AMD Ryzen 3000

3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Desktop Processor

July 7, 2019, could prove to be a seminal date in AMD's pursuit to become the leading manufacturer of CPUs and GPUs. Today is the day the chip giant unleashes not only its first 7nm Navi graphics cards, but also an entire range of 7nm Ryzen CPUs based on the evolutionary Zen 2 architecture.

The new parts, productised as Ryzen 3000 Series, arrive in five unique flavours at launch, ranging from the 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X ($499) to the 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 3600 ($199). Plenty to digest, so in this TekSpek we'll provide an overview of the architectural enhancements as well as detailed benchmarks showcasing real-world performance on AMD's latest Ryzen chips.

Firstly, let's take a broad look at the new line-up. Ryzen 9 3900X, available today, offers an incredible 12-core arrangement in a 105W package capable of speeds of up to 4.6GHz. Moving down the stack, the Ryzen 7 3800X and 3700X are both 8-core, 16-thread parts touting speeds of up to 4.5GHz and 4.4GHz, respectively, while the Ryzen 5 3600X and 3600 take a 6-core, 12-thread approach with speeds dialled-in at 4.4GHz and 4.2GHz apiece.

The move to 7nm has ensured higher speeds across the board when compared to previous-generation Ryzen 2000 Series parts, and it's incredible to see how much AMD has managed to pack into these relatively efficient CPUs. The 12-core 3900X carries only a 105W TDP, and the 8-core 3700X seems a stand-out choice given its low-power 65W design profile.

All five new additions officially support faster DDR4-3200 memory and are delivered in the same AM4 package to help maintain compatibility between generations. You might have noticed the 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X at the top of the table. This eye-catching 105W chip is certainly one to watch, but you will have to wait a while longer as while the other 3000 Series parts are available immediately, AMD's Ryzen 9 flagship won't be hitting retail until September.

Zen 2 Upgrades

More cores and higher speeds are of course just part of the Zen 2 formula. Under the hood, AMD has taken the time to enhance its second-generation Ryzen architecture, placing a key emphasis on improving IPC (instructions per clock) performance by as much as 15 per cent.

Helping achieve these targets, Zen 2 uses what is known as a TAGE branch predictor that carries a deeper branch history than its predecessor. This is augmented by larger branch-target buffers - the L1 BTB now supports 512 entries while the L2 BTB supports 7K - and in increase in MOP cache size to 4K. The transition to 7nm has afforded more space to larger pools of cache, and though Zen 2 continues to employ four ALUs, a third address generation unit (AGU) helps accelerate the calculation of memory addresses needed before grabbing data from memory. Continuing the more-is-better theme, Zen 2's integer rename space is also enlarged from 168 registers to 180.

Elsewhere, Zen 2 is now able to process AVX256 in one clock cycle - double that of original Zen - and L3 cache size has seen a 2x increase, climbing from 8MB to 16MB. More of seemingly everything has, as you might have guessed, been made possible by the 7nm process; the major gains in density result in a decrease in silicon area by almost half.

There's plenty happening within the CPUs themselves, but AMD also views this as a key opportunity to introduce a new chipset dubbed X570. Championing forward-looking features such as PCIe Gen 4, X570 is deemed the ultimate platform for a Ryzen 3000 Series processor, but to AMD's credit, the chips are backward compatible with existing boards depending on BIOS support from the manufacturer, so don't be in a hurry to throw out any X470 motherboards you happen to have lying around.

Performance

Benchmarks from leading review sites are eye-opening to say the least. AMD's Ryzen 9 3900X is price comparable to the Intel Core i9-9900K, while the Ryzen 7 3700X undercuts the Core i7-9700K ($329 vs. $399). You might expect each duo to be closely matched, but a greater number of cores and threads gives the Ryzen chips a clear advantage in the popular Cinebench test.

It is more of the same in Blender, with the Ryzen 9 3900X setting a new standard in the sub-$500 segment. Put all cores and threads to work and performance can be outstanding. Comparing between generations, we can ascertain that Ryzen 7 3700X is at least 20 per cent faster than a first-generation equivalent armed with the same number of cores.

One question mark surrounding the new Ryzen CPUs is whether or not AMD can close the IPC performance gap that has existed between Ryzen and Core processors. The initial signs are good, as while Intel still holds that lead, the difference has become negligible when gaming at a high resolution.

What's perhaps most fascinating is how efficient AMD's new 7nm CPUs really are. It is incredible to note that the Ryzen 9 3900X uses less power than a Core i9-9900K with four fewer cores, while the Ryzen 7 3700X tops the power draw chart.

Summary

They say third's time a charm, and we've no doubt in our minds; AMD Ryzen has truly come of age. The 3000 Series range, powered by an evolutionary Zen 2 architecture, set new standards for what is achievable via the widely available AM4 socket. These are the best all-round CPUs AMD has ever released, and a fine choice for gamers and content creators alike.

3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors are available to purchase right here at Scan Computers.