When AMD first came out with their Zen Architecture in 2017, they rebranded to Ryzen. They changed the naming scheme of each of their CPUs to better suit their new brand. It has mostly stayed the same until last year when they changed the naming scheme of the laptop processor.
In this article I will guide you in understanding the various naming convection from the desktop chips.
Nomenclature
Their typical naming convection is Ryzen 9 7950X
- Ryzen – brand name
- 9- Brand Level
- 7-Generation
- 9 -SKU
- 50-Differentiator
- x- Suffix
Just like Intel there are various levels of performance and there are levels to show them .
- Threadripper – Extreme High-end Desktop (for use in workstation such as Animation and 3D Rendering)(Desktop only)
- 9- Premium high-end (Laptop/Desktop)
- 7- High-end (Laptop/Desktop)
- 5- Mid-range (Laptop/Desktop)
- 3- Entry-level (Laptop/Desktop)
Suffixes
Let’s get to the suffixes because this is where most consumers get lost.
- X- Highest Performance
- PRO- for enterprise use(additional security and management features) (locked for overclocking)
- 3D- Have 3D cache that gives them a significant boost in gaming performance.(locked for overclocking)
- F- does not have integrated graphics
- G- APU has good integrated graphics
- XT- Refreshed CPU with a higher clock speeds
- ‘ ‘- Standard CPU
- T- Low power desktop
- S- Low power desktop with integrated graphics
Only the Ryzen PRO and 3D processors are locked, the rest are unlocked for overclocking.
Under Threadripper there are also suffixes even though less but as important as the rest.
- WX- Professional processors
- X- Extremely High-end.
Note, all threadrippers are unlocked for overclocking. But previous generation WX processors were had been locked for overclocking.
AMD’s Desktop naming scheme is actually the simplest of all the companies. But note that I only mentioned the Desktop CPUs. The mobile / laptop CPUs are suffering from an identity-crisis. It would actually take up a two articles just to explain their new scheme. So please bear with me as I try to make it understandable.
