One leaker's cryptic post suggests that AMD's next Ryzen lineup will have some serious core configurations across the range

With all the processor news of late being focused on Intel's new Panther Lake chips and its forthcoming Nova Lake monsters, it would be perfectly understandable if you'd completely forgotten about AMD and its next-gen Zen 6 architecture. If you have, then don't worry, because one cryptic message from a well-known leaker suggests we're in for a treat.

The person in question is HXL on X, who has a pretty good track record of dropping snippets about CPUs and GPUs that turn out to be spot on later down the line. Their latest missive is quite brief, though, comprising just two lines: "6 8 10 12" and "8+8 10+10 12+12."

As the post contains nothing else, one is left to ruminate as to what they're talking about, but my money would be on the core configurations for AMD's next series of desktop Ryzen processors. Ever since Zen 2, Team Red CPUs have consisted of two or three chiplets: one or two for the cores (Core Complex Dies, CCDs) and one input/output block (IO Die, IOD).

Take any desktop Ryzen chip over that period, though, and you'll see that each CCD houses eight cores, no matter what model it is. Yes, I know that Ryzen 5 processors only have six cores, but the CCD itself still has eight: it's just that two of them are disabled. However, the general expectation for Zen 6 is that AMD will move to a 12-core CCD, and either HXL is confirming that as a 'leak' or they're simply musing on the possible configurations that such CCDs will offer.

So, let's break it down then. The "6 8 10 12" line suggests to me that AMD will release single-CCD Ryzen models that sport those specific core amounts. If so, then the next Ryzen 7 model would be a 12-core, 24-thread processor, whereas at the moment, it's an eight-core, 16-thread configuration.

Where the discussion gets interesting is when you move further down the line. Previous Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 models have been four and six-core chips, respectively, but here we have three possibilities. So two Ryzen 7 SKUs and one Ryzen 3, or the other way around? Could it mean that AMD abandon using odd numbers for SKU families and switches to use even values, i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on?

I suspect not because, despite AMD's penchant for creating some truly confusing SKU names, it would stop making sense once you got the dual-CCD models. Presently, these are exclusive to the Ryzen 9 family, which currently consists of the Ryzen 9 9900X and Ryzen 9 9950X, plus their X3D variants.

Using HXL's nomenclature, these are 6+6 and 8+8 configurations, resulting in 12-core, 24-thread and 16-core, 32-thread processors. But with 12-core CCDs, you obviously get one additional SKU that fits in between the top and bottom Ryzen 9 CPUs.

So, by using a larger CCD, AMD would have the opportunity to create at least seven processor models and at launch, these would be X variants, like the 9700X or the 9600X. A little further down the line, we'd get the non-X models, possibly one for each tier, taking the Zen 6 family to 14 chips in total.

And finally, we can expect to see X3D and iGPU-less versions appearing at some point, too. Theoretically, as many as seven of each, leading to a grand family of 28 next-gen Ryzens to choose from. Crikey.

What might seem horribly complicated to a novice PC gamer is mana from heaven for AMD, because it means there are more options to fit various Zen 6 dies into than before. That results in fewer wasted dies, which ultimately helps to improve AMD's bottom line. If Zen 6 CCDs really are 12 cores in size, then be prepared to see a veritable rampage of Ryzens at some point this year.