AMD Zen 6 CPUs May Hit 7GHz and Have Up to 24 Cores
Oh, how we love the AM5 socket CPUs....
**AMD's next-generation Zen 6 CPUs** may reach an incredible new frequency milestone if new rumors are to be believed. They claim that AMD is pushing the Ryzen 10000 CPUs to reach as high as 7 GHz, all while sporting as many as 24 cores. This wouldn't just be a first for AMD, but it would be by far the highest clock speed of any out-of-the-box CPU ever made.
The current-generation AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs are dominating in processor sales, leading Intel to slash prices and offer incredible bundle offerings to keep its sales up. But AMD isn't sitting back and enjoying this success, it seems: It's going to double down on the next generation. Zen 6 CPUs could be by far the fastest chips we've ever seen.
The latest rumors come from two independent sources: Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube and Hydra tuning software creator Yuri Buily, otherwise known as 1usmus (via TechSpot). They claim that Zen 6 will increase the number of cores per core complex die (CCD) to 12, making chips with up to 24 cores possible with the classic Ryzen dual-CCD design. This backs up a rumor we first heard in March this year, lending further weight to its credence.
They'll allegedly have a lot more cache per core, too, with up to 48MB of L3 cache per CCD, up from 32 MB on Zen 5 CPUs. That doesn't even factor in any X3D models with additional 3D V-Cache.
AMD Zen 6 follow on from the current-generation Zen 5, Ryzen 9000 range.
The big news, though, is that these chips may reach much higher frequencies than their predecessors. While the best Ryzen 9000 CPUs might hit 5.7GHz on a good day in limited-thread workloads, Zen 6 may reach as high as 7GHz, with some confirmation of internal testing already at 6.4GHz. That will be restricted to the very top models, which may use a more advanced process node to achieve it, but even midrange chips should hit somewhere in the realm of 6.5GHz by the time they launch. We may see 6 GHz+ frequencies on mobile, too.
Bubily reports that the Ryzen 10000 CPUs will enjoy a newly redesigned memory controller (though it'll stick with dual-channel DDR5 support), and the I/O die will be updated too, potentially using a smaller process node for greater efficiency and bandwidth. We're also expecting to see double-digit percentage improvements in instructions per clock with Zen 6, and support for higher memory frequencies, all while fully supporting existing AMD AM5 motherboards.
In the realm of more out-there rumors that require a more skeptical eye, Moore's Law Is Dead also suggested that AMD is experimenting with multiple layers of 3D V-Cache, potentially giving CPUs as much as 240MB of L3 cache.
We don't have a planned release date for Zen 6 CPUs at the time of writing, but they're loosely expected to launch sometime in the second half of 2026. This will see the chips going head to head with Intel's Nova Lake line, which is expected to offer up to 52 cores. That could be serious competition for even Zen 6's impressive specs.
