Whispers from Chinese forums have revealed the possible launch dates for AMD and Intel’s next-gen processors. Going by the roadmaps of the two chipmakers, 2022 is going to be a very busy year. From Team Red, we’re looking at the Zen 3D-based Ryzen 5000 XT and Epyc Milan-X CPUs in the first half, followed by the Zen 4 based Ryzen 6000 and Epyc Genoa in the second half of the year. The company will also launch the first chiplet-based graphics architecture for gamers in the form of RDNA 3 based Navi 31/33 dies.
Zen 3D, Renoir-X, Zen 4
According to the source from the Chiphell forums, AMD will launch a Zen 2 based refresh for the desktop market, codenamed Renoir-X. It’s unclear how it’ll be different from the vanilla Renoir SKUs, but these are primarily aimed at the budget segment, presently dominated by Intel’s 11th Core i3s and the Core i5-11400F. Furthermore, the iGPU will reportedly be disabled across the board. The primary specifications are likely going to be the same as the original Renoir parts, with increased boost clocks and aggressive pricing.
After this, we’ll get a first look at the Zen 3D (V-Cache) consumer processors at CES 2022. This mid-cycle refresh is slated to arrive in late Feb or early March. Followed by Zen 3D we have the Zen 4-based Ryzen 6000 processors in late July/early August along with the X670 motherboards. The budget B650 motherboards will arrive a month later. These CPUs will come with support for PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 memory. DDR4 memory won’t be supported.
In the server segment, we’re looking at Milan-X in the first quarter of 2022 (with nearly 1GB of stacked L3 cache), and Genoa with up to 96 cores across 12 CCDs in the second half of the year.
Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake and Sapphire Rapids-X
On Intel’s side, we’ve got the entry-level and lower-end Alder Lake-S processors slated for a launch around CES 2022, along with the Alder Lake-P (mobile) family. The chipmaker will also launch its Arc “Alchemist” graphics cards in the first quarter of 2022. This will be followed up with the launch of the Sapphire Rapids-X lineup (in July/August), Intel’s first HEDT platform in years. According to rumors, this platform will be renamed to “Xeon Workstation” processors. (Zolpidem) Like Alder Lake, Sapphire Rapids-X will also support DDR5 memory and the PCIe Gen 5 interface.
In August 2022, Intel will reveal its 13th Gen Raptor Lake-S processors to fend off AMD’s Zen 4 offerings. The Z790 chipset and motherboards will also be launched alongside. We’re likely to see the K-series SKUs first, followed by the non-K offerings after a month or two. According to the source, Alder Lake and Raptor Lake will be inter-compatible with each other’s chipsets (600/700 series).
It’s unclear what sort of core-level improvements will Raptor Lake bring to the table, but the IPC uplift should be minimal. In terms of multi-threaded performance, however, we should see a tangible upgrade with twice as many efficiency cores. The top-end Core i9 SKUs will get 8 performance cores and 16 efficiency cores, putting the overall core count at 24. AMD will have to have a fully enabled 3 CCD SKU to counter Intel’s 13th Gen flagship.
