AMD is holding a launch event for its Ryzen 7000 CPUs this month

AMD is holding a launch event for its Ryzen 7000 CPUs this monthSkip to main content

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Maybe don’t build a new PC right now? AMD just announced it’ll unwrap its next-gen Ryzen 7000 processors on August 29th — where it’ll hopefully stop teasing us with vague but promising Zen 4 improvements and announce some actual chips for our devices.

What we already know: the Ryzen 7000 processors are the first PC chips based on a 5nm process, the first AMD desktop chips to boost past 5GHz, and their AM5 motherboard platform is the first from AMD to support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 out of the box — depending on which motherboard you buy.

Oh, and you’ll have to buy a new motherboard because AMD is finally, understandably, breaking compatibility with the long-lived AM4 platform and switching away from pins on the CPU. (Your AM4 cooler can still come along for the ride.) And yes, the new Ryzen 7000 desktop chips really do have a crown-shaped lid.

In case you don’t follow AMD closely, these will be the first desktop chips from AMD since its popular Ryzen 5000 series, because Ryzen 6000 was just for laptops and other mobile devices. But the company isn’t alternating between laptops and desktops, either: AMD’s also planning to release some Ryzen 7000 chips for both “extreme gaming laptops” and thin-and-lights as soon as next year.

Some other reasons to maybe not buy or build a new PC right now: RAM prices are reportedly falling, and while graphics cards have already hit MSRP or below, Chinese supply chain sources now claim Nvidia and AMD will slash GPU prices even more at the end of August. You might also consider why Nvidia and AMD might be clearing those shelves: we’re expecting a new generation of GPUs from each of them before 2022 is out.

Do note that Intel may raise CPU prices, though. Or at least that’s what we heard before the PC market took a huge dip and Intel surprised investors with a sudden half-billion-dollar loss.