Ryzen is about to get another mid-generation refresh from AMD, according to some interesting new leaks. New rumors suggest that two new SKUs, the Ryzen 2 3750X and 3850X, will be coming soon. The new leaks have been reported by Videocardz, showing that AMD is serious about taking on Intel across the board.
The leaks are further strengthened by a source from within AMD, as one Twitter user says. This is actually not the first time that these particular names have been seen. Previous reports cropped up in late 2019 referencing designs within AMD at the time. So it looks like AMD has been planning this for some time.
The new CPU SKUs within the Ryzen 2 3750X and 3850X will feature some very different spec sheets. Interested buyers have eight different Zen 2 models to choose from, and the range is getting bigger. The selection begins with the 4-core/8-thread Ryzen 3 3100, and runs to the 16-core/32-thread Ryzen 9 3950X. The powerful Ryzen 2 line was already granted some direct competition with another Ryzen refresh with Zen+. AMD released Zen+ to bring the first generation chips onto a new node, improving overall performance. And it looks like we’re about to see the same thing with the new Zen 2 lines.
Later leaks also suggested some very intriguing technical changes for the Ryzen 2 3750X and 3850X, although details are murky. The timing seems to suggest an upgrade for compatibility with the new AMD B550 motherboard. AMD had previously planned to drop the older 400-series, but later announced new plans for microcode updates for the aging 400-series chipset.
There is no mention of specifications for these new chips. For reference, the existing 3700X is an 8-core/16-thread CPU with a 3.6GHz base clock with a turbo boost to 4.4 GHz.
Pricing is also a bit of a mystery. Current price ranges for the 3700X suggest a ~$300 price tag. The more powerful 3800X runs about $50 more than the former. Unless AMD decides to drop the price, the Zen 2 chips would likely land closer to $400 in price.
And frankly, this whole thing is timed very strangely. AMD Ryzen 4000 Vermeer and Renoir engineering samples have already been spotted in the wild. These newer CPU lineups would offer a major boost to performance, being the first of the Zen 3 line, over the older Zen 2. Even with the refresh there’s a bit of weird reasoning going on here.
The best explanation right now is that AMD is planning on creating a bigger price gulf between Zen 3 and Zen 2, with more expensive Zen 3 models leading the launch. That would create a spot for the Zen 2 refresh to sit in, making it an interesting upgrade for some users on older Zen or Zen+ setups.
