A leaked roadmap confirms AMD are gearing up to launch their next generation of processors, codename Pinnacle Ridge, at the beginning of the new year. As a 12nm refresh of the first generation AMD Ryzen, these latest second gen chips (AKA Ryzen 2) are expected to offer higher clockspeeds, power efficiency, and improved SenseMI technology.
Can’t wait till next year? Here are the best CPUs for gaming available now.
A slide posted on MoePC, taken from an official AMD event for motherboard manufacturers, confirms AMD’s plans for the release of their second generation Ryzen products. Commonly known as Ryzen 2 – which is going to become very confusing – these processors are not built upon brand new tech, rather the same dies found on first gen Ryzen shrunk down to AMD’s new 12nm lithography.
Ryzen 2 should be at least a little better than the “worst case scenario” of the original Ryzen, according to their CPU marketing manager, and this die shrink should allow AMD to hit higher clockspeeds than before. It should offer at least enough improvement to tide us over until the AMD Zen 2 architecture rolls around, using the 7nm process with some IPC improvements… stay hopeful.
These refreshed processors are expected to be on store shelves beginning in Q1 and continuing through the start of Q2, seemingly on a similar launch schedule to the first generation Ryzen chips. This may mean we see a similarly staggered approach to launching Ryzen second generation products, beginning with enthusiast Ryzen 7 chips. Sorry, budget gamers.
These 2000-series chips are expected to use the same 2000-series nomenclature as Ryzen Mobile products launching at the end of the year. As is also the case with AMD’s mobile range, we will likely see improvements to AMD’s SenseMI technology, such as Precision Boost 2, alongside any clockspeed or power efficiency improvements gained through the 12nm Zen+ lithography.
The leaked roadmap also confirms Ryzen 3 APU chips and Ryzen Pro launching for the mobile sector early in 2018. Ryzen Gaming 5 and 7 products will supposedly follow these launches – which are mostly unknown entities – but may entail less power-stringent models of current Ryzen Mobile processors, or may possibly be the sought-after AM4 socket APUs (despite the mobile segmentation). Either way, it looks like AMD might have a little more performance for gamers on-the-go up their sleeve….
The other side are planning to finally complete the full launch of theIntel Coffee Lake processor range between March and April of 2018. During this time, Intel are also expected to launch the remainder of their chipsets, bringing Coffee Lake to mainstream and budget-minded customers. Despite Intel’s slow-launch across many, many months, Coffee Lake is going to be a fierce competitor to AMD’s 12nm Ryzen second gen.