AMD reportedly delays Zen 6 Ryzen “Olympic Ridge” CPUs to 2027
Leaker claims that AMD won’t release any consumer-grade Zen 6 CPUs in 2026
Following leaks of AMD’s “Olympic Ridge” (Zen 6 Ryzen) CPU core counts, Benchlife has claimed that AMD doesn’t plan to release its next-generation Ryzen CPUs this year. AMD reportedly plans to launch its Zen 6 Ryzen CPUs in 2027. This means that PC enthusiasts may have to wait until next year for AMD to release next-generation processors.
Last year, AMD confirmed that its Zen 6 EPYC “Venice” CPUs would launch in 2026. Typically, AMD would release new Ryzen CPUs before their larger EPYC counterparts. However, this could change with Zen 6. Thanks to AMD’s growing CPU market share in the server space and the growth of AI datacenter demand, AMD may be prioritising EPYC over Ryzen.
Another factor to consider is memory pricing. Perhaps AMD is waiting until 2027 in the hopes that memory pricing will improve. After all, high memory pricing will lessen the impact of any CPU launch within today’s PC building environment. If things improve in 2027, AMD could have a more successful launch.
The Olympic Ridge processor, based on the Zen 6 architecture, will continue to use the AM5 socket. This literally means that current AMD 800 series motherboards can continue to use it. However, whether this is actually the case remains to be seen, and we’ll have to wait for further confirmation. After all, the earliest possible release date for the Olympic Ridge processor based on the Zen 6 architecture is 2027; the AMD AM5 socket has been used since the Zen 4 processor architecture in 2023.
Zen 6 Ryzen isn’t delayed; it was never confirmed for 2026
AMD’s roadmap only states that Zen 6 will launch in 2026. Furthermore, AMD’s roadmap only discussed EPYC products, not Ryzen. As such, AMD has not technically delayed its Zen 6 Ryzen processors. With today’s memory pricing environment, AMD may be in no rush to release new Ryzen processors. Brands may hope that DRAM pricing will decline as we enter 2027. That said, such a scenario seems unlikely right now.
AMD’s Zen 6 CPU launch is highly anticipated. If leaked specifications are correct, this will be the first time AMD has increased the core count of its desktop Ryzen CPUs since Zen 2. With up to 24 cores, these CPUs should smash multi-threaded workloads. Additionally, there are rumours that AMD has been able to boost their CPU clock speeds over Zen 5, boosting single-threaded performance aswell.
You can join the discussion on AMD’s Zen 6 Olympic Ridge CPUs on the OC3D Forums.
