As with every leak, all the following information about Zen 6 should be treated with caution. However, this new leak reinforces previous rumors suggesting that AMD is planning to increase the L3 cache capacity in its Zen 6 generation processors. According to these reports, AMD is developing CCD modules for Zen 6, comprising 12 cores and equipped with 48 megabytes of L3 cache. By comparison, current Zen 5 CCDs are limited to eight cores and 32 megabytes of L3 cache. This expansion of L3 cache in Zen 6 processors should prove particularly advantageous for PC gaming performance. Some time ago, we already mentioned the possibility of AMD finally going beyond 16 cores on its future Ryzen processors.
Zen 6: more cores and more cache for gaming?
At the same time, AMD is said to be working on another CCD model with 32 cores and 128 megabytes of L3 cache. These modules are likely to feature Zen 6c cores, a version designed for greater transistor density rather than maximum performance optimization per core.
Zen 6 CCDs with 12 cores would be produced using TSMC’s 2-nanometer etching technology. This advanced manufacturing process is expected to improve energy efficiency while increasing component density in AMD’s new processors. With a 50% increase in the number of cores and L3 cache, these Zen 6 CCDs promise significantly higher performance than the previous generation. However, this breakthrough will come at a price: 2 nm technology is expensive, so the resulting processors should also be more expensive.
Finally, there is still some uncertainty as to how TSMC will be used in the USA. While AMD intends to use the 2nm capabilities of its Arizona facilities, the latest positions taken by the Taiwanese government cast doubt on the use of the most advanced process elsewhere than on the island…
