AMD has officially confirmed its next-gen cores after Zen 5 & Zen 5C to be Zen 6 & Zen 6C, which will continue its high-performance journey.
AMD Officially Confirms Zen 6 & Zen 6C As The Next Chapter In The Zen Journey
Well, we haven't seen Zen 5 or the latter, Zen 5C, in full action yet but AMD has officially confirmed the next big Zen architecture. Codenamed Zen 6 and its density-optimized variant, Zen 6C, these two architectures will push the performance and efficiency envelope further across a range of PC platforms such as desktops, laptops, handhelds, and servers.
AMD hasn't confirmed any specifics yet but they have made it official that Zen 6 and Zen 6C are the next two major architectures following the Zen 5 family. Codenamed Morpheus, the Zen 6 CPU will bring even better performance to the table. With the Zen 5 CPUs being made on 4nm and Zen 5C on 3nm, we can expect the company to leverage more advanced process technologies from TSMC for its Zen 6 family.
Based on what we know so far, the AMD Zen 6 & Zen 6C CPUs will go on to power next-gen families such as the 6th Gen EPYC "Venice" lineup which is expected to feature support on a brand new SP7 platform and adopt up to 16-channel memory configurations. The Zen 6 architecture will also find home in the next-gen, high-end Ryzen Desktop CPU lineup codenamed Medusa which is expected to feature newer RDNA GPU cores and adopt a 2.5D interconnect for increased bandwidth. The architecture will also be adopted by the next-gen Sound Wave APU family replacing the Ryzen AI 300 "Strix Point" so expect an update there too.
In a previous report, we covered how AMD's Zen 6 CPUs will come in three brand new CCD configs, offering 8, 16, and up to 32 cores. Having 16 or 32 cores on a single CCD in next-gen AMD Zen-powered CPUs is going to be great for multi-threaded use cases, especially within the Threadripper and EPYC families. For mainstream PC users, it is likely that AMD would accelerate the core counts further up but there are not a lot of PC games or engines that are optimized currently for such high core count chips and 3D V-Cache CPU options make for a more viable option in such instances and also save a lot of money.
After Zen 6, AMD will introduce its Zen 7 microarchitecture on which the development work has already been started so it looks like the future is all set for next-gen Zen families. On the AI side, AMD will be introducing its next-gen XDNA 3 architecture for Client CPUs and Versal accelerators around 2026.
We can expect the debut of AMD's next-gen Zen 6 architecture to debut by 2026 and AMD has already committed to a 2027+ longevity plan for its AM5 platform so we can expect new offerings on high-performance desktop PCs.
AMD Zen CPU / APU Roadmap:
| Zen Architecture | Zen 7 | Zen 6C | Zen 6 | Zen 5 (C) | Zen 4 (C) | Zen 3+ | Zen 3 | Zen 2 | Zen+ | Zen 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Codename | TBA | Monarch | Morpheus | Nirvana (Zen 5) Prometheus (Zen 5C) | Persphone (Zen 4) Dionysus (Zen 4C) | Warhol | Cerebrus | Valhalla | Zen+ | Zen |
| CCD Codename | TBA | TBA | TBA | Eldora | Durango | TBC | Brekenridge | Aspen Highlands | N/A | N/A |
| Process Node | TBA | 3nm/2nm? | 3nm/2nm? | 3nm | 4nm | 6nm | 7nm | 7nm | 12nm | 14nm |
| Server | TBA | TBA | EPYC Venice (6th Gen) | EPYC Turin (5th Gen) | EPYC Genoa (4th Gen) EPYC Siena (4th Gen) EPYC Bergamo (4th Gen) | N/A | EPYC Milan (3rd Gen) | EPYC Rome (2nd Gen) | N/A | EPYC Naples (1st Gen) |
| High-End Desktop | TBA | TBA | TBA | Ryzen Threadripper 9000 (Shamida Peak) | Ryzen Threadripper 7000 (Storm Peak) | N/A | Ryzen Threadripper 5000 (Chagal) | Ryzen Threadripper 3000 (Castle Peak) | Ryzen Threadripper 2000 (Coflax) | Ryzen Threadripper 1000 (White Haven) |
| Mainstream Desktop CPUs | TBA | TBA | Ryzen **** (Medusa Ridge) | Ryzen 9000 (Granite Ridge) | Ryzen 7000 (Raphael) | Ryzen 6000 (Warhol / Cancelled) | Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) | Ryzen 3000 (Matisse) | Ryzen 2000 (Pinnacle Ridge) | Ryzen 1000 (Summit Ridge) |
| Mainstream Desktop . Notebook APU | Ryzen AI 500 (Sound Wave)? | Ryzen AI 500 (Sound Wave)? | Ryzen AI 400 (Medusa) | Ryzen AI 300 (Strix Point) Ryzen *** (Krackan Point) | Ryzen 7000 (Phoenix) | Ryzen 6000 (Rembrandt) | Ryzen 5000 (Cezanne) Ryzen 6000 (Barcelo) | Ryzen 4000 (Renoir) Ryzen 5000 (Lucienne) | Ryzen 3000 (Picasso) | Ryzen 2000 (Raven Ridge) |
| Low-Power Mobile | TBA | TBA | TBA | Ryzen *** (Escher) | Ryzen 7000 (Mendocino) | TBA | TBA | Ryzen 5000 (Van Gogh) Ryzen 6000 (Dragon Crest) | N/A | N/A |
