AMD revealed price, performance, some release dates and more about the upcoming RDNA 3 graphics card and Ryzen 7000 series processor during its launch. “Together We Advance_PC” Livestream on Monday.

Four CPUs using the new Zen 4 desktop processing architecture (codenamed “Rafale”) will launch on September 27, 2022. The flagship Ryzen 9 7950X chip will cost $699 and have 16 cores, 32 threads, and a boost clock. 5.7GHz.

Image: AMD

Three other processors include the Ryzen 9 7900X (12 cores, 24 threads, and a 5.6GHz boost) for $549, the Ryzen 7 7700X (8 cores, 16 threads, and a 5.3GHz boost) for $399, and the budget Ryzen 5 7600X ($ 299 for 6 cores, 12 threads and 5.3 GHz boost). AMD claimed during the presentation that the Zen4 processor has a 13 percent IPC uplift compared to the previous Zen 3 (Ryzen 5000 series) generation, which was a claimed 8-10 percent uplift when the architecture was teased at Computex 2022.

Other claims include up to 29 percent increase in single-thread performance, but take these predictions with a pinch of salt until they’re publicly released and available for external benchmarking. Some of the expected increases are vague, such as the claimed 6 to 35 percent performance boost in games when comparing the new Ryzen 9 7950X to its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 5950X.

Image: AMD

As far as longtime market rival Intel fits in, AMD compared its latest flagship performance to the Intel i9-12900K in the V-Ray benchmark, where the Zen 4 processor displayed 47 percent better performance per watt, and A potential improvement of 57 percent in re-tracing. Just remember, this is a single benchmark out of many and it’s in AMD’s best interest to make this launch attractive to consumers looking to upgrade their desktop PCs. When unbiased benchmark tests can be conducted, we’ll get a more accurate picture of a performance comparison.

Image: AMD

While absent from the presentation, the AMD website confirms that all four Ryzen 7000 SKUs will feature integrated Radeon RDNA 2 graphics. Each Rafale CPU will have 2 graphics cores, each with 64 stream processors, with a boost clock of up to 2.2GHz. Before one gets excited about its gaming capabilities, it’s unlikely that you’ll want to sway a full desktop graphics card in favor of this built-in option, as the integrated GPU will suffice for tasks like just basic content creation and display output.

There are a few important things to note from the presentation if you Huh Planning to upgrade or build a new PC any time soon. First, this generation of AMD processors will use the AM5 socket platform, which means you’ll need to upgrade your motherboard. AM5 motherboards will be priced starting at $125, and will be supported until at least 2025, which coincides well with the anticipated launch of the Zen 5 in 2024.

That doesn’t mean AM4 is finished though. “We expect AM4 and AM5 to coexist for some time,” Lisa Su said during the presentation. “You should expect that like the AM4, we’ll build the entire AM5 stack, but it will take some time to build and we want to make sure the cost points are as accurate as ever.” This does This means you’ll also need to plan on upgrading your system memory, as AM5 is adopting DDR5 RAM and dropping support for DDR4.

The processors weren’t the only announcement as we also got a glimpse of the next generation of Radeon graphics cards. The AMD Radeon RX 7000 series will be based on a 5nm process node and the flagship model will feature a Navi 12288 GPU with 31 stream processors and up to 24 GB of GDDR6 memory, although this is still speculative information. AMD’s generosity for information about its new processor didn’t extend to its upcoming graphics cards.

Image: AMD

AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed previous claims that the new GPU architecture would offer 50 percent performance per watt increase over RDNA2, and confirmed during the presentation that with at least one Radeon 7000 operating and running tests, it would stating that its performance “looks absolutely amazing.”

The design appears to be similar to the previous generation flagship cards, with an all-black color scheme and hints of RGB illumination similar to the Radeon RX 6950XT. The next-gen model being teased during the presentation was not named, nor was the power connector on display, though the triple fan design and thickness of the card suggest that it will be a high-end model.

Other features to be expected are advanced chiplet packaging, re-architected compute units, an optimized graphics pipeline, and a next-gen AMD Infinity Cache. Next-generation AMD Radeon graphics cards are also slated to arrive by the end of the year, though no set date for launch has been announced.