With the best of Zen 5 now in the rear-view mirror, namely AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, attentions now turn to Team Red’s next-gen Zen 6 architecture. According to recent leaks, this collection of chips could usher in a landmark achievement for the company in terms of clock speeds, finally breaking the 6GHz barrier.
These whispers of hallowed frequencies come via YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead (MLID). Speaking with their sources at AMD, the channel claims to have the inside scoop on ‘Olympic Ridge’ and ‘Gator Range’ which are internal codenames for flagship Zen 6 CPUs.
MLID says that AMD is designing this would-be Ryzen 9 9950X replacement with frequency targets north of 6GHz. They cite alleged official documentation and claims their sources tell them that “management had a mandate to go above 6GHz.”
For context, this would make for a 300+MHz increase versus 9950X which can boost up to 5.7GHz. It should also give Team Red an advantage over its Intel as Core Ultra 9 285K operates at the same sub-6GHz frequency and Arrow Lake Refresh shouldn’t move the needle in that regard much at all. Of course, Core i9-14900KS remains the frequency king for the moment at 6.2GHz.
MLID additionally affirms previous rumours that future Ryzen processors will arrive with 12-core CCDs (Core Complex Dies), built using TSMC’s N2X process. This would make for quite the technological leap, as Zen 5 CCDs use TSMC N4X.
Curiously, AMD is supposedly designing an N3P IOD (I/O Die) in addition to another N6 IOD. The former will feature two Zen 5 LP (Low Power cores) in addition to their full-fat Zen 6 cores, as well as a “decent” integrated graphics solution. Meanwhile, the N6 variant would drop the hybrid approach and possibly its iGPU too.
In terms of IPC, the YouTuber says Zen 6 should deliver a 10+% uplift in IPC. While not a huge leap, higher core counts should help further push performance above current generation models. That’s not forgetting the potential for two-stack 3D V-Cache, presenting an enticing proposition of up to 144MB of L3 cache on one CCD. However, Moore’s Law Is Dead caveats that such an implementation of AMD’s tech may not make its way to the consumer space just yet.
Exciting as this all sounds, it’s apparently a long way off. Moore’s Law Is Dead echoes prior Zen 6 release date rumours that point to a 2H 2026 launch at the earliest, possibly slipping into Q1 2027. Of course, these plans are subject to change and don’t come from AMD’s mouth, so take that and all the above with a grain of salt.
I’ll be sure to keep a watchful eye on all things Zen 6 and more, so make sure you’re following Club386 on Google News to say in the loop. In the meantime, give my AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D review a read if you’re hungry for something CPU-flavoured to chew on.
