AMD launched four new Ryzen desktop processors this week, codenamed ‘Pinnacle Ridge’, that are built using the latest 12nm Zen+ architecture. The new processors are the Ryzen 7 2700X, Ryzen 7 2700, Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 5 2600. AMD tweaked a number of things on its new Zen+ architecture and claims they were able to get up to a 15% performance boost in common tasks like gaming over a 1st Gen Ryszen processor. How was AMD able to get such a large performance improvement for their 2nd Generation Ryzen processors?

For starters they moved to a 12nm manufacturing process from GlobalFoundries and has introduced new Precision Boost 2 technology that has allowed AMD to get higher clock speeds than the original Zen core design and keep them clocked high. AMD Zen+ also brings substantial reductions in L1, L2, and L3 cache latencies with AMD reporting reductions of 13%, 34%, and 16%, respectively. Memory performance was also improved as AMD now officially supports JEDEC DDR4-2933 memory and claims they have improved memory latency by about 11%.