As we're a few days away from Computex 2024, the first screenshots and single-threaded benchmark score (via HXL) of an alleged Ryzen 9000 (Granite Ridge) processor have surfaced. Many expect AMD to announce the new Zen 5 chips at the Taiwan event, which will compete with the best CPUs currently on the market.
The Zen 5 chip is somewhat mysterious, as the user who posted the screenshot on the Baidu Tieba community intentionally pixelated many of the processor's specifications. Nonetheless, CPU-Z does confirm that the chip is from the Granite Ridge family and resides on the existing AM5 socket. The engineering sample has a TDP of 170W, suggesting it's likely a mid-to-high-end SKU. The Zen 5 processor shows as model number 100-000001290, a previously surfaced number.
Assuming that the last two digits of the OPN are "11" (they're blurred out), the Zen 5 processor should be the same 100-000001290-11_N engineering sample that appeared in the wild last year. If so, the chip should be an 8-core configuration with 16 threads. That means we're likely looking at a Ryzen 7 9700X, the direct replacement for the existing Ryzen 7 7700X. On the flip side, what stands out from the CPU-Z screenshot is the 170W TDP. Assuming AMD could maintain the 170W TDP target on the top chips, this could be a Ryzen 9 9950X or a Ryzen 9 9900X.
The leaker claims that the Zen 5 processor had a boost clock speed of 5.8 GHz, the highest we've seen from a mainstream Ryzen chip. For comparison, the Ryzen 9 7950X, the current flagship, has the top boost clock speed of 5.7 GHz, so we're looking at a 100 MHz improvement on the unidentified Zen 5. The leaker also stated that the "non-X3D chip easily takes out Zen 4's X3D" but didn't provide cache-sensitive or gaming benchmarks to corroborate those claims.
AMD Ryzen 9000 Zen 5 Granite Ridge Benchmarks
Scores for the other processors are from CPU-Z's benchmark database.
As always, we recommend caution before reading too much into any leaked benchmarks. The leaker used an engineering sample, so it doesn't have the exact specifications of the retail sample. Also, note that CPU-Z's benchmark isn't the best metric for comparing processor performance. It's not the end-all, be-all benchmark on which to base any final judgments.
The Zen 5 chip reportedly delivers 18.6% higher single-threaded performance over the Ryzen 9 7950X. The improvement looks believable since the transition from Zen 3 to Zen 4 showed a similar margin (18.5%) in single-threaded performance.
What may be alarming for some is that although Zen 5 shows a significant improvement over Zen 4, it doesn't seem to surpass the competition — at least in single-threaded performance. The Zen 5 engineering sample was right up there with the previous Core i9-13900K, but it lags behind the newer Core i9-14900K, which produced a 3.5% higher single-threaded score.
It's worth remembering that AMD's single-threaded performance has traditionally trailed behind Intel's offerings, particularly when speaking of the Alder Lake 12th Gen and Raptor Lake 13th/14th Gen parts that have a hybrid architecture. Closing the gap on single-threaded performance, even if it's still a few percent slower, would be a big deal. We're anticipating 12-core and 16-core Ryzen 9000-series CPUs, which could certainly give Intel's current champion some difficult competition. Then again, we're also expecting Intel Arrow Lake CPUs to arrive later this year, which is where the real challenge will be.
AMD's CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, will deliver Computex 2024's opening keynote, during which she will share details on AMD's "next generation of high-performance PC, data center, and AI solutions." Although the chipmaker never explicitly mentions Zen 5, we'll likely (hopefully) see an official announcement. Retail availability, however, may not come until July or later.
