Update: Now up to 4.9 GHz | AMD Ryzen 9 4950X / 5950X 16C/32T Zen 3 Vermeer's boost clock may touch the 5 GHz mark; AMD could skip 4000 series naming for desktop

Update:

Igor's Lab has just uncovered two more OPNs from the B0 stepping pertaining to the 16C/32T Ryzen 9 processor. OPN "100-000000061-06_ 49/37 _Y" indicates a boost speed up to 4.9 GHz and a base clock of 3.9 GHz. This makes makes this Zen 3 part 200 MHz and 400 MHz faster in boost and base clocks, respectively compared to the Ryzen 9 3950X. AMD is now just a 100 MHz short of hitting the 5 GHz boost mark.

Another OPN "100-000000065-04_ 46/36 _Y" indicates a 4.6 GHz boost and a 3.6 GHz base. This could probably be a non-X variant.

Also being reported is that Zen 3 Vermeer will see the addition of two new x86 instructions, ERMS (Enhanced Repeat Move String) and FSRM (Fast Short Repeat Move String), which are already part of Intel CPUs. Addition of these instructions should help with even more increased performance for short and very short operations.

Original article:

AMD recently confirmed that Zen 3 Vermeer processors are well on their way later this year. Though AMD hasn't committed to a launch date yet, we expect Zen 3 parts to launch some time around September (Q3 2020). Not much is known about the specifications of the processors themselves, but Igor's Lab has managed to get some information about the base and boost clocks of a 16-core 32-thread (16C/32T) Zen 3 engineering sample.

Igor's source mentions an Orderable Part Number (OPN) ID "100-000000059-52_ 48/35 _ Y" for a 16C/32T engineering sample. From this OPN ID, we can deduce that this Zen 3 part will have a boost clock of 4.8 GHz and a base clock of 3.5 GHz — this is 100 MHz higher than the base clock of the Ryzen 9 3950X (3.5 GHz base and 4.70 GHz boost).

Previously, back in June, Igor provided information about two Zen 3 Vermeer 16C/32T OPNs in the A0 stepping — "100-000000059-14_46 / 37_Y" and "100-000000059-15_46 / 37_N". He also confirmed that Vermeer CPUs are already in B0 stepping and ready for mass production soon. Going by these OPNs, it appears that AMD has managed to achieve quite a decent boost going from A0 to B0; further increase in clocks may still be possible with retail units coming close to the 5 GHz mark.

Igor's Lab also notes that Zen 3 will include a per-core voltage adjustment feature similar to what is seen with Intel Comet Lake-S chips. References to this can be found in AMD's latest ComboAM4v2PI 1.0.6.0 AGESA changelog, which apparently has reached version 8 internally. The changelog indicates that Vermeer would support per-core voltage adjustment. References to Renoir and Cezanne can also be seen here. It is not clear whether per-core voltage adjustment can possibly be backported to Zen 2 Matisse as well.

Finally, AMD may choose to skip the Ryzen 4000 branding for Zen 3 in favor of Ryzen 5000 as rumored by wjm47196 on the Chiphell forums. This does makes sense as the Ryzen 4000 branding is currently being used for mobile U and H series and desktop G series Renoir APUs. Using the same nomenclature for desktops may potentially create confusion for consumers.