AMD has 5nm Zen 4 on track for 2021

AMD has 5nm Zen 4 on track for 2021

AMD has a lot of exciting new products planned for later this year, including its Zen 3 desktop CPUs, Zen 2 APUs, and its RDNA 2 graphics cards. That's going to mean increased competition with both Intel and Nvidia, and should shake up the CPU and GPU markets significantly.

But that doesn't mean that it isn't planning what comes next. While this year's new hardware will reportedly make use of TSMC's EUV 7nm+ process node, AMD has confirmed it's on track to release Zen 4 CPUs in 2021 based on the next-generation 5nm process. RDNA3 will make its appearance that same year too, though it's not yet clear if it will launch on 5nm. AMD has said it will be based on an "Advanced Node".

Zen 4 CPUs will make their first appearance in the latter half of 2021 in the form of Epyc Genoa server processors. The process node drop alone should guarantee a sizeable increase in performance, as it will reportedly deliver an 80 percent improvement in transistor density, equating to at least an 18 percent performance improvement alone. Combined with enhancements in the Zen architecture's development, building off of the success of Zen 3 (which is slated to be the largest increase in AMD CPU capability since the original Zen release) we could see Zen 4 be an absolute world beater. Especially if AMD sees fit to increase core counts once again on its high-end CPUs.

RDNA3 is much more nebulous at this time, especially since we know so little about RDNA2. But as the desktop GPUs and console APUs approach in the coming months, we'll be able to address its potential far more readily.