AMD prioritising multi-thread over single-thread performance for next-gen Zen 5 CPUs according to new rumours

pcgamer.com:

AMD is on the record scheduling its next-gen Zen CPUs, to be known as the Ryzen 8000 series, for next year. We could even see Zen 5 launch in some form in the first half of 2024. So, it's no surprise that the rumours regarding the new chips are now coming thick and fast.

The latest comes from YouTube channel RedGamingTech and among numerous details perhaps the big stand out is a claim that AMD is prioritising multi-threaded performance over single-threaded.

That's a very broad claim, but the details make sense. The argument goes that server chips are the big money spinner for AMD, not desktop CPUs for we mere gamers. AMD, of course, tends to build a single CPU core design which is rolled out in various configuration across server and client PC, often using exactly the same CPU core chiplets across both platforms, but paired with additional application-specific chiplets that offer IO, memory controllers and other features suited to the given remit.

Now, given the far greater financial rewards of server chip sales for AMD, RedGamingTech's claim is that Zen 5's architecture has been tilted slightly in favour of server performance over client PC performance. And server performance is generally all about multi-threaded performance.

The consequence? The gap between the maximum single-core clock speed and maximum multi or all-core clockspeed has been narrowed for Zen 5 compared to previous Zen chips.

The immediate implication is that single-thread frequencies may have suffered. If that's the case, it does not appear to be by much. RedGamingTech claims that «late engineering samples» of what the channel claims to be the Ryzen 9 8950X are hitting 5.6GHz. That's just 100MHz down on the existing Ryzen 9 7950X.

And, of course, we're