AMD is rumored to be preparing a refreshed lineup of 3rd generation Ryzen processors called "Matisse Refresh". Following last week's Ryzen refresh rumors, new information is beginning to emerge regarding the existence of three new chips, the Ryzen 9 3900XT, Ryzen 7 3800XT, and Ryzen 5 3600XT.

Do these chips look familiar? That's because they will reportedly be identical to the first batch of Ryzen 3000 processors in everything but clock speed; there are no extra Zen 2 cores crammed under the AM4 heatspreader. Nevertheless, the boost clocks on these chips are about 200-300 MHz higher than their predecessors, and the Ryzen 9 3900XT's peak clock speed of 4.8 GHz will absolutely crush anything you can throw at it.

The Ryzen 5 3600XT is arguably the most attractive of the bunch; the Ryzen 5 3600 currently stands out as one of the best CPUs for gaming, and since the Ryzen 7 3800 was overtaken by the Ryzen 7 3700X last July, it will be interesting to see where the 3800XT stands I am interested to see where the 3800XT stands. Also, if the core count remains the same, the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900XT would be a strong competitor to Intel's Core i9 10900K.

That is, however, if it happens; Chiphell's comments (obtained by Twitter user 9550Pro via VideoCardz) and Gigabyte's press deck are all we have on the existence of these chips.

When these chips do appear, they will no doubt emerge as AMD's answer to Intel's Comet Lake processors. Intel's 10th generation desktop processors, led by the 10-core Core i9 10900K, were just released last week. These chips have proven to be powerful for gaming as well, although they can be a bit power hungry at times, a side effect of the aging 14nm process and iterative Skylake architecture.

The rumored Ryzen refresh will not only have to take aim squarely at Intel, but also compete with AMD Ryzen's downward price trend.

There is also the AMD Zen 3 processor due to be announced later this year. With a shiny new architecture looming overhead, will users want to upgrade to the refreshed version?

At the very least, they won't have long to wait to find out. The Mathis Refresh is said to be announced on June 16, 2020.

Also, what's up with that name, XT... This may be too confusing for those not familiar with PC game marketing terminology. Let's hope the leaked information is wrong. These were initially said to be called the Ryzen 7 3750X and Ryzen 7 3850X.