This month (in a few days) will see the long-awaited release of AMD Ryzen 9000 processors, which will bring the new Zen 5 architecture (the details of which we discussed in detail in this article) to the AM5 desktop socket. But it looks like some new models for the completely opposite market segment could also be added to them. So far, the AM5 platform starts at a much higher price than its predecessor AM4, but now it is said that other cheaper processors will be released, which should partially improve it.
The cheapest option currently available for the AM5 platform is the Ryzen 5 7500F (a cut-down chiplet model of the “Raphael” family with six Zen 4 cores, but no integrated graphics) or the Ryzen 5 8500G, which is a cut-down version of the 4nm Hawk Point APU with a hybrid a mix of Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores and with a basic integrated GPU. Their price is around four thousand crowns, with the 8500G model even slightly less. AMD also released a quad-core 8300G model, but it is not available for free sale. Hopes for lower prices were placed on the Ryzen 5 8400F model, but so far it sells for the same price or worse than the better-in-all 8500G model.
Ryzen 3 or Athlon for AM5 is said to be in preparation
But now it is said that there should be other models in preparation that could lower the price threshold, supposedly it should be some processors with a price lower than $100, which would mean with VAT the price below the level of roughly 2800 CZK / 111 €. This is what the Italian website Bits and Chips claims, but in an English version.
According to Bits And Chips, this is what AMD is currently planning, but this price range is not to be covered by any new chips, but by some derivatives of the existing ones. Allegedly, it should be a rebranding of some cheaper processors of the generation “Ryzen 7000 manufactured on the 7nm process”, which will create new models with a price below the $100 mark, which will probably bear the Ryzen 3 or Athlon brand (the latter has not yet been used on the AM5 platform).
The last commonly sold Athlon for socket AM4 still had the Zen architecture (one) and belonged to the 12nm APU Ryzen 3000G generation. Ahtlons 4000GE derived from Zen 2 and produced with 7nm technology were only available on the OEM market
However, Bits and Chips is probably wrong, at least in the determination of the chips that should become the basis of those Ryzen 3 or Athlons. AMD produced or produces only processors on the 7nm process, which cannot be adapted to the AM5 platform, as they do not support DDR5 memory, and the Ryzen 7000s are not produced on the 7nm process.
The first processors that would allow use in the AM5 socket are the mobile Ryzen 6000 “Rembrandt” already supporting DDR5. These are processors with the Zen 3 architecture, but already with integrated graphics of the RDNA 2 generation. This APU was manufactured on TSMC’s 6nm process, which is, however, a modified version of the 7nm technology. And it’s also true that AMD later rebranded them as notebook Ryzens 7735.
So it’s theoretically possible that the Bits and Chips report actually meant that AMD would release some low-cost desktop processors based on 6nm silicon from the Ryzen 7735 “Rembrandt” processors. It could probably be trimmed, so that instead of the full 8 Zen 3 cores and 512 shaders of the RDNA 2 architecture, only four to six cores and only part of the graphics units would be active. AMD could theoretically have various Rembrandt chips left over from the previous production of notebook processors with defects in the cores or graphic CUs, which could be used in the desktop by deactivating part of the chip.
The Rembrandt APU was never sold in a desktop version, and AMD eventually released Ryzen 8000G “Hawk Point” processors from the APU line for the AM5 socket already based on Zen 4 (and even on a refresh of the first Phoenix APU with Zen 4 cores). Why the company did not sell the desktop Rembrandt is unclear. Otherwise, it could probably come out as a Ryzen 6000G in due time, and such processors could be available as an option with more powerful integrated graphics on the AM5 platform from its start in 2022, instead of the APU being missing from the offer for a year and a half. We don’t know if it was a purely business decision, or if, for example, the Rembrandt chip is not compatible with desktop use in the AM5 socket for some reason. If the Bits and Chips report is confirmed and AMD really does now produce such a low-end Athlon or Ryzen (Ryzen 3 8100G?), we could now have an answer to this question.
Of course, the attractiveness of such a processor would be greatly reduced by the fact that it will still use the older Zen 3 architecture, which has a lower performance of 1 MHz and, at the same time, worse frequencies. The Ryzen 6000 for notebooks reached a maximum clock speed of 5.0 GHz, but for the Lowend derivative one can rather expect a clock speed of around 4.5 GHz. These would be the only processors based on Zen 3 on the AM5 platform, at a time when the Zen 5 architecture is already available. The range of users who would like these processors would probably be quite limited.
Resources: VideoCardz, Bits and Chips
Source: www.cnews.cz
