AMD to announce Zen on December 13

AMD is gearing up for one of its biggest CPU launches in recent history, and perhaps ever. We're of course talking about Zen, the CPU architecture that's supposed to propel AMD back to the top where it will either share the performance crown with Intel or snag the thing from its rival. Leading up to the much anticipated launch, AMD is planning a livestream event to preview Zen.

The "New Horizon" event, as AMD is calling it, will be the first time the public will get to spend some hands on time with Zen and see how it stacks up. It will be hosted by Geoff Keighley, former host of GameTrailers TV and co-host of the now-defunct G4tv.com.

AMD isn't offering up too many details about the event, other than the fact that retired esports player PPD will be on hand, along with appearances from unnamed special guests. There will be giveaways too, presumably to attendees and not those tuning in to watch the livestream.

"If you’re serious about gaming, this is an event you do not want to miss," AMD says.

Expectations are high for Zen. AMD previously showed off an 8-core, 16-thread Summit Ridge Zen processor edging out an 8-core, 16-thread Broadwell-E chip, both clocked at 3GHz, in Sony's Blender 3D rendering application. Whether that level of performance extends into other programs and gaming is something that will be asked and speculated upon until Zen actually launches in the first quarter of next year.

AMD will also launch a new AM4 platform for Zen, which include a new socket and chipset. It will be AMD's first to support DDR4 memory.

The upcoming livestream event is scheduled for December 13 starting at 3 PM CST. You can sign up here to receive for more information and updates on the event.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).