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AMD has reportedly set a highly ambitious internal goal to push its next-gen gaming CPU range beyond the 7GHz clock speed barrier. According to the latest word from the rumor mill, the forthcoming Zen 6 architecture that will underpin the next generation of AMD Ryzen CPUs is potentially capable of hitting huge clock speeds that go well beyond anything we’ve seen before.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen reports that AMD Zen 6 clock speeds are likely to be massive, or even the 7GHz AMD Zen 6 figure, but we’re apparently not just talking about AMD hitting 7GHz anymore, but instead “actually targeting above 7GHz.” As a point of comparison, the highest clock speed you’ll see in our guide to buying the best gaming CPU is 6GHz, which can only be hit by the Intel Core i9 14900K in a few limited circumstances, and it gets very hot doing it as well.
As such, the news that AMD could be targeting above 7GHz, which has just been reported by YouTube tech leaker Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) in the video below, is being met with a degree of skepticism. After all, it’s a huge jump from the 5.7GHz peak of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, and you don’t often see huge jumps in clock speed anymore. However, MLID counters this cynicism by pointing to the massive jump in nodes (manufacturing processes) that AMD will reportedly make with Zen 6.
Instead of just making the incremental move to the next generation of manufacturing tech that you might expect with a new CPU generation, AMD is reportedly going to leapfrog several generations. “Remember they’re not going from N4P to N3, they’re going from N4P to N3P to N2P to N2X,” says MLID, where these numbers refer to the manufacturing processes used by Taiwanese silicon manufacturer TSMC to produce AMD’s CPUs.
“If you look at the latest TSMC foundry cadence, they consider N2X to basically be a node better for some customers than N2P. And with that in mind, that’s almost three node jumps,” says MLID. “Now, when was the last time AMD did this before? Again, it’s not exactly the same, but if you go from Zen+ (AMD Ryzen 2000) to Zen 2 (Ryzen 3000), you’re going from 12nm to 7nm, and then you go to N5P with Zen 4 (Ryzen 7000). That was three node jumps, and in that case, they went from 4.35GHz to 5.7GHz, so AMD has done this before.”
TSMC introduced its 2nm N2 process earlier in 2025, with the advanced N2X expected to follow in 2027 – the latter is expected to be more tolerant of higher voltages, which could enable chip makers to increase the clock speeds. As such, if AMD is indeed planning to produce AMD Zen 6 CPUs on the N2X node, it would indeed be right at the cutting edge of current tech.
Is this all nonsense, though? MLID insists that he has “shown immense restraint in my opinion when it comes to telling you guys the clocks that Zen 6 is trying to target. I’ve known what I’m about to tell you for I believe a month now.” He states that “I now have multiple sources telling me that this is true, …and I pushed them pretty hard… I said, ‘Hey, you better be 150% sure because if I say this and it’s not even close to being true, then I’m going to look really silly.'”
The talk of goals doesn’t mean AMD is already hitting 7GHz on its Zen 6 silicon, though, says MLID. According to the multiple AMD sources to whom MLID claims to have spoken, “they’re definitely achieving 6.4GHz or higher, and the goal is above 7GHz,” but that 7GHz figure “is actually in the middle of where they’re trying to achieve.”
It’s still very early days for Zen 6, of course, and it may well not end up hitting these high clock speeds. It’s also worth noting that this discussion about clock speeds is still very much in rumor territory – AMD hasn’t officially said anything about Zen 6 clock speeds. MLID has also stressed that not every Zen 6 CPU is likely to use the advanced TSMC N2X process, with the first APUs and Epyc chips expected to be manufactured first on the N2P process. “Olympic Ridge, which uses N2X, comes out probably late next year,” says MLID, referring to the first expected Zen 6 AMD Ryzen desktop CPUs.
That’s a fair way off, though, so check out our guide to buying the best gaming motherboard if you’re thinking of upgrading your CPU now, as well as our full guide to the best CPU cooler, so you can make sure your new chip doesn’t overheat.
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