RYZEN 9000 UNLEASHED

Zak Storey puts AMD's latest chips and motherboards to the test

- Zak Storey

WE WERE THERE, dear reader, seven years ago, when Ryzen first landed center stage. We remember it well. A subdued press event hidden away under a hotel in San Francisco. Everything was under lock and key. NDAs were signed and lips sealed as the world’s tech press shuffled into a presentation hall. Heck, we couldn’t even tell folk we were getting a flight to the darn place, they were that secretive about it. Still, we all gathered at the event, then Lisa Su emerged from the shadows, and with her came a powerful CPU, one that could dominate all, and pave the way back to red-tinged processing greatness.

Ryzen’s first-generation processors had landed, masterminded and designed from the ground up by Jim Keller and a crack team of silicon experts and engineers. Its very launch reimagined what a CPU could be— even should be. It was the first time we’d seen a truly modular CPU design. Chips that could be scaled up or down, intertwined with the beautifully impressive infinity fabric to deliver performance and value unlike any we’d seen prior. Intel had to scramble, and if we’re honest, it’s still scrambling today. No bad thing.

That was many years ago, and at long last, the 9000 series has finally graced us with its presence in a Maximum PC build. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 394 weeks since we could first even talk about its progenitor chip—394 weeks filled with ups, downs, world events, and generation after generation of processor, all of it leading up to this one moment. It’s remarkable, really. In that short time, AMD’s Ryzen architecture has continued to advance and develop. Transistor size has shrunk, the inclusion of iGPUs, smarter resource allocation, and intriguing new 3D cache design concepts have pushed these chips ever higher on their way to greatness. And at last, we’re finally here.