AMD Ryzen 3000 processors may come with up to 16 cores inside

Before Ryzen 2nd Gen processors (CPUs) even launched, there were rumors of 16-core Ryzen 3000 CPUs, and a fresh leak from TUM_APISAK on Twitter supports that.

AMD's third generation Ryzen processors (CPUs) are expected in the coming months, and their 7-nanometer (nm) Zen 2 architecture opens the door for more cores on every chip.

The details in the tweet mention an engineering sample Zen 2 processor with 16 cores, a base clock of 3.3GHz and boost clock of 4.2GHz. The CPU is listed as using a motherboard with a X570 chipset. TUM_APISAK is a reliable source for hardware leaks, so this is a strong hint in favor of a Rzyen 3000 processor with 16 cores.

So far, AMD hasn't shown off a Ryzen CPU with that many cores. The Threadripper series has shown off 16-core CPUs, with some models offering substantially more than that. But, with Threadripper 3rd Generation CPUs seemingly delayed until 2020 after they were removed from AMD's 2019 roadmap, the Ryzen 3rd Generation CPUs may be the high-core-count option for this year.

Check out the current generation of Ryzen
Here's all the latest on Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation
See our review of the Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX

Not exactly what we were expecting

This isn't the first time we've seen rumors of 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 3000 CPUs. And, as AMD has shown a consistent drive to offer ever-increasing core counts, it feels almost inevitable that Ryzen 3rd Generation CPUs will get 12- and- 16-core variants.

But, this latest leak doesn't exactly line up with some of the detailed leaks we've seen before. We'd seen suggestions that AMD would release the following Ryzen processors:

Ryzen 9 3850X: 16-cores, 32-threads, clocked at 4.3GHz to 5.1GHz
Ryzen 9 3800X: 16-cores, 32-threads, clocked at 3.9GHz to 4.7GHz

There's a considerable difference in speeds between these processors and the engineering sample found by TUM_APISAK. So, the question is whether the engineering sample will be representative of of the speeds of the consumer models, or if it simply has lower clocks because it's an engineering sample.

Speeds aside, the likelihood of Ryzen CPUs with increased core counts just seems that much more likely as another frequent leaker, Jim@AdoredTV, responded to TUM_APISAK's tweet all but confirming the findings and suggesting a faster 12-core model.

Now, we just have to wait and see what AMD CEO Lisa Su has to say at the AMD Computex 2019 keynote, as Ryzen 3000 CPUs and Navi GPUs are both expected.