The latest info comes from Yuri Bubliy, better known as 1usmus, who has long been tied into the tuning and motherboard scene. According to him, Zen 6 will increase the number of cores per compute die, or CCD, with configurations offering up to 12 cores in the standard layout and 16 in the dense variant.

That marks a clear step up from Zen 5’s 8-core per CCD setup. Each CCD will have up to 48 MB of cache. The platform will also introduce a new dual integrated memory controller design, although it will still operate within a dual-channel memory layout. That’s no surprise given that Zen 6 is expected to remain compatible with AM5 motherboards, which are all designed around two-channel memory.

Engineering samples are already circulating and diagnostic tools like AIDA64 have added preliminary support, suggesting that silicon is moving through early testing stages. Bubliy says there will be no dramatic changes to boost behaviour or voltage tuning, meaning existing overclocking utilities like Hydra won’t need major updates.

Zen 6 is expected to bring double-digit IPC improvements, higher clock speeds from process node refinements, and better support for faster DDR5 memory. With up to two CCDs and a single IO die, desktop chips could scale up to 24 cores and 48 threads. There’s even speculation around 32 or 64-core configurations if AMD chooses to push into extreme desktop territory.

The chips are expected to land in mid to late 2026, roughly in line with Intel’s planned Nova Lake-S launch. Whether Zen 6 keeps AMD in pole position for gaming and multi-threaded performance or simply maintains a solid lead remains to be seen, but the foundations are clearly already in place.