AMD Ryzen 5000: B2 stepping of Zen 3 in stores

A few days ago there was speculation about a B2 stepping of Ryzen 5000 and that is now also in retail. A screenshot from GPU-Z proves that the recently purchased Ryzen 7 5800X is the new version.

The B2 stepping of AMD's Vermeer CPUs is commercially available. From the outside, it is not possible to determine which stepping is involved - not even the OPN provides the desired information. The package was assembled in week 02/2022.

AMD says about the B2 stepping of Ryzen 5000 that there are no significant changes. However, rumors quickly made the rounds that the silicon in the new processors was of a slightly higher quality. Asus' house and court overclocker Shamino said that his example of the Ryzen 9 5900X does not set any new clock records at 5.15 GHz, but the CPU in B2 stepping operates 9 degrees Celsius cooler thanks to 30 watts less power consumption in the settings used. In Prime 95 he was also able to achieve 60 MHz higher results than on a B0 chip with comparable settings. The copy is also said to have made DDR4-4100 possible without any setup.

It is always difficult to determine whether this is scattering or is actually due to B2 stepping. At the moment, however, it is said that B2 is fundamentally a little better off, even if the test quantity of chips remains relatively small. Now that processors are on the market, more will be said soon as the numbers needed to assess the situation will be collected. B2 stepping had been announced for a long time. AMD first confirmed its existence in May 2021 and there were rumors even before that.

As of now, AMD seems to want to sit out the switch to Zen 4 with Vermeer as well. There have always been rumors of a refresh, but that seems - whether planned or not - more and more unlikely as the time window is getting smaller and smaller. There are many reasons for this - AMD simply has no acute need for action. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D with a larger cache is a small addition to the product. Tests have to show what that actually brings.

In other news, AMD can look back on a successful business in the x86 sector: According to Mercury Research, they have reached an all-time high with a market share of 25.6 percent. It’s not even the desktop processors that help, but consoles, servers, and mobile.