Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs not arriving until 2021, claims report

[midian182]

Rumor mill: Are we going to see the Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs this year? AMD says we will, but a new report claims the chips won’t arrive until early 2021.

The report comes from DigiTimes, which has a real hit-and-miss record with these sort of rumors, so take it all with a heavy dose of salt. The article has been translated by leaker RetiredEngineer.

The alleged main reason why AMD is holding back the Ryzen 4000 CPUs is simply because the Ryzen 3000 series continues to sell in droves—they're being bundled with Horizon Zero Dawn in the UK. The chips take up four of the top six places on Amazon’s best-selling CPU chart, including the Ryzen 7 3700X at number one, and continue to rival Intel’s latest 10th-gen Comet Lake processors, which are built on the 14nm process.

Translation: pic.twitter.com/VfNeQZuv4Q

— RetiredEngineer® (@chiakokhua) June 15, 2020

More evidence that Ryzen 4000 might not get here until next year is today's launch of the refreshed Ryzen 3000XT chips. The three refreshed processors don’t have an increased core/thread count, but their clock speeds have been given a boost, offering AMD more options for taking on Comet Lake.

“AMD is extending its life cycle, and definitely will not be launching the next-gen Ryzen 4000 series, based on Zen3 architecture and using TSMC's 7nm EUV process, in Sep.,” states the translated report.

There’s also mention of the Ryzen 4000 Vermeer series of desktop CPUs being built on TSMC’s 5nm process, rather than 7nm. This isn't the first time we've heard these rumors, but it seems highly unlikely this will happen, as shown by the company's own roadmap (below).

AMD has on several occasions said that Zen 3 and RDNA 2 will arrive later this year, but some believe that the company’s new architecture could arrive in its Epyc processors first, with the desktop variants coming later. And with Intel’s 10nm Alder Lake reportedly not launching until next year at the earliest, AMD won’t feel the need to rush out the Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs, giving it more time to perfect the processors.

Will mass production of the Zen 3 desktop chips begin at the end of 2020, followed by a CES reveal? It would be a shock if the report turns out to be accurate, but AMD could still surprise us.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/85647-ryzen-4000-desktop-cpus-not-arriving-until-2021.html

 

[Lounds]

They probably don't need to when they can milk the 3000 series longer and make more profit.

 

[veLa]

I'm actually okay with that as a strategic business decision. The Ryzen 3000 series has really impressed and with the recent stop-gap addition of the 'XT' chips, AMD can definitely hold off on releasing the next generation.

 

[Lionvibez]

I believe we will see Vermeer first in epic then maybe a end of year launch for desktop with availability in q1 2021.

 

[Vrmithrax]

I'm on the fence. I understand throttling back the product launch a little bit to let the 3000 series chip sales keep churning along. But, I also feel like this is the time for AMD to really push dominance before Intel potentially brings any real competition to the table.

I mean, we're finally starting to see wider adoption of mainstream placement of AMD processors and chipsets in large OEMs and product areas that Intel typically dominated (and I mean DOMINATED). Why not bring the heat with even more power, while still allowing for those 3000 series chips to flesh out the more budget-minded builds (or the ones already in the pipeline with the big OEMs)? Particularly in the desktop arena, if the 3000 units are being slapped on a 400 or higher series mobo that can handle the 4000 series already, the computers in the manufacturing stage now are already upgrade ready, right? It's not like an old "Intel CPU upgrade - scrap the motherboard, you need a new socket" situation for moving up to the 4000. Beyond the 4000 is probably another discussion, since we almost didn't get support for them with the 400 series chipsets...

Like I said, I'm on the fence. Like to see AMD building up profits from the 3000 series, but would hate to have them miss a window for more industry growth with a dominant shiny new processor.

 

[wiyosaya]

If AMD is delaying the 4000 series, I would not be happy. However, I would be surprised if AMD will take sIntel for granted unless they are willing to risk that sIntel will catch them off-guard again like the Core 2 days.

 

[CBTex]

It's a little disappointing if is getting delayed, but if the delay is so Ryzen 4000 can be on 5 nm, then it is worth it. Zen 3 on 5 nm should bring an impressive increase in performance.

Either way, I don't blame AMD for trying to make money. They had a lot of lean years to make up for.

 

[Lionvibez]

If AMD is delaying the 4000 series, I would not be happy. However, I would be surprised if AMD will take sIntel for granted unless they are willing to risk that sIntel will catch them off-guard again like the Core 2 days.

That wont happen intel is atleast 1 years out from a band new uarch.

 

[SpenReyn]

Gordon over at PC World said in a live stream that his sources say it's false and they're on track to launch end of the year this year.

 

[ruddevil]

Could it be delayed because of the production cap ceiling that AMD has finally hit? Their desktop CPUs have been selling in droves and now their Renoir mobile CPUs are following suit. The business sense here is to delay zen 3 and allow their partners to build and sell those notebooks, by supplying more of the APUs. Especially now that we know current Intel's mobile offering has no clear advantage over AMD's (look at all the discounts on Intel based notebooks, even the 10th gen ones!), AMD needs to deliver to gain rep amongst the notebook builders, otherwise they will always prioritise Intel designs. And we are still waiting for a high end ultra portable units based on AMD Renoir. The ones out so far have been underwhelming on aspects such as screen quality or storage speed. And on the desktop side, ryzen 3 3300x availability has been testing buyer's patience.

 

[Rjmachine]

I'm actually okay with that as a strategic business decision. The Ryzen 3000 series has really impressed and with the recent stop-gap addition of the 'XT' chips, AMD can definitely hold off on releasing the next generation.

Not much stop-gap about the XT models, when all-core clocks are exactly the same.