A new leak has detailed AMD’s Zen 3-based Ryzen 9 4950X CPU - and it should have Intel worried.
This leak comes via Igors Lab, which reveals that the so-called Ryzen 9 4950X will be a 16-core, 32-thread part with an impressive boost frequency of 4.8GHz.
The information comes from an OPN code which reads "100-000000059-52_48/35_Y." The ’35’ at the end signifies the 3.5 GHz base clock, with ’48’ telling us the boost clock is 4.8 GHz. That’s 100MHz higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X, which tops out at 4.7GHz.
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What’s more, this code likely refers to an engineering sample of the Zen 3 'Vermeer’ CPU, so it's likely that these clock speeds will be even higher at launch – potentially even entering Intel's 5GHz territory.
Some reports speculate that the processor could undergo a name change ahead of its official unveiling, too, and claim AMD could skip the Ryzen 4000 series nomenclature on desktop to avoid confusion with its current-zen Zen 2-based Ryzen 4000 mobile chips.
While this leak doesn’t tell us much else about AMD’s incoming Zen 3 desktop CPUs, we’re expecting a major improvement in the performance department.
A previous leak claims Ryzen 4000 CPUs will deliver 15% to 17% better IPC (instructions per clock) compared to AMD's Ryzen 3000 desktop processors, which is bad news for Intel.
AMD is expected to launch its first Zen 3-based processors in September, likely just days after Intel reveals its long-awaited 10nm Tiger Lake CPUs.
