AMD’s highly anticipated Zen 5 CPUs could launch late this year, closely following Intel’s Arrow Lake release – which could spell trouble for Team Blue and push AMD further towards hard-earned desktop supremacy in the best processor rankings.
Chinese tech outlet UDN reports that AMD’s Zen 5 CPU will be in mass production in the third quarter of this year, noting that the flagship Zen 5 chips will be manufactured on 4nm process nodes. This is quite a shift from the previous Zen 4 generation CPUs that were built on a 5nm process, which could mean much better performance in the long run.
This new supposed timeline is contradictory previous rumors suggesting the CPUs could already be in productionHowever, the end of year launch now seems to be consistent in the rumor mill, giving us hope that we’ll see these new CPUs sooner rather than later – some older rumors even suggested we might not see the Zen 5 until 2025 .
According to the new leak, the new CPU architecture will likely be desktop-first and aimed at enthusiasts and gamers who like to build and customize their own PCs. This means it’s entirely possible we won’t see the Zen 5 architecture on any laptops at least until next year. Fortunately, if you’re currently running on a Zen 4 chip (one of the Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs), you won’t need to upgrade your motherboard, as the new chips will use the same AM5 socket. However, if you are using an older motherboard (or an Intel model), be prepared to purchase a new motherboard in addition to a new CPU.
A race to the market
Why is it important that AMD and Intel have similar launch dates? AMD’s focus on these new chips is on improving performance: the Zen 5 will be similar to the Zen 4, but faster thanks to the more refined 4nm process, giving you superior performance. So if AMD can get its next-gen product to market before Intel, more people will be swayed by the promise of better performance and buy the Zen 5 processor first – potentially giving AMD a bigger share of the desktop CPU market is secured. .
And if the rumors are true and we won’t see laptops equipped with the Zen 5 until much later (probably at CES or Computex in 2025), we could see AMD taking its time to learn from the desktop launch and taking advantage of the times between then and the release of the laptop chip.
Although both companies probably want to bring their own next-gen chips to the market first, they also don’t want to bring a half-baked product to the market. AMD and Intel have a short period between now and their respective launch dates to perfect their products as much as possible before they go into full-scale production – because if someone were to release a really poorly manufactured product, they would ultimately lose the race before it even got there began.