AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X, the next flagship of next-generation Zen 4 processors, has been spotted boosting up to 5.85GHz — but there are caveats to note here.
The latest Zen 4 leak comes from Weibo (Opens in a new tab) user (a social media platform in China), so should be treated with more caution than usual, was reported by HXL on Twitter (regular source of hardware leaks, highlighting VideoCardz tweet (Opens in a new tab)).
Rafael 2x Durango CCD 16x Persephone CoreRyzen 9 7950X 5.7GHz (PBO/XFR 5.85GHz) 5.85 vs 5.8 （Intel RPL） https://t.co/BZM5fHaU5G pic.twitter.com/Uc5VDMZ0bKAugust 28, 2022
As you can see, the leaker allegedly has a Ryzen 9 7950X that clocks in at 5.85GHz as mentioned – massive amounts of salt are required, of course, and what exactly that speed means, we’ll discuss shortly – and it’s clear that Intel’s Raptor Lake ship will hit 5.8GHz at full speed in comparison.
The 5.85GHz speed is in line with the previous top speed floated for the flagship Zen 4 by Angstronomics (a well-researched source), and the Weibo leaker also provides a CPU-Z screenshot of the 7950X prior to release.
Analysis: No matter how you roll the dice, the 7950X looks very sharp
Obviously, that’s something we need to be skeptical about, but if that’s true, the 7950X’s ability to have that kind of boost is just as interesting. Now, the leaker reports that the Ryzen CPU actually boosts to 5.7GHz, with 5.85GHz clocked via the PBO (in other words, an automatic overclocking mode that you can turn on to get a bit more performance out of your chip).
However, as another well-known Twitter leaker (Izzy 38 (Opens in a new tab)), what actually happens with this 7950X sample is that it hits 5.85 GHz without the need for a PBO, but that’s just a peak frequency – maybe hit on briefly, here and there. In other words, the maximum quoted on the case of the Zen 4 main chip will be less than this (like the 5.7 GHz mentioned).
Exact speeds will, as always, depend on the quality of the processor you buy – there’s always some variance within CPU models, known as the silicon lottery – but whatever the case, AMD will have an official (virtual) payment cap that is set at an appropriate level. Low so all chips can access it reliably, for obvious reasons.
Whatever the case for the exact maximum boost speed of the Ryzen 9 7950X, it looks like it will be very close to the same ballpark as the Raptor Lake champion, the Core i9-13900K. Once again, this is another hint that the battle between Zen 4 and Intel’s 13th generation silicon will be very close.
We’ll learn more about the Ryzen 7000 tomorrow, as AMD organizes its next-gen processor launch event via livestream. There is a good chance of seeing the official rated boost speed of the flagship 7950X at this event.