AMD is about to drop a new CPU generation, Zen 4, but what differs in the Ryzen 7000 series from the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs?
Updated: Sep 14, 2022 9:30 am
AMD Ryzen 7000 series vs Ryzen 5000 series. Which is better? AMD is about to release its Ryzen 7000 series CPUs to the world. The scheduled release date for these new Zen 4 CPUs is the 27th of September 2022, this was confirmed by AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su at AMD’s latest event.
Now read: AM5 what we know
Ryzen 5000 series was a phenomenal CPU generation and AMD Ryzen, in general, has slowly but surely been edging its way up the CPU market share graph year-on-year.
Ryzen 7000 series is expected to blow away the competition and vastly improve on its predecessor, Zen 3. There are a few ways AMD achieved this. Through better memory (RAM), a new CPU platform, and tweaking the performance of its 5nm wafers, AMD has created a beast in its own right.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series vs Ryzen 5000 series: Things to consider
There are many things that AMD has changed this time around for the 7000 series, and these things extend way beyond the CPUs themselves. Here are some things to consider before opting for a 7000 series Ryzen Zen 4 CPU.
Motherboard socket
The most glaringly obvious change is the motherboard socket, AM4 (Ryzen 5000 series) was compatible with the AM4 platform. Ryzen 7000 series, however, is compatible with the AM5 platform.
What does this mean? Well, fundamentally it means that the new Ryzen 7000 series CPUs will not fit into the old AM4 socket. This is really only due to one factor. AMD has switched socket architecture for AM5 to LGA, the socket architecture of choice for Intel/.
LGA stands for Land Grid Array and offers many advantages over AMDs old socket architecture, PGA, (Pin Grid Array). The main advantage is more pin density, allowing more features to be brought to the new AMD platform, like PCIe Gen 5.
The AM5 socket is actually named “socket LGA 1718”, AM5 is just easier to say and stays within the naming convention of previous AMD sockets. 1710 is also 18 pins more than Intel’s latest socket LGA 1700.
DDR5 Memory
Another thing that’s changed on the AM5 platform that’s going to be a hefty expense is the RAM. AMD has opted to only support DDR5 memory on its new AM5 motherboards, and by extension, this means that the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs are DDR5 exclusive processors. There are as of yet no plans to bring Zen 4 to DDR4.
Whist DDR5 memory isn’t as costly as it was a year ago, it’s still by no means cheap. This suggests the money you save opting for a cheaper CPU or motherboard may just be negated by the cost of DDR5 RAM, which is a shame.
AMD EXPO
There’s a new memory profile in town, AMD EXPO is AMD’s answer to Intel’s XMP. Formally known as RAMP tech, AMD EXPO is offering up to 11% better performance at 1080p thanks to optimizations. AMD also says EXPO kits are specifically optimized for Ryzen 7000 processors
AMD EXPO is an open standard, meaning AMD does not validate the kits themselves. The memory manufacturers submit their results, and if their memory meets the requirements it’s branded as EXPO ready. In contrast, XMP is a closed standard, meaning Intel tests memory themselves.
Don’t worry though, you can still use XMP-ready DDR5 on your AM5 motherboard, and EXPO memory kits will still work for Intel CPUs, although Intel hasn’t officially stated that Intel will support AMD EXPO.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series APUs
If you’re looking for an APU then you’re out of luck with the Ryzen 700 series, there will be no released “G” variants of the 7000 series CPUs. That’s because ALL Ryzen 7000 series have an RDNA 2 powered iGPU under the IHS.
So no matter what AMD 7000 series CPU you decide to go for, you still have an iGPU component should you be looking to save a small fortune not purchasing a GPU.
Power consumption
Before picking up a Ryzen 7000 series CPU, it’s important to consider the TDP increases Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 series CPUs bring. There’s been a substantial increase in power compared to the Ryzen 5000 CPUs. And with that power increase comes a TDP increase.
The TDP of the 7950X vs the 5950X for example is almost doubled, with a rated TDP of 170W the 7950X can actually pull anywhere up to 230W from the CPU socket. So you’re going to have to make sure you have a power supply that can handle the increased power demand.
Cooling the Ryzen 7000 series
Despite the Ryzen 7000 series supporting a completely different CPU socket, AMD decided it was going to retain cooler compatibility between AM4 and AM5 CPUs.
This means that you won’t need to change your cooler if it natively supports the AM4 CPU socket. This makes the whole ordeal of changing your motherboard a little easier. It’s one less thing to worry about.
Asus ROG RYUJIN II 360 CPU Cooler
CPU Block Dimensions
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Socket Support
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Fans
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3.5″ Full Color LCD Screen
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Ryzen 7000 series Vs Ryzen 5000 series: What’s new?
So, with all that to consider, what has AMD changed about the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs?
AMD has made a mass of improvements to its Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, some of those changes involve the physical construction of the CPU cores.
Ryzen 7000 series 5nm manufacturing process
The AMD Ryzen 7000 series is built upon the new TSMC 5nm manufacturing process, this differs from AMD’s 5000 series CPUs as they were constructed on a 7nm process. What does all this mean?
An “nm process” essentially refers to the size of the transistors within a CPU, transistors are tiny electrical logic gates that are capable of either a yes or no output. Simple right?
These transistors when grouped together are capable of very complex instruction calculations. And the more transistors you have packed into one space, the greater that space is at completing calculations.
This is why smaller is sometimes better, the smaller transistors in the 7000 series CPUs allow more to be present inside CPU cores. Making for a more powerful CPU, with greater calculation potential.
Ryzen 7000 series IPC increases.
IPC (instructions per clock) is a measurement of a CPUs ability to complete a number of instructions every CPU cycle. This actually ties into the smaller 5nm princess we mentioned in the previous section.
AMD has increased IPC by up to 13% in the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, over the previous 5000 series CPUs.
This means that the 7000 series can calculate 13% more instructions per core every time the CPU completes a cycle.
The CPU cycle consists of three main actions, these are: Fetch, Decode, and Execute. And it’s these actions that comprise CPU fundamentals as we know them.
The IPC increase comes from the higher number of transistors present in each CPU core. It’s complicated, but all you need to know is that AMD exceeds its own expectations in this matter.
AMD went on record at the “together we advance PCs” event Stating that AMD expected to improve IPC by about 10%, but it managed 13% instead. This doesn’t seem too drastic, but 3% at nearly 6GHz makes a massive difference in performance, especially for the higher-end SKUs.
Ryzen 7000 series Cache
This time around, AMD has doubled down on the cache. Ryzen 7000 series now has 1MB of L2 cache, this is doubled from the last generation, as only 512KB was present in the 5000 series CPUs.
It’s obvious that better CPUs with more cores need more cache to keep those CPU cores fed. But the 7000 series CPUs have the same number of cores as the previous generation. The increase in cache is purely for better performance, and not feeding more CPU cores.
Ryzen 7000 series clock speeds
As the word improvement implies, both the base and boost speeds have been improved significantly, taking the flagship CPUs from both generations we can observe this improvement.
The Ryzen 9 5950X has a base core speed of 3.4GHz and a boost speed of 4.9GHz.
However, the Ryzen 9 7950X has a base speed of 4.5GHz and a boost speed of 5.7GHz.
That’s all with the IPC improvements AMD has stated, 13% on average across the board. So that’s nearly a billion more cycles per second, with each cycle managing 13% more instructions. That’s some serious improvements.
AMD Ryzen 7000 series SKUs
Here we will outline the four Ryzen 7000 series AM4 SKUs AMD is going to release on September 27th, 2022.
Note this table does not include the 3D V-cache versions of Zen 4 CPUs AMD plans to release early into next year.
AMD Ryzen 5000 series SKUs
Here are all the AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs that have been released.
Previous
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As you can see there are some significant specification improvements on paper, the Ryzen 7000 series should dominate the 5000 series CPUs.
Where to buy Ryzen 7000 series CPUs?
Here we have outlined all of our Ryzen 7000 series where to buy pages, should you crave this incredible new technology.
Ryzen 7000 series FAQs
When will Ryzen 7000 series release?
AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs will release on the 27th of September 2022, this was confirmed by AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su at AMD’s “together we advance PCs” event.
Will Ryzen 7000 series support DDR4?
No, as of yet there are no plans to bring Zen 4 7000 series CPUs to the DDR4 memory standard. Doing so would result in performance losses.
Ryzen 7000 series CPUs are very much built for DDR5.
Will Ryzen 7000 series work on AM4?
No, AM4 is a platform built for previous Ryzen generations (Zen 3, Zen 2, Zen +, and Zen)
Zen 4 by contrast has been designed to be compatible with a new motherboard socket, that socket is named AM5. So you will need an AM5 motherboard to make a 7000 series CPU work.
Is Ryzen 7000 series compatible with AM4 coolers?
Yes, Ryzen 7000 series retain cooler compatibility with AM4 despite the CPUs not physically fitting in the AM4 socket.
This means you can transfer your CPU cooler over from AM4 to AM5 as long as it natively supports the AM4 socket.
Final word
The Ryzen 5000 series of CPU was an exceptional CPU generation, bringing advancements and performance as we’ve never seen before. But Ryzen 7000 series is on track to completely blow Ryzen 5000 series out of the water.
The increased IPC and the massively boosted clock speeds make for a formidable CPU generation. No matter which CPU you choose in the Zen 4 generation, you’re going to see improvement over the 5000 series.
We hope you enjoyed this AMD Ryzen 7000 series vs Ryzen 5000 series article.
