AMD Zen 5 Granite Ridge CPUs Reportedly In Production And Headed To AM5 Motherboards
Those parts aren't going to be an upgrade for anyone who already has a "Raphael" processor. That codename refers to the chiplet-based processors on the desktop platform that sport between six and sixteen Zen 4 CPU cores and basic RDNA 2 graphics. Raphael forms the basis of the Ryzen 7000 desktop family, and represents the current state of the art for AMD desktop CPUs.
That may not be the case much longer, though. According to regular leaker Kepler, AMD's Granite Ridge processors are already in mass production. He doesn't specify if that means chiplet fabrication at TSMC or final packaging, but regardless, it means that the parts are on their way before too much longer—certainly this year, and maybe as soon as Computex 2024, which starts on June 4th.
If you're lost, let us explain. Granite Ridge is the codename for AMD's upcoming Socket AM5 processors based on its new Zen 5 architecture. As usual, DIY desktop will be the first place that Zen 5 will make its appearance. These CPUs are all but guaranteed to go into almost any existing Socket AM5 motherboard, especially considering that Kepler also says that there's no new chipset coming with the new CPUs, at least "for now".
The Zen 5 architecture itself is supposed to be a ground-up rework of the Zen design that has been continually evolved since the launch of AMD's Summit Ridge processors—the original Ryzen 1000 family—back in 2017. Zen 5 is expected to bring significant improvements to IPC, on the order of about 15%. That means that, given the new silicon can hit the same screaming clock rates as Zen 4, you'll be seeing a 10-20% uplift in single-threaded performance depending on what resources your application relies on.
Going by AMD's previous launches, we can likely expect an early launch of six- through sixteen-core CPUs, with 3D V-Cache-enabled models to come after. There have been many rumors that AMD will use a hybrid strategy with Zen 5, and that's almost assuredly true on mobile (where it is already shipping hybrid CPUs), but all indications are that Zen 5 desktop CPUs will not have a mix of standard and dense (or "C") cores.
Granite Ridge will be fabricated on 4nm and 3nm processes.
Instead, it seems likely that Zen 5 desktop will be very standard stuff as far as desktop CPUs go, with integrated RDNA 2 graphics once again and up to sixteen Zen 5 CPU cores. It's possible that AMD will engineer an updated I/O chiplet (cIOD) for Granite Ridge; this new cIOD may include a Ryzen AI NPU just like Hawk Point, as getting an NPU into every system is a big push from x86 vendors right now.
As for what these parts will be called, well, AMD's mobile naming strategy would have it be the Ryzen 8050 series, but these aren't mobile parts. Going by past naming strategies and the recent announcement of the Ryzen 8000G series, we fully suspect that these parts will be named the Ryzen 9000 family. Obviously, we'll keep you posted anytime we hear anything, so keep an eye on HotHardware for more Granite Ridge details.
