New AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation Rumours – AMD’s CES Demo was Power-Limited

AMD’s CES 2019 demo for Ryzen 3rd Generation was an impressive one, surpassing Intel’s i9-9900K while consuming around 30% less power with the same number of active cores and threads. Better still was AMD’s chip reveal, which showcased the potential of a high-end 16-core model of AM4, bringing AMD’s mainstream core counts to the next level. 

Now, rumour has it that AMD discussed their Zen 2/Ryzen 3rd Generation processors in detail at a recent event in Toronto, with YouTuber DannyzPlays reporting on the action.

Citing an unknown source, the YouTuber commented on the potential performance levels of AMD’s Ryzen 3rd Generation processors, claiming that AMD’s CES Demo was power limited by 30-40%, giving AMD enough performance to best Intel’s i9-9900K while offering levels of power efficiency that showcased the benefits of TSMC’s 7nm process node. If this claim is true, AMD left a lot of Zen 2’s performance on tap, making it possible that Zen 2 will offer a lot more performance than their CES demo implies.

With 30-40% more power, we shouldn’t expect 30-40% more performance, clocks/power rarely scale that well, but there is undoubtedly more performance to be had. Again, assuming this claim is true. 

Strangely, AMD was also reported as saying that B450, X370 and X470 will support AMD’s Ryzen 3rd Generation processors, with lower-end B350 processors being left behind. While AMD has claimed that AM4 will support new Ryzen processors until 2020, the company never specified which chipsets this applied to, so skipping Ryzen 3rd Gen BIOS updates for B350 isn’t exactly out of the question. Even so, this move would cause a consumer backlash, as AM4 motherboard owners were promised compatibility with newer Ryzen processors. 

We believe that it is more likely that B350 will either have Ryzen 3rd Gen support left to the discretion of motherboard manufacturers or be restricted to specific Ryzen 3rd Generation SKUs. Perhaps some 300-series motherboards won’t be good enough for Ryzen 3rd Gen’s highest TDP offerings, or ship with some restrictions. Dropping Ryzen 3rd Gen support on B350 would be seen as a massive backtrack on the company’s AM4 commitments, so please take this specific rumour with a grain of salt.