With the Ryzen 7000 release window fast approaching, photos of certified samples of AMD’s new Zen 4 processors are starting to surface. A certified sample of the Ryzen 7 7700X is Post on AnandTech forum (Originally posted on Chinese social networking site Baidu Tieba).
Twitter user SkyJuice66 commented In the image, the letter “D” on the bottom of the Integral Heat Spreader (IHS) indicates that this unit is a qualified sample (not manufactured for retail market). This suggests that AMD is still tweaking its Ryzen 7000 chips despite the August 29th launch event and his September launch window being less than a month away. .
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AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 26th Week 2022 ‘D’ mark indicates non-retail silicon. It was previously shown in the review sample. https://t.co/BtUUSBjFE4pic.twitter.com/CWhfWDzzzTAugust 17, 2022
But it makes sense that AMD is still testing.Another leak from chiphel forum AMD has suggested that they delayed the Ryzen 7000 boot window by several weeks due to an unexpected BIOS issue found on their new 600-series AM5 platform. If this is true, AMD wants to use this time to “catch up” and make sure the platform is stable before release.
This is especially important on brand new platforms such as AM5. The platform does not have engineering experience on new designs and customers may encounter unexpected bugs on release day. Day one stability with new platforms from both Intel and AMD has always been a bit shaky and usually requires a series of quick BIOS and firmware updates before a platform is truly stable.
Looking at the Ryzen 7 7700X certification sample, it’s clear that AM5 has changed significantly from AM4. AMD has replaced the Pin Grid Array (PGA) with the Land Grid Array (LGA) form factor. This means the CPU pins are on the motherboard. AMD also reduced the size of his IHS with 8 cutouts to make room for adding caps to his PCB for the CPU.
The Ryzen 7 7700X is reportedly the successor to the Ryzen 7 5700X (and possibly the 5800X) and will be AMD’s new mid-to-high-end octa-core CPU next to the hexa-core 7600X and 12-core 7900X. The rumored clock speeds of the 7700X suggest a peak boost clock of 5.4 GHz, and 40 MB of combined L2 and L3 cache.
AMD’s Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 series launches on September 15th, so AMD will have just under a month to prepare.
