What to Expect from AMD's Upcoming Zen 6 Architecture

AMD is already looking beyond this summer’s Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series. According to information compiled from leaks and roadmaps, Zen 6 CPUs are scheduled for release in late 2025 or early 2026. Internally, the architecture carries several codenames: Morpheus and Sound Wave, Medusa Point for laptops, and Olympic Ridge for desktop parts.

Medusa Point is said to use a soldered BGA package similar in footprint to today’s Strix Point mobile chips, while Olympic Ridge will retain the familiar Socket AM5 on the desktop. Leaked roadmaps mention an alternative FP10 BGA package measuring 25 × 42.5 mm, suggesting AMD may experiment with different form factors.

Zen 6 is expected to deliver around a 10 % increase in instructions per clock (IPC) over Zen 5 along with new FP16 capabilities for improved AI and machine‑learning workloads. Each compute complex (CCX) reportedly contains twelve Zen 6 cores sharing 48 MB of L3 cache, and there are rumors of a 32‑core CCD variant for server processors. The chips are likely to be manufactured on a 3 nm TSMC N3E process, with some speculation pointing to TSMC’s 2 nm node for later revisions.

APU versions will integrate RDNA 4 graphics and an updated neural processing unit (NPU). There’s even talk of a low‑power “Zen 6c” variant featuring a slimmed‑down 2 MB L3 cache per core. AMD plans to continue offering 3D V‑Cache options similar to today’s X3D models, which should keep the company competitive in gaming workloads. Overall, Zen 6 looks like a significant evolutionary step that could keep AMD’s Ryzen lineup in the performance lead through the latter half of the decade.

*Source: TechPowerUp*