There’s still a lot of speculation and rumors about the next AMD processors based on the Zen 6 architecture. Not long ago, we learned that the number of cores would be increasing, but now we’re starting to talk about a record frequency… which is an area where AMD has never really been at ease in recent years. This rumour comes from the hidden son of the town’s soothsayer and Nostradamus: More Law Is Dead. You all know what we think of MLID. It talks a lot, announces a lot, really a lot. And some of them are coming true. So it’s important to keep a clear head and take a step back from all his rumours. Indeed, the second half of 2026 should see AMD and Intel go head-to-head with two promising solutions. If the 7Ghz mentioned by MLID is confirmed, it would represent a considerable advance on the Ryzen 9000, which is capped at 5.7 GHz.
The 7Ghz barrier surpassed on future Ryzen Zen 6s
The explanation put forward for this considerable leap would be the use of TSMC’s N2X etching process, making the Reds one of the first companies to offer chips using this node. It would also be a bit of a risk for AMD to go from N4P to N2X, with the next generation of Ryzen making no less than three jumps in the etching process. Zen 6 processors for desktop PCs, aka Olympic Ridge, are due to arrive in the second half of 2026. Early next year, the Medusa Point Zen 6 APUs are also due to arrive, and what’s disturbing is that these references will (according to other rumors) be using the N3P process. While AMD will be changing the organization of these CCDs, using a more consistent 3D V-Cache and reviewing CCD-to-CCD communication to improve speed, this big leap in etching processes still makes us a little doubtful. That’s a lot of changes all at once, and a lot of risk all the same. Of course, we’d love to see AMD introduce so many new features. But the new TSMC process will necessarily be more expensive, and it’s not part of AMD’s strategy to play on this terrain with its Ryzens… Well, until then.
Here is MLID’s video about the topic.
