AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs are about to launch, and not Ryzen 4000, rumor insists

By Darren Allan 18 September 2020 Zen 3 desktop chips will jump to Ryzen 5000?

(Image credit: Future)

AMD’s next-gen Zen 3-based processors will be the Ryzen 5000 series – skipping the Ryzen 4000 name on the desktop – according to the latest gossip, and a couple of rumored incoming processors have been highlighted on Twitter. This comes from leaker Patrick Shur, who authored a tweet where he flags up the alleged AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X. Your first question might be: why skip Ryzen 4000 for desktop CPUs? Of course, we already have Ryzen 4000 mobile chips (and APUs), and these laptop chips have been around for some time now .

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So the theory is that Ryzen 5000 mobile might be out early in 2021 (rumor again has it), potentially not long after the new Zen 3-based desktop CPUs ( which will be revealed October 8 ), so switching them both to be named as the Ryzen 5000 family makes more sense (with desktop leading, followed by mobile and APUs). That’s just speculation, of course, although this rumor has been kicking about for a couple of weeks now. We’d still treat it with a whole heap of caution, though.

Core counts

The other interesting point is the 5900X sticking as 12-cores (as is the 3900X) and ditto for the 5800X remaining an 8-core CPU. That possibility isn’t so surprising given that AMD doesn’t really need to push with cores – there’s certainly no pressure from Intel there – and especially not if AMD is offering a huge architectural leap in performance with Zen 3, and faster clocks as is rumored . (Note that this new rumor indicates next-gen boost clocks may only be slightly higher – but boost will be more efficient, and sustainable for longer, which will obviously be an improvement anyway). It does, however, put paid to the idea that the 5800X might step up to 10-cores which is something floated on the CPU grapevine as a possibility in recent times; but all this is speculation meets speculation really, so we shouldn’t get too involved in that. There may still be a 10-core effort as rumored, of course, which could perhaps slot in as the 5850X – who knows…