One of the more frequent rumors in recent weeks has been that AMD would have some new Ryzen 3000 processors to launch. Today AMD is announcing three new processors into the Ryzen 3000 family, each with the XT name, offering higher frequencies and further filling out the their CPU product stack. Each of these processors will be available on shelves in primary regions on July 7th.

The new 3000XT family of processors focuses mostly on boosting the turbo frequency by 100-200 MHz for the same power. AMD states that this is due to using an optimized 7nm manufacturing process. This is likely due to a minor BKM or PDK update that allows TSMC/AMD to tune the process for a better voltage/frequency curve and bin a single CPU slightly higher. 

An update in this range could be indicative of a ~10 mV better voltage for a single core, although this would normally be in the binning noise - for it to be statistically relevant would need a lot of CPUs, so this could just be better binning. However, base frequencies haven’t moved much, so performance-per-watt benefits are going to be somewhat minimal. The biggest uptick would be in 1T scenarios.

Each of the new XT processors is the highest speed variant of its respective class.

AMD 'Matisse' Ryzen 3000 Series CPUs
AnandTech Cores
Threads
Base
Freq
Boost
Freq
L3
Cache
PCIe
4.0
TDP Price
(SEP)
Ryzen 9 3950X 16C 32T 3.5 4.7 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $749
Ryzen 9 3900XT 12C 24T 3.8 4.7 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $499
Ryzen 9 3900X 12C 24T 3.8 4.6 4x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $499
Ryzen 9 3900 12C 24T 3.1 4.3 4x16 MB 16+4+4 65W OEM
Ryzen 7 3800XT 8C 16T 3.9 4.7 2x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $399
Ryzen 7 3800X 8C 16T 3.9 4.5 2x16 MB 16+4+4 105W $399
Ryzen 7 3700X 8C 16T 3.6 4.4 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $329
Ryzen 5 3600XT 6C 12T 3.8 4.5 2x16 MB 16+4+4 95W $249
Ryzen 5 3600X 6C 12T 3.8 4.4 2x16 MB 16+4+4 95W $249
Ryzen 5 3600 6C 12T 3.6 4.2 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $199
Ryzen 5 3500X 6C 6T 3.6 4.1 2x16 MB 16+4+4 65W OEM
Ryzen 3 3300X 4C 8T 3.8 4.3 1x16 MB 16+4+4 65W $120
Ryzen 3 3100 4C 8T 3.6 3.9 2x8 MB 16+4+4 65W $99

Users should note that the prices listed are official SEP (Suggested Etailer Price). In March, AMD did announce a temporary AMD-focused price drop, but that has since passed. Retailer pricing will vary with local sales practices.

The top new processor is the Ryzen 9 3900XT which offers +100 MHz turbo over the 3900X, for the same official price as the 3900X. The 3800XT offers +200 MHz on single core turbo over the 3800X for the same price. The final new processor is the 3600XT, with +100 MHz on the turbo frequency, again for the same price over the 3600X.

In each three cases, the XT processors give slightly better frequency than the X units, so we should expect to see an official permanent price drop on the X processors in order to keep everything in line.

AMD’s announcement today also includes information about thermal solutions. The Ryzen 5 3600XT, with six cores, will come bundled with AMD’s Wraith Spire cooler. For the other two CPUs, AMD’s own press release states that the company ‘is recommending the use of an AIO solution with a minimum 280mm radiator or equivalent air cooling to experience these products at their best’. This does seem somewhat overkill for 105 W processors, especially if the package power tracking on these parts should be ~142 watts, notwithstanding any trickery that the motherboard manufacturers are doing.

These new processors will be supported in any motherboard that already supports Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 hardware (the cost in BIOS space to add a CPU of the same family is negligible). Retail for these parts is expected on July 7th, 2020. Which happens to be 7/7, a year to the day that AMD launched 7nm Zen 2.

A520 Motherboards

Supplementary to today’s announcement on processors is a few words on a new chipset from AMD. The new A520 chipset is designed to be the budget option below B550, and will be set to replace A320 in this market, with a focus on supporting the Ryzen 3000 CPUs and newer.

Specifications on A520 are going to be announced at a later date, with a full launch from board partners due in August. We suspect that A520 will mirror A320, probably with the same PCIe 2.0 support from the chipset to keep costs and power down. More information as it comes.

StoreMI 2.0

Also in AMD’s bucket of news is an update to StoreMI. AMD launched its first generation Zen product with a new software package designed to help users streamline the co-dependence of small fast drives with large slow mechanical drives, and perhaps a super-fast bit of DDR in there as well. In April 2020, the company announced that it would be halting the distribution of the StoreMI software, presumably indicating that its relationship with Enmotus, the company behind the feature, was coming to an end. In that news, AMD stated it was working on an internal tool to replace StoreMI. The new StoreMI 2.0 would appear to be AMD’s in-house design.

We’ve asked for more details on StoreMI, however we were told that more information will be disclosed at a later date. This might be a preparatory announcement for the software, and we might expect to see a fuller launch with next-generation Ryzen.

To Sum Up

  • New AMD Ryzen 3000XT CPUs on July 7th. This is likely the review embargo date as well.
  • New AMD A520 Chipsets in August. More detail to come.
  • New StoreMI 2.0 (at some point).

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  • Deicidium369 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    I haven't play an AAA release in years. Indie games like Opus Magnum and the dual stick shooter Nex Machina have more play time on this PC than any other games... Recently downloaded Evil Genius (bought it when it was new) and looks like alot of the bugs were fixed. Also have been playing The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing HD - Final Cut - missed it when it was current.

    Not every game is great - most of the Sony and MS console releases are flashy with little gameplay involved - shiny images for the kiddies..
  • littlebitstrouds - Friday, July 3, 2020 - link

    Someone using a name from an ivy league school complaining about the status quo seems ironic to me. It's almost like you don't know how to find anything that isn't mainstream...
  • Deicidium369 - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    I am willing to bet you, mister adult, have an embarrassing collection of manga for little girls
  • Santoval - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    It's really not.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    Nobody games at 720p. Almost nobody buying a premium system games at 1080p, either.
  • umano - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    Even intel can crunch a few more frames, it does it consuming way more power. Considering how many cpu are on this planet and the environmental cost of electricity, only an idiot buys intel now if not strictly necessary. Why anyone should waste so much power
  • umano - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    Even if
  • Santoval - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    Because games are better optimized for Intel CPUs, since these are the CPUs developers assume most gamers have (a chicken & egg scenario). It will not matter with Zen 3 though. Optimization or not it is going to surpass all Skylake derivatives, even in games.

    Rocket Lake might be a bit faster, but due to the old node its power efficiency will be atrocious (it will probably require 2 - 3 times the TDP of Zen 3 to beat it), particularly if Intel pushes its clocks beyond the limits of its μarch and process node. Both performance and efficiency will come in the form of Alder Lake (Golden Cove cores and Gen13 iGPU, i.e. the second gen of Xe).

    But I doubt this is going to be released before Q1 2022 - Q4 2021 if all the gods of the Earth give Intel their blessing. It is going to compete against Zen 4, which will be fabbed at 5nm and its AVX block will be upgraded to AVX-512, which will negate Intel's edge on the (still very few) programs that make use of this AVX variant. Oh, Zen 4 will also increase cores again (Zen 3 will not), so Intel can say goodbye to any multi-core performance lead.

    By the way, Intel have not fully sorted their 10nm process node issues. They are still unable to fab 10nm parts in high volume. Ice Lake was/is low volume, and the same is expected for Tiger Lake (hence the reason for the existence of Rocket Lake). They *hope* to reach HVM of 10nm by the time Alder Lake is to be fabbed, i.e. in a year or so from now.
  • Santoval - Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - link

    p.s. Tiger Lake will also have a higher performance 8-core -H variant, not only -U and -Y like Ice Lake which are limited to 4 cores due to low yields. So I guess rather than low volume Intel might manage *mid* volume manufacturing with Tiger Lake. Instead of 1 Ice Lake laptop for each 4 Comet Lake laptops (at best, I might be too generous) that hit the market we might have 1 Tiger Lake laptop for each 2 Comet/Rocket/other(?) Lake laptops.
  • TristanSDX - Tuesday, June 16, 2020 - link

    definitely not. Zen2 refresh is not any investment into Zen 2, which would be indicator for Zen 3 delay

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