AMD’s CEO has confirmed that the company is on schedule to get both its next-gen Zen 4-based processors and RDNA 3 graphics cards out next year.
Lisa Su provided the update in a conference call following AMD’s latest financial results for Q2 2021, as Wccftech spotted.
Su said: “We remain on-track to launch next-generation products in 2022, including our Zen 4 processors built with industry-leading 5nm process technology and our RDNA 3 GPUs.”
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The chief executive didn’t give any indication of when these new products might arrive next year, but the rumor mill seems fairly convinced that it will be late in 2022, during the final quarter (condiments handy). Both Ryzen and Radeon successors might even launch together, or very closely aligned; or at least that idea has been bandied about.
It’s expected that Zen 4-based chips (presumably Ryzen 6000) will give an impressive performance boost, but will stick with a 16-core flagship and not attempt to up core counts. And more excitement is now building around RDNA 3 GPUs with the possibility that the flagship could be seriously powerful (and run with multiple chips – but what effect that could have on pricing is another matter).
Unfortunately, there was also further word on supply difficulties with AMD products, and it wasn’t positive news. The company will apparently continue to be hit by stock issues over the course of 2021, but matters should improve at the beginning of 2022. Promises around ramping up stock levels of Big Navi graphics cards as 2021 rolls onward are looking a little shakier, then, perhaps.
Analysis: How soon in 2022 for Zen 4?
It’s no real surprise to hear that AMD is still on target to get both next-gen Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs out next year. Indeed, if Team Red was to falter in terms of those aims, it’d be a serious blow to the firm’s ambitions – particularly on the CPU front.
While in her statement above, Lisa Su couldn’t resist reminding folks that AMD is ‘industry-leading’ on 5nm, with Intel stuck on 10nm with its next-gen chips, remember: there’s a lot more to the performance of a CPU than just the process it’s built on.
Alder Lake may be 10nm but it’s shaping up to be very promising given the whispers and leaks thus far, using a whole new ‘big’ and ‘little’ core approach which could prove to have serious dividends. Plus the chips are purportedly set to be tied in with Windows 11 and performance improvements due to Microsoft’s tuning under the hood of the OS.
While Ryzen has taken over the desktop CPU arena in recent history, there seems to be a clear danger from Alder Lake processors which could arrive in just a few months – with AMD’s next-gen not coming until possibly a year after that. That’s a potentially worrying situation, and while AMD looks like it will produce some kind of refresh in the meantime before Zen 4 – possibly Ryzen 5000 XT CPUs with 3D Chiplet tech – if Intel is making as big a stride forward as Alder Lake threatens, the concern is that a refresh may not be enough.
In short, the sooner Zen 4 can arrive for AMD, the better, and late 2022 seems a long way out from this perspective – with Raptor Lake, a refreshed version of Alder Lake, also set to be here by then.
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