AMD Might Be Bringing Budget Athlon or Ryzen 3 CPUs To AM5: 7nm & Sub-$100 US Prices For PC Builders

AMD is reportedly preparing budget Athlon or Ryzen 3 CPUs aiming at its brand-new AM5 platform which will be targeted toward DIY PC builders.

AMD's Athlon series haven't seen no action on the AM5 platform, in fact, even the AM4 platform has only seen the 3000G being refreshed and launched again last year for the DIY consumers. It does come in both DIY and PRO ranges but the Athlon brand mostly serves as an entry-level CPU option for those who either don't want the high processing power of Ryzen CPUs or have budget constraints.

However, according to a report from Bits & Chips, it looks like AMD might be preparing a new set of CPUs that will target the AM5 platform with a focus on budget DIY builders & it might make sense to release those. Looking at the details, it is reported that AMD is planning to launch at least one of two CPUs within its entry-level Athlon or Ryzen 3 which will be produced on TSMC's 7nm process node and feature prices below $100 US.

The current AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs based on the Zen 4 core architecture are based on the 5nm process technology while featuring a 6nm IO die while the newer Ryzen 9000 CPUs with Zen 5 cores will be based on a 4nm process technology and feature the same 6nm IO die. Being built on a 7nm process die means that we might be seeing a porting of the Zen 4 architecture on an old node which can allow for big cost savings, leading to lower prices for the consumer market. 7nm is also a more mature node so it will be relatively easy to mass produce a large chunk of budget chips faster and with fewer defects.

As for what to expect from the core configurations, we know that AMD's current Ryzen 7000 and upcoming Ryzen 9000 CPUs bottom out at 6 cores so one might expect 2-4 cores for Athlon and at least 4-cores for the Ryzen 3 budget chips. However, once again, the low cost of producing these CPUs on 7nm might lead to even 6-core variants albeit with slower clocks. The report also states that there will be no new die but technically, these should be a new die if they are being built on a new process node. I think they are referring to the internals of the die which should stick with the Zen 4 core architecture.

Overall, the entry-level Athlon or Ryzen 3 CPUs will be a good addition that will prompt users to migrate to the newer AM5 platforms. AMD is also preparing to launch new mainstream & low-end chipsets within its 800-series family which should also attract new users to upgrade.These CPUs will finally mark the retirement of the AM4 platform which has served the market for 8 years now. With that said, AMD is introducing two brand new Ryzen 5000 CPUs for AM4 platforms this month, the Ryzen 9 5900XT & the Ryzen 7 5800XT.