MSI Nearly Verifies “Zen 6” Will Arrive at Socket AM5
The AMD 800-series chipset motherboards from MSI will “be ready for future CPUs,” according to a representative who declined to provide their identity when asked if they support “Zen 6.” The motherboard manufacturer’s near-confirmation that AMD is preparing its Ryzen “Olympic Ridge” desktop processor for Socket AM5 is the first of its kind. Similar to how AMD launched three microarchitectures for its prior Socket AM4, this would make “Zen 6” the socket’s third microarchitecture.
Like all AMD Ryzen desktop processors dating back to the Ryzen 3000 series, “Olympic Ridge” will be a chiplet-based processor. With AMD anticipated to boost CPU core counts per CCD for the first time in all these generations, they are anticipated to have “Zen 6” cores in CPU complex dies (CCDs) based on the 2 nm TSMC N2 process. A new client I/O die (cIOD), most likely based on the 4 nm TSMC N4P node, is also anticipated to be introduced by the chip. It will have a substantially lower TDP than the existing one, which is based on 6 nm, and a redesigned set of DDR5 memory controllers that can enable faster speeds. Despite this, AMD is reportedly developing a far more recent desktop socket, the new AM6, which has over 2,100 pins. “Zen 7” is probably going to be made for this socket.
