From everything we’ve heard about AMD’s next-gen Ryzen 7000 processors, the core counts will remain unchanged with the R9 7950X maxing out at 16 cores and 32 threads. All the focus seems to be on the IPC and boost clocks, translating into leadership single-threaded and gaming performance. All the X series SKUs, including the Ryzen 5 7600X, Ryzen 7 7800X, and the Ryzen 9 7900X will boost over 5GHz across all cores, a first for the Zen family.
Contradicting existing sources, a Chinese retailer on Weibo has shared the specs sheet of the Ryzen 7000 lineup which includes a 24 core/48 thread variant. Till now, we’ve seen no evidence that such an SKU exists, but it’s possible that AMD is prepping an emergency flagship in case Raptor Lake ends up being a bit too “hot”. Keep in mind that Intel plans on doubling the efficiency core counts (8P + 16E = 24) on its 13th Gen processors which very well may beat Zen 4 in heavily multi-threaded content creation workloads, an area dominated by AMD CPUs for quite a while now.
A 24-core processor would require three 5nm Zen 4 CCDs which may be a tight fit for the AM5 package but should be possible as a specialized single-SKU design like the 5800X3D. The Ryzen 9 7900X/7950X is expected to feature an all-core boost clock of 5.2-5.6GHz, a smidge higher than the 5.2-5.4GHz planned for the octa-core Ryzen 7 7800X. A 24-core Ryzen 9 79xx would cost close to $1,000 and launch after the mainstream Ryzen 9 parts, most likely following the higher-end Raptor Lake SKUs.
