With Zen 6, AMD’s next great gaming CPU could have it all

The company revealed the finer details during a technical deep-dive into its next-generation Epyc “Venice” server processors. The next generation of Ryzen processors hasn’t been announced yet, but both families share the same underlying Zen 6 architecture. And for gamers, the implications go well beyond stuffing more cores onto a spec sheet, though that’s obviously fantastic.

Twelve cores, one chiplet

A core complex die (CCD) is a group of CPU cores sharing a pool of fast L3 cache, which keeps frequently used data close instead of forcing trips to slower system memory.

Today’s 12-core Ryzen processors need two CCDs because Zen 5 fits only eight cores into each one. That works, but communicating between separate chiplets takes longer than communicating within one. As a result, games with tightly connected threads running across both CCDs can pay a latency penalty.

Adam Patrick Murray / Foundry

Zen 6 changes the equation. With 12 cores sharing 48MB of L3 cache, a future 12-core Ryzen could fit entirely on one CCD. That’s 50 percent more cores and cache than Zen 5, though the cache-per-core ratio remains unchanged at 4MB.

Games capable of keeping more than eight cores busy could benefit without spreading that work across two CCDs. Games already running their critical threads on one CCD of a dual-chiplet processor, however, wouldn’t necessarily benefit from the new arrangement.

There’s another potential advantage for future Ryzen X3D processors, which blend Ryzen cores with integrated ultra-fast V-Cache on-die. AMD’s dual-chiplet X3D processors need scheduling logic to steer games toward the cores with the most cache. A single cache-rich CCD with twelve cores could simplify that balancing act.