AMD is on a roll with hugely successful gaming CPUs, and it’s already planning for the years ahead. According to a new rumor, AMD expects to launch its next-gen Zen 6 Ryzen “Medusa” gaming CPUs in late 2026 or early 2027, with plans that the new CPUs will maintain compatibility with existing motherboards by using the same AM5 socket design as other Ryzen CPUs.
It’s never too early to think ahead, and AMD has a big lead in the battle for the best gaming CPU that it will want to hold on to. Just this week, we published our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, which showed that this new CPU is well ahead of the best that Intel has to offer, including the Intel Core i9 14900K, with phenomenal gaming performance.
Still, AMD has a reputation to uphold, and it can’t rest in the pursuit for glory, so it’s not surprising to hear that it already has a plan for the next generation. This latest rumor comes straight from X (formerly Twitter), with well known hardware leaker Kepler_L2 reporting in a tweet thread that the company is launching Zen 6 “as far as they know” in a period between late 2026 to early 2027.
In the same thread, Kepler_L2 also reports that these new Ryzen gaming CPUs will maintain compatibility with AM5 by answering “yes” when asked if they’ll be using the same socket design as current Zen 5 CPUs. There are no other details to be shared so far, but that’s unsurprising, as any unconfirmed details (including these) are subject to change.
However, this does seem to match previous AMD Zen 6 launch details that came straight from the chip maker itself at its AMD Tech Day event back in July, when it stated that the Zen 6 release date would be in 2027, and that AM5 would be supported until at least 2027, too.
While the release date is interesting, the socket design offers some early good news for consumers. By sticking with the same AM5 socket as current Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000 CPUs, it’s likely that gamers won’t need to upgrade to a brand new motherboard, reducing the overall cost for upgrades. A new PC build is expensive enough, but this could allow for much cheaper upgrades, especially when you consider that the best CPUs already cost hundreds of dollars.
As always, with a release date so far away, a lot is (and likely will) change between now and then. In the meantime, if you’re in the market for a new CPU upgrade, check out our Ryzen 7 7800X3D review – it’s just been usurped by the new 9800X3D at the top, but it’s still one of the best gaming CPUs that you can buy today.