AMD Ryzen 9000 (Zen 5) launch not too far as chipset driver, firmware support lands

It's nearly mid-2024 and as such, AMD seems almost ready to reveal its next-gen processors based on the new Zen 5 architecture. Interestingly, AMD had initially planned to call these "Ryzen 8000," but the company seems to have had a change of heart as newly leaked information suggests the next-gen will be called Ryzen 9000 instead.

And if you are wondering where this leaked information is coming from, it is almost straight from the horse's mouth itself. AMD motherboard partner vendor Asus had recently released chipset driver release notes where it inadvertently revealed the "Ryzen 9000" moniker. The chipset driver version is 6.03.19.217. with the following note:

If you notice, the AMD PMF driver is indicating support for Ryzenn 9000 series processors. AMD PMF or Platform Management Framework essentially helps the chipset maintain the optimal performance of an AMD CPU based on inputs from sensor data, OS inputs, and other metrics.

If you recall, AMD fixed a Windows Modern Standby bug with a chipset driver from back in February earlier this year. The PMF was one of the technologies that aided there as it is also part of what helps manage the various sleep states in Windows.

This is in a way a good thing as Ryzen 8000 G-series APUs are based on Zen 4 which would lead to confusion among potential consumers.

Following Asus, MicroStar International (MSI) has also confirmed next-gen Ryzen, though this time, the motherboard maker was careful not to disclose the product name and has only referred to it as "next-gen CPU."

This confirmation comes as a part of the latest firmware released by MSI which now supports the next generation of AMD Ryzen processors. The AGESA (AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture) firmware version has been updated to version 7D74v1D2, which is beta BIOS, and its description reads:

• AGESA ComboPI 1.1.7.0 Patch A updated for next-gen CPU.

Typically, CPUs begin to land in the retail around three months from the date of firmware arrival, which means we shouldn't be too far away from seeing Ryzen 9000 on shelves.

Aside from these two, monitoring software AIDA64 also added support for Zen 5 in the not-too-distant past.

Via: HXL (X/Twitter) (1, 2)