AMD RyZen CPU Architecture for 2017

[Gubbi]

The Raven Ridge spec lists 4 CPU cores, 12 Next gen GFX cores and up to 16 compute cores.

Can somebody explain to me what that means ? Does it have 12 or 16 CUs? Or did some PR guy at AMD mess up.

Raven Ridge is the most interesting from a business POV, IMHO. If they can get 4 well performing CPU cores and XB1 level graphics into a 15W power envelope they'll carve out a chunk of Intel's high margin mobile business.

Cheers

 

[bgroovy]

For their APUs they sometimes add the CPU and GPU core counts together for a total "compute core" count.

 

[fellix]

Still better, than Nvidia's insistence on calling the ALU lanes "CUDA cores".

 

[hoom]

Well too late now Zen, my Mobo died & I'm now on an i5

 

[Raqia]

First solid info:

http://techreport.com/review/30540/amd-gives-us-our-first-real-moment-of-zen

 

[Pressure]

Ian have also been at it over at AnandTech.

Even though it doesn't cover everything, it seems far more exciting than the GPU side of things.

 

[xEx]

An AMD CPU with same IPC than a Broadwell-E? This looks really interesting.

 

[Pressure]

Clock for clock. Now, how far can they clock is the question? Engineering samples are at 3.0Ghz.

 

[Kaotik]

Clock for clock. Now, how far can they clock is the question? Engineering samples are at 3.0Ghz.

IPC stands for Instructions per clock, so your point is moot on that aspect

 

[xEx]

ES at 3GHz is pretty good in my opinion. the real question is the price: everyone have an Intel platform and you are not just asking them to buy your CPU, you are asking them to buy a CPU + Mobo + RAM(Ppl with skylake wont be changing platform for obvious reasons) So its a pretty big investment and you need to give ppl are very very very good reason to do so. I have an I5 4590 and I dont know if I want to change platform really...Do I want a better/faster OCable CPU? hell yes, do I wanna sell and buy my CPU, my MoBo, and my RAM? I dont know just yet... and that is the biggest barrier AMD have to overcome if they want to be success. An AMD CPU with same performance and price than an Intel CPU will fail due to these reasons IMO and we dont even talk about Image and brand forces.

I dream with Zen success I really do, haven't to pay more today for an 4970k than when it was lunch its like a split in my face from Intel, but all will be determinate on how AMD plan to "charm" ppl to move to their platform. Lets hope they know how to do it, I have my many doubts since its GPU strategy is a piece of S!@T but lets have hope...

 

[Kaotik]

ES at 3GHz is pretty good in my opinion. the real question is the price: everyone have an Intel platform and you are not just asking them to buy your CPU, you are asking them to buy a CPU + Mobo + RAM(Ppl with skylake wont be changing platform for obvious reasons) So its a pretty big investment and you need to give ppl are very very very good reason to do so. I have an I5 4590 and I dont know if I want to change platform really...Do I want a better/faster OCable CPU? hell yes, do I wanna sell and buy my CPU, my MoBo, and my RAM? I dont know just yet... and that is the biggest barrier AMD have to overcome if they want to be success. An AMD CPU with same performance and price than an Intel CPU will fail due to these reasons IMO and we dont even talk about Image and brand forces.

I dream with Zen success I really do, haven't to pay more today for an 4970k than when it was lunch its like a split in my face from Intel, but all will be determinate on how AMD plan to "charm" ppl to move to their platform. Lets hope they know how to do it, I have my many doubts since its GPU strategy is a piece of S!@T but lets have hope...

You generally have to switch motherboard regardless (unless you upgrade your CPU every generation, then you can possibly upgrade only CPU once on Intel), both use DDR4 RAM, why would you need to switch that? Unless you're on DDR3, but then you'd have to change that on Intel too.

 

[Malo]

Yeah it's been a long long time since I upgraded a CPU without doing the mobs and RAM at the same time. I have an aging i5-3570k so I'm definitely hoping for some choices early next year other than an Intel i7.

 

[xEx]

You generally have to switch motherboard regardless (unless you upgrade your CPU every generation, then you can possibly upgrade only CPU once on Intel), both use DDR4 RAM, why would you need to switch that? Unless you're on DDR3, but then you'd have to change that on Intel too.

Not really. the 775 socket last many years and when Intel wanted to change board every year users claim and Intel changed its mind and we can last some years with the same socket. nevertheless the thing is: Why would I instead of getting an 4790k would like to spend much more money into getting a new Mobo, RAM and CPU? IDK how many years 1151 will last but I'm sure Intel wont be changing it anytime soon ether. Even if you come from an semi-old Intel platform you could still reuse your old DDR3 RAM if you want to move to 1150 and have a very big after market CPUs on Ebay.

I'm not talking about AMD shouldn't use the new tech in ZEN Im talking about that they are fighting against Intel Brand and they need to give a very good reason to ppl buy their platform and if they offer same performance on same or higher price than Intel then I dont think they could have any real success.

 

[hoom]

Clock for clock. Now, how far can they clock is the question?

Indeed.

ES at 3GHz is pretty good in my opinion. the real question is the price: everyone have an Intel platform and you are not just asking them to buy your CPU, you are asking them to buy a CPU + Mobo + RAM(Ppl with skylake wont be changing platform for obvious reasons) So its a pretty big investment and you need to give ppl are very very very good reason to do so.

Yeah, 3.0 is a good start but they'll need to be 4+ without power going crazy to be properly competitive.
Having just bought new cpu, mobo & ram I'm not gonna do it again for years.

Yeah it's been a long long time since I upgraded a CPU without doing the mobo and RAM at the same time.

I have the idea I may have bought a new CPU on same mobo once like upgrading from 600Mhz to 800 or something but every other one since '97 was with a new mobo. Several times managed to keep same RAM (this time I was gonna go for previous gen i5 with my existing DDR3 to save cost but that gen got hard to find & aren't really any cheaper. I lucked out with a well timed & decent discount sale on current gen stuff)

 

[eastmen]

Not really. the 775 socket last many years and when Intel wanted to change board every year users claim and Intel changed its mind and we can last some years with the same socket. nevertheless the thing is: Why would I instead of getting an 4790k would like to spend much more money into getting a new Mobo, RAM and CPU? IDK how many years 1151 will last but I'm sure Intel wont be changing it anytime soon ether. Even if you come from an semi-old Intel platform you could still reuse your old DDR3 RAM if you want to move to 1150 and have a very big after market CPUs on Ebay.

I'm not talking about AMD shouldn't use the new tech in ZEN Im talking about that they are fighting against Intel Brand and they need to give a very good reason to ppl buy their platform and if they offer same performance on same or higher price than Intel then I dont think they could have any real success.

I don't think people with haswell or skylake will want to upgrade to this. I think this is for people with older cpus . I have an ivy bridge that I would like to upgrade at some point in the future.

If I can get an AMD system with comparable performance with the cpu being a % less , the mobo being a % less then it may be a good deal for me.
You can get a low end intel board for like $80 to $100 bucks but the higher end boards go for $300 while the higher end AMD boards have gone for $150 to $200 in the past.

This could be important for system manufacturers . I'm sure apple wouldn't mind shaving another $100-$200 of the components for a mac if the performance is similar

 

[sebbbi]

Zen cores seem to be performing surprisingly well against Broadwell cores. AMD needs to get these 8 core chips out before Intel upgrades their 8 core chips to Skylake architecture. 8 core Skylake clocks much higher than Broadwell and has AVX-512. Zen can do only a single 8-wide AVX FMA instruction per cycle. It is crucial for AMD that Zen gets compared against Broadwell. Timing is critical. AMD can't afford delays.

Consumer segment (4 core i5/i7) is of course another story. Kaby Lake is out later this year. Forthcoming 4 core Zen will be compared against it. If we assume that Skylake -> Kaby Lake is a similar step as Broadwell -> Skylake, it's not going to be easy. Fortunately for AMD, it seems that they are launching the 8 core model first. If AMD doesn't slip badly in their schedule, the first benchmarks will be between 8 core Broadwell and Zen. It's very important for AMD that Zen first impression is positive. It is a whole new architecture. They have lots of headroom to improve it further if they can get the market interested about it.

 

[Squilliam]

Does anyone have any idea what kind of price and time-frame we're looking at? My friend is going to build a PC over the next few months and I would sorely love to be able to put an AMD CPU in there. I heard they might be coming out in October, so that's why I have hopes.

 

[xEx]

AMD said first Q 2017.

I don't think people with haswell or skylake will want to upgrade to this. I think this is for people with older cpus . I have an ivy bridge that I would like to upgrade at some point in the future.

If I can get an AMD system with comparable performance with the cpu being a % less , the mobo being a % less then it may be a good deal for me.
You can get a low end intel board for like $80 to $100 bucks but the higher end boards go for $300 while the higher end AMD boards have gone for $150 to $200 in the past.

This could be important for system manufacturers . I'm sure apple wouldn't mind shaving another $100-$200 of the components for a mac if the performance is similar

That is exactly my point. Price of CPU and Boards will be crucial for Zen success. Something interesting is that when I was building my current PC like a year ago I could find a good Intel Mobo cheaper than an AMD one..

 

[itsmydamnation]

Zen cores seem to be performing surprisingly well against Broadwell cores. AMD needs to get these 8 core chips out before Intel upgrades their 8 core chips to Skylake architecture. 8 core Skylake clocks much higher than Broadwell and has AVX-512. Zen can do only a single 8-wide AVX FMA instruction per cycle. It is crucial for AMD that Zen gets compared against Broadwell. Timing is critical. AMD can't afford delays.

Why do people say this?

Does google care about 8 let alone 16-wide AVX?
Does facebook care about 8 let alone 16-wide AVX
does IaaS care about 8 let alone 16 wide AVX
does Enterprise care about 8 let alone 16 wide AVX


Now lets look at the revenue of that market its what its around 15-20 billion a year......

Now i cant say for certain about google and facebook but i have direct experience in designing Datacentres for the last two. No one cares about AVX, lots of "solid IPC cores" with lots of memory is a small form factor, its key to the pricing model. It looks like Zen delivers that in spades , has lots of onboard 10Gbe and possibly ( i hope they do) crypto/compress engines.

Zen doesn't have to be everything to everyone and the silent majority of customers and workloads dont care about AVX. I stake my 10 years of design work in the IaaS and Enterprise Datacentre space on that.

Im far more concerned about the previously mentioned perf impact to 2P over 1P, thats something to actually care about...............

 

[Alexko]

An AMD CPU with same IPC than a Broadwell-E? This looks really interesting.

Well, an AMD CPU with the same IPC as Broadwell-E when running Blender. I don't want to be a party-pooper, and I want to believe more than Fox Mulder, but my experience with AMD has made me careful, to say the least.