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AMD Strikes Back with RDNA2 and Zen 3

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AMD Strikes zen3

As of the writing of this article (Oct 28, 2020) AMD has had their press releases showcasing their new Zen3 Ryzen 5000 processors and their new RDNA2 GPUs, affectionately dubbed “Big Navi” by the community.

Early leaked benchmarks of the 5000 series processors put them in striking distance of Intel’s top performing CPUs in gaming performance. This is huge due to Intel dominating the gaming performance sector of the market for the past 10 years due to their overwhelming single core performance numbers.

Well AMD has always had better multi-core performance so they started focusing on single core numbers. This not only will improve their performance in lightly threaded workloads, but with each core performing better individually there will also be improvements to multi-threaded workloads as well, making Zen3 a strong choice for workstations and gaming systems.

We obviously do not have third party reviews or testing yet due to neither product being released at this time and embargo still in effect for press reviews. However, the early information we’ve seen from AMD and from leaked testing are very promising for both products. For example the latest information on the top of the line 5950X has it beating Intel’s current flagship, the 10900K, in single threaded performance.

This may not seem like a huge deal, however the score that the 5950X beat is rumored to be the 10900K overclocked with LN2 exotic cooling to reach those levels. Even if that is not the case, the lead is impressive. Especially considering that the new Zen3 product that is matching the 10900K on these leaked tests is the Ryzen 5 5600X. Considering that the 10900K is a 10Core/20Thread processor, while the 5600X is a 6Core/12Thread processor, these rumors are substantial if they hold water.

As for RDNA2 cards, they are also looking promising from what AMD has shown. With RDNA2 toting a 60FPS or greater experience at 4K resolution even on the lowest cost option. AMD will be releasing three versions of their RDNA2 cards, all featuring 16GB GDDR6 memory, and 4K capability. These cards will also feature a new technology that boosts performance even more when paired with their new 5000 series CPU and X500 or B500 motherboard chipsets. All of this performance at only 300W of power draw or less. AMD is making sure that Q4 2020 is a good ending to a not so great year.

I for one will be waiting for individual reviews from multiple sources to either confirm or debunk these rumors. If they hold true, I will most likely be abandoning my wait for a DDR5 system and building a system that features an AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU and RX6000 GPU. With hopes of an AM4+ style socket that will allow adopters of the Zen3 5000 series to take advantage of that new memory and chipset features. Release dates for both have been announced with the CPU lineup launching November 5th, and the GPU lineup launching November 18th. With the flagship 6900XT card launching a month later on December 8th.

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