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Hello, hello, hello! This is John Loeffler, TechRadar’s US Computing Editor in New York and we’re getting ready to kick-off Computex 2022 with the AMD Computex 2022 Keynote address from AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su.
What’s that? Why, yes, it is 1AM Eastern Daylight Time here in the US. It’s all about the commitment folks. We’re dedicated to bringing you the latest news as it breaks from Computex 2022, so stick with TechRadar throughout the week as we cover the keynotes and presentations from AMD, Nvidia, and more as part of our ongoing Computex 2022 coverage.
So what are we expecting from AMD’s keynote, which is scheduled to start in a little over an hour from now?
Hot off the launch of AMD’s latest Radeon graphics cards, the RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT and RX 6650 XT, we might hear some rumblings about the next generation of Radeon, AMD RDNA 3.
We are probably going to hear something about AMD’s mobile platform as new AMD Ryzen 6000-series laptops are starting to make it to market. How much of this will be consumer products and how much will be professional systems is an open question.
What about AMD Ryzen processors? We’ve heard a lot of rumblings about Zen 4 lately, so we wouldn’t be surprised if we heard an update on the next-gen Ryzen 7000-series CPUs.
This is Computex, so there might also be some discussion of AMD Epyc server and cloud computing technology, and hopefully we’ll see some nerd-talk on AMD’s 3D chiplet stacking tech like what we saw in our AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review.
We’re about 30 minutes out now, so I just want to say that I really hope AMD spends some time talking about its 3D chiplet technology. Its 3D V-Cache tech was definitely impressive during our review, and I would love to see it implemented in other areas.
With the recent release of Radeon RX cards earlier this month, it might be too soon to get any graphics card talk in this keynote (at least from AMD. What Nvidia’s got in store for later tonight is anyone’s guess). If we do though, I’m really interested to see if AMD is able to introduce 3D stacking tech into Radeon GPUs somehow. There are a lot of smaller components in the GPU that could really benefit from expanded bandwidth that stacking could provide.
Well, we’ll find out shortly, since the keynote starts in about 10 minutes.
And here we go.
“This is the most exciting time for the semiconductor industry.”
That’s one way of putting it, Dr. Su. Sure!
349 million PCs shipped in 2021, more than 900 million shipped since 2019. I have no idea what Intel’s numbers are, but that will be an interesting comparison.
Ok, so we’re talking about notebooks first, then AMD Advantage gaming PCs, and then a new desktop CPU and platform. This is almost certainly going to be Zen 4. Are we going to get a reveal? That would be amazing.
Jason Banta, Corporate VP and GM for OEM PC at AMD is on now to talk about notebooks. We’re all about the ultraslim PCs these days, it seems.
AMD is really all-in on Godfall.
73% want remote options to stay. For all those business titans who insist that there is some kind of groundswell of support for a returning to the office from your staff, let me repeat: 73% want remote options to stay. Don’t take it from me, listen to AMD.
AMD Mendocino? Interesting. AMD is coming for the Celerons and Core i3s. It should make our best Chromebook list look a bit more colorful next year at the very least.
Looks like we’re closing the book on notebooks for now. On to AMD Advantage gaming PCs with Frank Azor, who is AMD’s chief architect for gaming solutions and marketing
Smart Access Storage is the next “Smart” tech from AMD, which works with Microsoft Direct Storage to speed up decompressions and texture streaming, so long as you have AMD Ryzen and Radeon components from the look of it.
More news on this in the coming months, so pretty light on details for now.
AMD really is building an ecosystem of product technologies, but I haven’t really seen anything mind blowing from any of them yet (other than 3D stacking in the 5800X3D, that is – that genuinely is exciting).
Lots of laptop OEMs like Asus and Lenovo offering some neat AMD Advantage stuff.
Ooooh. Corsair made a gaming laptop! Now that is one I’ll definitely have to get in for review ASAP.
OK, Back to Dr. Su for Ryzen talk. We’re talking about the AM4 socket, so we’re going to talk about the AM5 for sure, that means Zen 4.
AMD’s totally allowed to do a victory lap with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. It really is the best processor for gaming you’re going to find.
Greater than 5.0GHz clock speeds and expanded AI instruction sets. Nice! And there it is!
Chiplets…Chipsets…Chiplets!
Also integrated graphics into a Ryzen enthusiast processor is nice and all, but is it really necessary? Great for APUs and budget gaming builds, but for enthusiast processors? Not so sure.
David McAfee, corporate VP and GM for desktop PCs at AMD is here to talk AM5 motherboards.
Ooh, AM4 coolers will work on AM5? That’s a nice value-add to have, and 24 PCIe 5.0 lanes will definitely power some amazing builds in the years ahead.
Also up to 14 USB Type-C connectors? Did I hear that right? Woof! Ok, here come the motherboards…
The AMD X670E motherboard is definite for those who like overkill.
Huh, even budget boards will get PCIe 5.0. Nice!
AMD Ryzen 7000-series processors coming as soon as Q3 2022.
And that is it. Got some good details on AMD Zen 4 architecture, including 1MB of L2 cache per core and processor frequency up to 5.4GHz if the Ghostwire Tokyo demo was any indication. We’ve also get a “Fall” release window, so Q3 2022 at the earliest, but the chip shortage is going to chip shortage, so who knows, ultimately. Let’s wrap things up and tie a bow on the AMD keynote as we kick off Computex 2022.
So we started things off with a look at the state of AMD’s mobile platform, which is an area where it greatly lags behind archrival Intel (Intel has about 70% or more of the mobile computing market share, which is the fastest growing consumer segment of the computing market).
We got a tease on AMD Smart Storage, which looks like another iterative step in developing an ecosystem of all AMD tech, similar to how Apple products all synergize together, but AMD hasn’t really had its breakout moment in that area yet. Lots of cool looking gaming laptops inbound this year, especially the Corsair Voyager. I’m a big fan of Corsair stuff, so it’ll be really interesting to see what Corsair does with that one.
Then, obviously was Zen 4 and the AM5 socket motherboards, including the introduction of a new chipset to the existing stack, the X670E, which seems like it’s meant for those who want to try to melt their silicon with overclocking and a gajillion monitors and devices. The E stands for Extreme, in case that wasn’t clear. That’s in addition to the X670 and B650 motherboards for the mainstream and more budget-conscious segments.
Nary a graphics card to be seen this year, so it’ll be really interesting to see what Nvidia comes up with later tonight. I’ll be back to cover that keynote as well, so stick with TechRadar throughout the day as more news comes out of Computex 2022.
With that, however, I’m going to sign off. Have a wonderful evening/morning, and be kind to one another.