AMD reveals its new CPU core roadmap leading up to 2024

AMD has revealed a new roadmap for its CPU cores that lead up to 2024. This was shown at the company’s Financial Analysts Day 2022 presentation which also included more info on its RDNA 3 GPU chiplets and Zen 4 CPU cores performance estimates. The CPU cores roadmap reveals plans by AMD to introduce 4nm and 3nm Zen 5 CPUs into the market by 2024.

It wasn’t long ago that AMD unveiled its new line of AM5 motherboards to be used with Zen 4 CPUs. The increase in performance from the company’s next generation of processors is exciting to think about, let alone whatever comes after that. And the roadmap highlights some interesting information about what we can expect.

A rundown of AMD’s CPU roadmap

The first interesting aspect to make note of in this CPU roadmap is how AMD plans to segment and uplift the performance of each architecture. For Zen 3, you can see both the original release, next to the 3D V-Cache variant. For Zen 4, there will also be a standard release, followed by a V-Cache refresh. This will be followed by something dubbed “Zen 4c”. It’s the same case for Zen 5 CPUs, which will feature a standard release, a V-Cache refresh, and another called “Zen 5c”.

The Zen 4c CPUs will be “the highest performance server processors for cloud native computing.” These processors will also have “double the container density of 3rd Gen EPYC processors.” And it’s also worth noting that Zen 4 CPUs will have 5nm cores, but there will apparently be some type of node change since the roadmap also lists 4nm variants. It’s a similar case for Zen 5, where both 4nm and 3nm cores are listed.

(Image credit: AMD)

The ‘c’ cores are specifically engineered toward cloud native computing. It’s unlikely that users without the need for that sort of hardware will have to consider it as an option. Instead, the standard Zen 4 and ‘V-Cache’ models will be cater towards a more standard user base. And as we’ve seen with 3D V-Cache in the past, the performance increase is certainly noticeable. AMD’s new CPU core roadmap certainly illustrates an interesting couple of years for the company.

AMD plans to release Zen 5 by 2024

AMD didn’t reveal too much about what we can expect from Zen 5 CPUs in this roadmap. However, AMD said Zen 5 will be a bigger improvement than Zen 4. One indicator hinted by AMD is that  it will be on an “All-new microarchitecture.” This suggests that Zen 5 won’t just feature improvements over Zen 4. Instead, AMD could offer something much bigger.

AMD mentioned that Zen 5 is “built from the ground up to deliver performance and efficiency leadership across a broad range of workloads.” It was also mentioned that Zen 5 “includes optimizations for AI and machine learning,” which suggests task-specific accelerators could be in the design. Beyond that, it’s hard to say exactly what we can expect from Zen 5 CPUs, but it all seems exciting. The roadmap for AMD’s new CPU cores is quite vague when it comes to exact dates, but the company has managed to execute on most of its commitments in recent years, so these timelines will presumably not be delayed.

(Image credit: AMD)

With that said, the roadmap for AMD’s new CPU core lineup is poised to be exciting. The first wave of Zen 4 CPUs will release later this year, followed by the V-Cache refresh which should strongly benefit gamers. We can then look forward to Zen 5, which will be on the same AM5 socket for those who want to reuse their same motherboards with the faster CPUs. Further details are sure to make the rounds as time goes on, so be sure to stay tuned for that.