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AMD has confirmed three Zen 4-powered products across 2022 and 2023 in a roadmap produced during the company’s Q1 2022 financial results.
While this year’s Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 launch details remain unclear – leaving us looking towards a second-half-of-2022 ballpark for release – we do know what some of the future holds for the Zen 4 architecture. AMD’s ‘Raphael’ CPUs will reach desktops this year, and 2023 should be very healthy for mobile gaming, with AMD promising next-level laptop performance.
Here’s what you need to know.
AMD Zen 4 ‘Raphael’ Enthusiast CPUs For Desktop
AMD’s Raphael will mark the first arrival of Zen 4 CPUs, delivering next-generation Ryzen tech to enthusiast desktop systems later this year.
Raphael CPUs will deliver both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies – making use of AMD’s upcoming AM5 socket – and the 5nm chips will have a TDP of 65W and up. Core and thread counts are yet to be confirmed, although for Raphael CPUs we may expect a 16-core, 32-thread combination based on its hierarchy in AMD’s processor range.
AMD Zen 4 ‘Dragon Range’ APUs – Extreme Laptop Gaming
AMD is looking to be nothing less than “the number one choice for mobile gaming dominance” in 2023, and it’s backing its ‘Dragon Range’ APUs to provide just that. Previously speculated to be ‘Raphael-H’, AMD’s ‘Dragon Range’ is pegged to deliver performance for the Extreme Gaming Latpop market, and what AMD is calling the “pinnacle of gaming performance’.
Also bringing DDR5 RAM and PCIe 5.0 support (native to Zen 4), the Dragon Range will be housed in laptops greater than 20mm in size and be 55W TDP and up. Again, there are no core or thread specs to be confirmed, but AMD has said both specs will be the highest ever for a mobile gaming processor.
So 16 cores and 32 threads could well be what we’ll see in the Dragon Range next year.
AMD Zen 4 ‘Phoenix’ APUs – Thin And Light Gaming Laptops
More new APUs for 2023 will come with AMD’s Phoenix APUs, to make use of AMD’s Zen 4 and RDNA3 graphics cores (the successor to RDNA 2), focused on performance for thin and light laptops of less than 20mm in size.
AMD’s Ryzen 700 Phoenix APUs will provide PCIe 5.0 and LPDDR5 technologies and require 35-45W TDP, as you’d expect for thin and light gaming laptops high on efficiency and lower on power draw.
An 8-core, 16 thread match-up may be expected from Phoneix, but AMD is yet to confirm the core and thread counts for any Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 products.
We’ll keep you updated as soon as we find out more, but it’s safe to say AMD has big plans for Zen 4 performance in 2022 and 2023.