AMD Zen 6 Ryzen CPU names Leak – Next-Gen motherboard benefits unveiled
AMD’s next-gen AM5 motherboards will support faster DRAM than current-gen counterparts
AMD is getting ready to release its Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs in 2026, and a new leak (from Red Gaming Tech) has unveiled part of AMD’s Zen 6 CPU naming scheme. AMD is reportedly opting for Ryzen AI branding with its next-gen CPUs. Furthermore, AMD plans to increase the core counts on its Ryzen 9, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 5 product tiers.
With Ryzen AI 5, AMD reportedly plans to offer users eight CPU cores, which is the same as current-gen Ryzen 7 CPUs. With Ryzen AI 7, AMD reportedly plans to offer users 12 cores. Lastly, with Ryzen AI 9, AMD plans to launch 16-core and 24-core CPU models.
Note that this leak also showcases larger L3 caches for AMD’s next-gen Ryzen CPUs. These caches were revealed with prior CPU leaks. With Zen 6 Ryzen, AMD are building 12-core CCDs with 48MB of L3 cache. These CCDs feature 50% more cores and 50% more L3 cache than AMD’s Zen 3, Zen 4, and Zen 5 CCDs. For AMD’s Ryzen AI 5 CPU, which features eight cores, AMD will offer 48MB of L3 cache. Today’s Ryzen 7 9700X features eight cores with 32MB of L3 cache. This change should enable a significant performance boost in cache-sensitive workloads (which includes gaming).
AMD Zen 6 Ryzen CPU name leak explained
The use of Ryzen AI branding implies that AMD will add an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to their next-generation desktop Ryzen CPUs. This change could make AMD’s next-generation Ryzen CPUs Copilot+ compatible, assuming AMD’s NPU is strong enough.
Note that AMD can choose to change the names of its CPUs at any time. As such, this name is subject to change. AMD’s Ryzen AI branding did not result in increased sales for its Ryzen AI laptop CPUs, implying that AI branding isn’t boosting AMD’s sales. With this in mind, it is possible that AMD could drop AI from its Ryzen branding (if they can think of something better).
Is CUDIMM support coming to next-gen AMD motherboards?
AMD’s Zen 6 Ryzen AI CPUs will reportedly support DDR5-6400 memory by default, and support DDR5-8000+ speeds using “EXPO 2.0”. EXPO 2.0 is an upgraded version of AMD’s EXPO technology, which is AMD’s equivalent of Intel XMP with some minor changes. It has been reported that EXPO 2.0 will only be supported on AMD B950 and X970 motherboards, locking fast memory support to AMD’s newest motherboards.
It is possible that these new motherboards could support CUDIMM memory, enabling support for higher speed modules. This also implies that newer motherboards will be built with higher memory speeds in mind. If current-gen motherboards cannot handle higher memory speeds, it makes sense for AMD to market stronger memory support as a B950/X970 feature. Either way, Zen 6 Ryzen users should expect better memory support on new AM5 motherboards.
You can join the discussion on AMD’s next-gen Ryzen AI naming scheme on the OC3D Forums.
