AMD Will Make Its Current & Future Ryzen CPU Specs More Clear To Everyone, Including Proper Core Count, Clocks, Etc

AMD seems to be reworking its specifications and branding strategy for existing and future Ryzen CPUs as it expands its hybrid chip fleet.

Both Intel and AMD offer chips that are based on not one but multiple types of cores with varying specifications such as core counts, clock speeds, cache amounts, etc. This has led to confusion and both companies are trying their best to offer detailed specifications to users who wish to know the exact configurations and details of what they are buying.

Intel kicked off its hybrid design philosophy in a big way with the 12th Gen Alder Lake lineup. While the company shared a lack of information at the beginning of the launch, it now offers detailed specs such as listing individual clock (base/boost) speeds for both P-Cores (Performance) and the E-Cores (Efficiency) separate from one another.

The company also lists TDPs at different power levels such as Base Power, Maximum Turbo Power, Minimum Assured Power, and Maximum Assured Power. Each core is separately mentioned with its specific core count which lets customers get an idea of how many P-cores, E-Cores, or LP E-Cores they are getting since having more P-cores or having more E-cores can dramatically affect the overall performance of a PC.

Meanwhile, if you look at AMD's specifications page, you will only find that the Zen 4 and Zen 4C core counts are mentioned but clock speeds aren't mentioned independently for each type of core being used. Plus, the TDPs only range from default and configurable power ranges which is a bit lacking compared to Intel's description. Another area where AMD lacks is the description of AI data types which are mentioned by Intel for its recently launched Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" CPUs. AMD offers the XDNA NPU on both Ryzen 7000 & Ryzen 8000 APUs but they lack this detail. AMD has previously promised to make it easier for users to distinguish between Ryzen AI and non-Ryzen AI PCs through new branding.

Now in a statement to Tom's Hardware, AMD has confirmed that they will be offering more precise and detailed specifications for everyone for its current and future Ryzen CPUs.

“We're not trying to create a trend. But we need to check what we disclose and take the feedback going forward, look at both our own approach, and competitively, how we want to present that," the representative responded. "The one thing I'll say in our architecture is that the dense (Zen 4c) versus the E-core is very different in its capability, so we're not trying to describe those as apples-to-apples."

AMD Rep via Tom's Hardware

It should be pointed out that AMD's hybrid strategy is so far unlike Intel's hybrid strategy. While the company relies on two different types of cores in a few SKUs within its Ryzen 7000/8000 family, the fundamental ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) is pretty much the same with the only differences in clock speeds, cache, and power targets. Intel's hybrid core approach is way more unique and uses two different core architectures that cannot be compared to each other and have many different designs which warrants the more detailed listing on Intel's spec pages. AMD made it clear that it won't follow Intel's P-Core/E-Core design for its hybrid future.

So as for AMD's side of things, their specs pages currently do not mention the clock speeds for the two Zen 4 and Zen 4C cores individually. The Zen 4 cores are optimized for higher clocks while the Zen 4C cores are optimized for higher efficiency (so lower clocks). This isn't made clear and that's one of the areas that AMD will be improving in future listings. Following is an overview of the specs page listings offered by Intel and AMD on the official web pages:

It's great to see that AMD is taking quick action and will soon offer more precise and detailed specs on its official webpage. Both Intel and AMD have come a long way in terms of offering proper specs to customers. There was a time when we would have to ask Intel to provide us the per core clocks of its processors and now the company lists them within its presentation slides & specs pages too.

Intel did release and unreleased some controversial slides calling out AMD for the use of misleading brandings on its CPUs a few weeks ago but after being blamed for using similar naming schemes themselves, they removed the slides altogether. It is better if both companies try to improve things rather than firing mere words at each other since that's more productive for their customers.