AMD Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” CPU Lag Rumors Are Piling Up, BIOS Is Main Culprit

AMD Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” processor and the respective AM5 platform does not appear to be going through a soft launch plan. Several rumors sprung up ahead of the August 29 unveiling indicating that the chips might face a short delay.

AMD Ryzen 7000 “Zen 4” Desktop Processors and AM5 Platform Are Delayed as BIOS Issues Pile Up

While AMD has confirmed it will host the official unveiling on August 29, actual sales won’t open for a few weeks or even a month later. Earlier we reported in our own exclusive that the launch could be delayed to September 27, the same day as the unveiling of the 13th Gen Intel Raptor Lake processor.

Now there are more rumors (I don’t know if even calling them a rumor is appropriate now given that these reports are from actual reviewers and also several insiders working closely with motherboard manufacturers who are aware of what’s going on) that the launch was indeed delayed and that AMD asked to sign a new NDA, more or less confirming the new date launch.

The following was posted by nApoleon, Technical Reviewer and Resident Editor of Chiphell in the forums:

One thing I want to make clear is that the August 29 event will be a “reveal” and not an actual “launch” which was always scheduled to take place in September. The the launch was previously scheduled for September 15 but that was just recently moved to September 27th. we now know that the main reason for this delay is related to the BIOS. Like every Zen generation, the BIOS has been a crucial part which sees various revisions for better CPU and memory support. This time, just like the AM4 platform, there will be multiple pre-launch and post-launch revisions.

So far we have heard that there have been at least 7 revisions of AGESA 1.0.0.1 BIOS in total, starting with patch A to patch G. The latest BIOS was released this month and the Things don’t go well with that one either.

Previously it was expected that motherboard vendors would release AGESA BIOS v1.0.0.1 Patch D with their motherboards at launch, but this no longer seems to be the case as the old BIOS is not sufficiently Optimized for AMD Ryzen 7000 processors and AM5 motherboard platform which also supports EXPO DDR5 memory. As such, there are reports that the official BIOS at launch will be v1.0.0.2 and we will also see future BIOS revisions moving forward.

For those wondering what these BIOS issues are related to, there are multiple revisions, each focusing on various optimizations, fixes, and support. The current SMU has been updated to 84.73 and supports 16- and 12-core AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, while the previous one added better OC capabilities for DDR5 memory.

The list is long but it is not specific to memory or processors. As mentioned before, the AGESA BIOS firmware will be updated in priority before and after the launch of the AM5 platform. So rather than start sales now and put users through a tedious BIOS update process, AMD has postponed the launch to a later date. date for a smoother and better first experience for users on their next-gen platform.

AMD Ryzen ‘Zen 4’ Desktop Processor Expected Features:

• Up to 16 Zen 4 cores and 32 threads
• Over 15% performance improvement in single-threaded applications
• New Zen 4 processor cores (IPC / architectural improvements)
• Brand New TSMC 5nm Process Node with 6nm IOD
• 25% performance-per-watt improvement over Zen 3
• > 35% overall performance improvement over Zen 3
• 8-10% improvement in instructions per clock (IPC) over Zen 3
• Supported on AM5 platform with LGA1718 socket
• New X670E, X670, B650E, B650 motherboards
• Dual channel DDR5 memory support
• Up to native DDR5-5600 (JEDEC) speeds
• 28 PCIe lanes (CPU exclusive)
• TDP 105-120W (upper limit range ~170W)

You can find all the details on AMD’s next-gen Ryzen 7000 desktop processors and respective 600-series motherboards in our comprehensive next-gen family roundup here.

AMD Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ Desktop Processor “Preliminary” Specs:

News source: video cardz