AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 series of desktop CPUs is one of the most eagerly anticipated announcements among PC and tech enthusiasts. This is because the Ryzen 7000 series of CPUs will be the first Ryzen CPU lineup to run AMD's latest AM5 platform, as opposed to the Ryzen 1000 to 5000 series CPUs, which ran AMD's older AM4 platform.
As we get closer to the launch of Ryzen 7000, more leaks and rumors about the SoC lineup have begun to surface online, and a recent leak this week shows concerning details of the SoC lineup as it shows off the high voltage draw of a supposed member of the Ryzen 7000 lineup.
The leak comes from Twitter user @9550pro, who shared a screenshot of an off-screen BIOS menu screen that shows off the motherboard and the chipset's Vcore voltage draw. Starting with the motherboard, it is determined that it is a member of MSI's exclusive MAG family of motherboards. The B650 designation indicates that the CPU is running on an AMD AM5-based motherboard. And, given that the AM5 platform was created specifically for the Zen-4-based Ryzen 7000 CPUs to replace the AM4 platform, it's easy to see how this could be a member of the upcoming Ryzen 7000 series lineup of desktop CPUs.
VCore, let's move on to the next detail. The image also revealed the CPU's VCore voltage draw, which is 1.532 V, which is quite concerning for an AMD CPU, as the average voltage draw of AMD CPUs is 1.3-1.4V.
In layman's terms, higher voltage draw results in higher power draw, which results in lower power efficiency, higher temperatures, and makes the CPU more susceptible to thermal throttling.
Regardless of the concerns, the statements above are only true if the final retail version of the Ryzen 7000 series is presented with the high voltage draw. The shared image could be a Ryzen 7000 early test sample or an engineering sample being worked on by AMD's research and development team to improve its power efficiency and performance before its planned launch date in 2H 2022.
