously scheduled for the 15th of September but that was moved just recently to the 27th of September. now we know that the main reason behind this delay is related to the BIOS. Like every Zen generation, the BIOS has been a crucial part that sees various revisions for improved CPU and memory support. This time, just like the AM4 platform, there are going to be several revisions pre and post-launch.
So far, we have heard that there have been at least 7 AGESA 1.0.0.1 BIOS revisions in total, starting with Patch A to Patch G. The latest BIOS was issued this month and things aren’t going smooth with that one either.
Previously, it was expected that the motherboard vendors will release AGESA BIOS v1.0.0.1 Patch D with their motherboards on launch but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore since the older BIOS is not optimized enough for AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs and the AM5 motherboard platform which also supports EXPO DDR5 memory. As such, there are reports that the official BIOS at launch would be v1.0.0.2 and we will also see future revisions of the BIOS moving forward.
For those wondering what these BIOS issues are related to, there are several revisions, with each focusing on various optimizations, fixes, and support. The current SMU has been updated to 84.73 and supports AMD Ryzen 7000 16-core and 12-core CPUs while the previous one added better OC capabilities for DDR5 memory.
The list goes on but it’s not specific to just memory or the CPUs. As mentioned earlier, the AGESA BIOS firmware will be updated on a priority basis prior to and after the launch of the AM5 platform so rather than having sales commence now and have users go through a cumbersome BIOS update process, AMD rescheduled the launch to a later date for a smoother and better first-time experience for users on their next-gen platform.
AMD Ryzen ‘Zen 4’ Desktop CPU Expected Features:
- Up To 16 Zen 4 Cores and 32 Threads
- Over 15% Performance Uplift In Single-Threaded Apps
- Brand New Zen 4 CPU Cores (IPC / Architectural Improvements)
- Brand New TSMC 5nm process node with 6nm IOD
- 25% Performance Per Watt Improvement Vs Zen 3
- >35% Overall Performance Improvement Vs Zen 3
- 8-10% Instructions Per Clock (IPC) Improvement Vs Zen 3
- Support on AM5 Platform With LGA1718 Socket
- New X670E, X670, B650E, B650 Motherboards
- Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support
- Up To DDR5-5600 Native (JEDEC) Speeds
- 28 PCIe Lanes (CPU Exclusive)
- 105-120W TDPs (Upper Bound Range ~170W)
You can find the full details of AMD’s next-gen Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs and the respective 600-series motherboards in our full roundup of the next-gen family here.
AMD Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Desktop CPU ‘Preliminary’ Specs:
| CPU Name | Architecture | Process Node | Cores / Threads | Core Clock (SC Max) | Cache | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 7950X | Zen 4 | 5 nm | 16/32 | ~5.5 GHz | 80 MB (64+16) | 105-170W | ~$700 US |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7900X | Zen 4 | 5 nm | 12/24 | ~5.4 GHz | 76 MB (64+12) | 105-170W | ~$600 US |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7800X | Zen 4 | 5 nm | 8/16 | ~5.3 GHz | 40 MB (32+8) | 65-125W | ~$400 US |
| AMD Ryzen 7 7700X | Zen 4 | 5 nm | 8/16 | ~5.3 GHz | 40 MB (32+8) | 65-125W | ~$300 US |
| AMD Ryzen 5 7600X | Zen 4 | 5 nm | 6/12 | ~5.2 GHz | 38 MB (32+6) | 65-125W | ~$200 US |
News Source: Videocardz