AMD revealed it’s planning to launch 5nm processors by 2022 during its Financial Analyst Day presentation.
Lisa Su (AMD Su) revealed the news on stage, with a presentation slide (shown below) detailing AMD’s CPU roadmap.
The move to 5nm chips would be a substantial technological leap for AMD, building upon its advantage over Intel, which is currently still unable to reduce the size of its 10nm process.
Read about AMD’s next-gen graphics cards: AMD Navi 2X
Having a smaller transistor has helped AMD become more competitive with Intel, as it recently launched high-end desktop processors (such as the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X) that offer comparative performances to Intel’s most powerful consumer chips.
Why is the size of the transistor important for a processor? The smaller the transistor generally results in greater performance and efficiency, as manufacturers are able to fit more transistors onto the chip. Smaller transistors also consume less power, resulting in less heat which allows manufacturers to push clock speeds further.
AMD’s impressive roadmap is very timely, with Intel’s CFO George Davis recently suggesting (via an interview with Tom’s Hardware) that Intel won’t likely launch a 7nm node until “the tail end of 2021” but should regain leadership in the 5nm generation.
If AMD’s proposed roadmap proves accurate though, it’s looking highly unlikely that Intel will be able to beat AMD to the punch for the launch of 5nm processors. In fact, with Intel not planning on releasing 7nm processors until 2021, AMD is likely to hold a huge advantage over its rival for a number of years.
Related: Intel Tiger Lake
Of course, we’re still a couple of generations away from Zen4, with AMD yet to even launch processors with Zen3 architecture. Fortunately we won’t need to wait long for the latter, as AMD confirmed Zen3 processors will arrive late this year.
Whenever 5nm CPUs do arrive, it’s looking very positive for AMD, which is also expected to launch ‘Big Navi’ graphics cards and Ryzen 4000 laptop processors during 2020.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
