AMD roadmap looks very solid starting with the Pinnacle Ridge CPUs coming in 2018 but first, the Raven Ridge APUs are coming to mobile platforms in the second half of 2017 while desktops will be for next year. Moreover, AMD claims to deliver significant performance gains with better process node producing better yields and no more issues that have plagued Ryzen at present.

AMD Ryzen is still being optimized by more than 300 developers as of the last counting, which could further improve its performance, particularly in gaming. The Ryzen CPUs actually delivers high-performance out-of-the-box, especially for multithreaded tasks. However, it lags behind Intel in single core benchmarks particularly in some games that do not fully capitalize on its multiple threads. Nevertheless, there is no denying that the AMD Ryzen is one multithreading monster that responds well to optimization and overclocking, which is expected to be pushed even further in the AMD Pinnacle Ridge CPUs.

Just recently, a Chinese website via Videocardz leaked the AMD roadmap for this year and 2018 starting with the AMD Pinnacle Ridge with 8 Zen cores and the same TDP of 95W to Ryzen. AMD has accomplished a lot in terms of Instructions-per-Clock (IPC) so not much is expected on this aspect when compared to Ryzen. Nonetheless, this means that the Zen 2-based CPUs will also have the 60 to 65 percent boost over the Excavator, which is already an impressive feat. For sure, the Pinnacle Ridge CPUs will be the CPUs for enterprise and enthusiasts with more performance benefits over Ryzen.

As to the AMD Raven Ridge APUs, it will first arrive in laptops and other mobile platforms while the desktops will be in 2018 along with the AMD Pinnacle Ridge CPUs. The new APUs will feature 4 enhanced Zen Cores while the GPU side will have as much as 11 Vega cores totaling to 704 stream processors. The new Raven Ridge GPUs are expected to have a modest boost for integrated graphics with a good price point around $250. The new APUs will have an array of 4 cores, 8 threads variants that are SMT-enabled as well as AM4 support, which will be the platform for Zen, Zen 2, and Zen 3-based CPUs until 2020 according to wccftech.

What the new AMD roadmap reveals that the red team is well on its way to producing high-performing hardware. The AMD Pinnacle Ridge and the AMD Raven Ridge will offer more performance gains with no more issues that Ryzen had. This means AMD's products will be optimized for all kinds of games with no more compatibility issues on higher clocked DDR4 memory and lower CPU clock speeds. In sum, it means AMD will continue what it started with Ryzen to dominate the CPU and even GPU market that other rivals have held for a long time.

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Topics AMD Raven Ridge, Ryzen, AMD