Huge Leaks Reveal AMD's Ryzen 3000 Series: Up To 16 Cores And 5.1GHz Frequencies

A huge amount of information relating to AMD's 2019 plans with its 7nm Zen 2 Ryzen CPUs appears to have been leaked online, revealing 16-core models and boost frequencies up to 5.1GHz.

I've speculated before that Zen 2 will see core count increases for AMD not just with its EPYC 2 CPUs, which has already been announced, but with desktop Ryzen and most likely Threadripper too.

The information revealed on the AdoredTV YouTube channel, claims there could be two 16-core, 32-thread CPUs, called the Ryzen 9 3850X and Ryzen 9 3800X with the former offering a boost frequency of up to 5.1GHz according to the information. However, the pricing that has been alleged is eye-popping too - just $499 for the flagship 16-core CPU.

The low end Ryzen 3 3300 also sees the minimum core count rise to six, with similar specifications to current Ryzen 5 CPUs such as the 2600, but will cost just $99. Even more interestingly for those on tight budgets, the Ryzen 5 3600G, which will feature 8 cores and 16 threads, has on-board Navi graphics with 20 compute units too, potentially making it a handy 1080p gaming product, especially as it looks set to retail for less than $200.

You can see more in the table above, which as usual with leaks this early on before the expected launch next year, should be taken with a sizeable pinch of salt. However, we knew core count increases with Ryzen were extremely likely given what AMD has already done with 7nm EPYC 2 and with Intel's Core i9-9900K currently dominating the mainstream, AMD would have needed at least 12-core CPUs to overtake it, and likely more to deal with a supposed 10-core Intel mainstream CPU, which has been rumored. Using its chiplet design to allow for two 8-core dies to be placed side-by-side could allow AMD to offer up to 16 cores, which would not just overtake the Core i9-9900K in multi-threaded workloads, but would likely see off a bunch of cheaper high-end desktop CPUs too.

We were expecting higher frequencies with Zen 2, and the 5.1GHz supposedly on offer with the Ryzen 9 3850X would offer a sizeable boost to lightly-threaded performance as well, which is an area Intel still enjoys an advantage, albeit one that has already shrunk thanks to improvements with AMD's 2nd generation Ryzen CPUs. Even if a half of what the leaked information reveals is true, AMD is looking set to have a very strong 2019 and Intel's Core i9-9900K - currently the fastest desktop CPU by a long way - will seem like a distant memory. I'll be covering all the latest AMD and Intel news so be sure to follow me on the usual outlets below.