What to expect from AMD in 2022

It’s looking like 2022 is going to be an incredibly busy year for AMD, as the company looks set to reveal a number of exciting products in multiple categories. 

But what exactly does AMD have up its sleeve? We’ve checked out all the rumour mills online, as well as forming our own educated opinions, to answer that question. So without further ado, here’s what we think you should expect from AMD in 2022. 

Zen 4 Ryzen CPUs 

Alder Lake was a massive success for Intel in 2021, taking a noticeable lead over AMD when it comes to CPU speeds for gaming. But Team Red is looking to bounce back in 2022, with the launch of its Zen 4 Ryzen desktop processors. 

The upcoming AMD processors are expected to support the likes of PCIE 5.0 and DDR5, ensuring systems will be compatible with the latest and greatest SSDs and RAM. And with AMD tipped to be moving onto a 3D V-Cache and a 5nm process node, we’re anticipating a big performance increase too. 

We’re not expecting the new AMD chips to arrive until the second-half of 2022, so we’ve still got a few months to wait before we can get a good idea of what kind of performance gains the new generation or Ryzen processors will offer. But this will undoubtedly be a huge moment for AMD, as it looks to regain the lead over Intel for the fastest gaming speeds available on a CPU. 

Ryzen 5000 refresh

Before we get our hands on the next-gen wave of Ryzen processors, AMD is planning on refreshing its current Ryzen 5000 range of desktop processors.

AMD claims the refresh will enable a 15% performance increase on the existing Ryzen 5000 processors, which the company’s chief marketing officer has said is “like a generational uplift”. 

This performance jump is supposedly thanks to AMD’s new 3D V-Cache technology, which allows for a greater cache capacity. 

We don’t currently know which exact Ryzen 5000 chips will be getting a refresh, but we shouldn’t have to wait long to find out, with AMD touting an ‘early 2022’ release date. 

RDNA 3 graphics cards

It’s not just CPU chips that AMD is planning to launch in 2022, as reports indicate it will also release a new generation of graphics cards in order to compete with Nvidia. 

We don’t know a huge amount about AMD’s next-gen graphics cards, although reports indicate that it could use an MCM (multi-chip module) design and could potentially use a new 5nm or 6nm process node. 

We expect a significant performance boost for gaming, as well as efficiency improvements for the likes of ray tracing, as AMD continues to catch up to Nvidia in this respect. 

We don’t expect the RDNA 3 graphics cards to be announced until the latter half of 2022, but it’s something to be excited for nevertheless – as long as the GPU shortage is over by then, of course.

Budget-friendly graphics cards 

AMD may be gearing up to launch its next-gen graphics cards in 2022, but that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten about the current RDNA 2 range. In fact, reports indicate that AMD could be launching two new graphics cards that will occupy the budget end of the market: the Radeon RX 6500 XT and the RX 6400. 

These rumoured graphics cards will target a 1080p performance, with high frame rates only possible with eSports games such as CS:GO and Fortnite. We’re assuming they’ll support features such as ray tracing, although you’ll likely struggle to play AAA games with such advanced features activated without seeing a concerning drop in frame rates. 

But it’s still very welcome news that AMD could be launching new graphics cards that won’t empty your bank account, especially with the ongoing GPU shortage making it increasingly difficult to find a graphics card at a reasonable price.