There are a few of us AMD fanboys who have been in hibernation over the past years especially since Intel took the reigns back with their core2 line of processors, but that’s all about to change. Information has been leaked about AMD’s upcoming CPU architecture, and it seems that Zen may be one heck of a powerhouse!
Rumors are pointing to the new Zen CPU’s having 16 cores, a full GPU alongside the CPU that has HBM memory, a new technology similar to Hyperthreading as well as DDR4 support. This could mean that the 16 core AMD CPU could have 32 threads! This is incredible and puts Intel’s recent 8-core 16 thread CPU to shame if the information leaked is of any substance.
The GPU on AMDs new CPUs probably will vary, but one thing in particular that they are supposedly all going to have is HBM- High Bandwidth Memory. This is a new kind of ā3Dā memory that performs significantly better than GDDR5 does and has much more capacity.
Perhaps we could see these new Zen APU’s have upwards of 8 Gbs of ram- for the GPU alone! For once, an APU seems like it could be a serious powerhouse of a chip that gives Intel a serious run for their money – rather than a good budget CPU, but not very good for enthusiasts.
Lets just hope that these CPUs are intended for enthusiast grade hardware – because if these 16 core CPUs are meant for servers then they will be very, very expensive!
Pricing on the Zen CPU’s has yet to be leaked or released yet, but based off of what AMD has done in previous generations it is likely that the highest end CPU will be in the $800 to $900 range, and that the rest of the lineup will fall somewhere below that. If this is true, AMD could come ahead in the CPU game again something they have not done since Athlon XP+ and Athlon 64 days! While Intel products have reigned supreme lately, it would be nice to see healthy competition between AMD and Intel again for competition is always good for the consumer!
Lastly- these are rumors and leaked information so while this could be what AMD has planned, it could also be entirely wrong so keep an eye on AMD to see what they have planned. I for one hope that these rumors are at least somewhat true so that there can be competition between Intel and AMD again!.
What do you think about the rumor? Do you think this is the point where AMD makes a return? Let us know in the comments.
