Thursday, August 18th 2016
AMD Demos Breakthrough Performance of the ZEN CPU Core
At an event last night in San Francisco, AMD provided additional architectural details and a first look at the performance of its next-generation, high-performance "Zen" processor core. AMD demonstrated the "Zen" core achieving a 40% generational improvement in instructions per clock, delivering a landmark increase in processor performance.
During the event, AMD demonstrated an 8-core, 16-thread "Summit Ridge" desktop processor (featuring AMD's "Zen" core) outperforming a similarly configured 8-core, 16-thread Intel "Broadwell-E" processor when running the multi-threaded Blender rendering software with both CPUs set to the same clock speed. AMD also conducted the first public demonstration of its upcoming 32-core, 64-thread "Zen"-based server processor, codenamed "Naples," in a dual processor server running the Windows Server operating system.
"The performance and efficiency of our 'Zen' core showcases AMD at its best," said Dr. Lisa Su, president and CEO of AMD. "Over the last four years we have made significant investments to develop a high-performance, multi-generation CPU roadmap that will power leadership products. Customer excitement for 'Zen' continues to grow as we make significant progress towards the launch of new products that will span from the datacenter to high-end PCs."
The "Zen" processor core features multiple architectural advances designed to increase the performance, throughput, and efficiency of AMD's future products. "Zen" is based on a clean-sheet design and features a new cache hierarchy, improved branch prediction and simultaneous multithreading (SMT). These advances will allow the "Zen" core to scale to meet the needs of a broad range of applications, including fanless 2-in-1s, embedded systems, high-performance computing, and the datacenter.
"An engineer may get one chance in their career to work on a project of this size and scope, and maybe never one with as much potential to impact the future as much as 'Zen,'" said Mark Papermaster, senior vice president and chief technology officer at AMD. "With 'Zen' we aim to do what many never thought possible - deliver a 40 percent generational improvement in instructions per clock while maintaining power requirements in line with our previous generation technology."
"AMD invested where it counts, with an x86 core that can scale from PCs to high-performance servers," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst, Linley Group. "Consumers today expect to get the most out of their systems to create transformative experiences. The versatile design of 'Zen' delivers highly-efficient performance that should provide increased computing capabilities across the spectrum - from devices to cloud computing."
Expected to launch first, the "Zen"-based "Summit Ridge" desktops will utilize the AMD AM4 socket, a new unified socket infrastructure that is compatible with 7th Generation AMD A-Series desktop processors - previously codenamed "Bristol Ridge" - for exceptional performance and connectivity scalability required by AMD partners and customers. The first desktop systems featuring 7th Generation AMD A-Series processors and new AM4 sockets are scheduled to ship in the second half of 2016 in OEM PC designs.
With dedicated PCIe lanes for cutting-edge USB, graphics, data and other I/O, the AMD AM4 platform will not steal lanes from other devices and components. This allows users to enjoy systems with improved responsiveness and benefit from future-ready technologies that the AM4 platform provides with a powerful, scalable and reliable computing solution.
AMD AM4 platform key technology features include:
During the event, AMD demonstrated an 8-core, 16-thread "Summit Ridge" desktop processor (featuring AMD's "Zen" core) outperforming a similarly configured 8-core, 16-thread Intel "Broadwell-E" processor when running the multi-threaded Blender rendering software with both CPUs set to the same clock speed. AMD also conducted the first public demonstration of its upcoming 32-core, 64-thread "Zen"-based server processor, codenamed "Naples," in a dual processor server running the Windows Server operating system.
The "Zen" processor core features multiple architectural advances designed to increase the performance, throughput, and efficiency of AMD's future products. "Zen" is based on a clean-sheet design and features a new cache hierarchy, improved branch prediction and simultaneous multithreading (SMT). These advances will allow the "Zen" core to scale to meet the needs of a broad range of applications, including fanless 2-in-1s, embedded systems, high-performance computing, and the datacenter.
"AMD invested where it counts, with an x86 core that can scale from PCs to high-performance servers," said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst, Linley Group. "Consumers today expect to get the most out of their systems to create transformative experiences. The versatile design of 'Zen' delivers highly-efficient performance that should provide increased computing capabilities across the spectrum - from devices to cloud computing."
With dedicated PCIe lanes for cutting-edge USB, graphics, data and other I/O, the AMD AM4 platform will not steal lanes from other devices and components. This allows users to enjoy systems with improved responsiveness and benefit from future-ready technologies that the AM4 platform provides with a powerful, scalable and reliable computing solution.
AMD AM4 platform key technology features include:
- DDR4 Memory
- PCIe Gen 3
- USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps
- NVMe
- SATA Express
187 Comments on AMD Demos Breakthrough Performance of the ZEN CPU Core
So all else being equal, in modern games that utilize 4 cores or more, 3.7 is as high as it will go under the right conditions, and if all cores are fully loaded and the TDP is hit it may be 3.2Ghz for all cores.
But the big gripe against AMD has been
1) IPC
2) cache latency
3) pipeline stalls
4) math performance
5) Power consumption
For years its been, pick one, and we will improve that some. Now they seem **SEEM** to have fixed their issue and are trying to show that clock for clock against a current generation Intel, they are faster in a real world scenario/benchmark that is common.I did miss your comment. I was busy looking up exactly what you had posted to see if AMD was using biased hardware and software to show their offering better.
AMD will give us noting for free ( it wont sell us 4c/8t i7 killer for existing FX price), but it will make intel get back to earth with his pricing... look how out of hand intel got with his latest HEDT - zero gains (even overclocks worse than previous gen) and price bumps from +10 to +60%... why? - obviously not because "RD, taxes, logistics and production" and other bs, because it is not even the latest artchitecture and same architecture in xenon line did not receive any price bumps (but still got some performance bumps because of core count increase)
Let's just wait for Zen to be launched, and to see some actual reviews. That's what I will be doing. Kaby Lake and Zen shootout.
I also want to see how the quad core version performs.
Anyone can post a pic like you did that is from god knows what source, and from even before launch date where in actual fact I never saw any CPU from AMD (price to performance comparison) be more then Intel.
That source is rechreport.
watch for real and proper benchmarks before believing a single syllable of anything they say
multi thread benchmarks are a TRAP it doesn't show what the real performance improvement are and makes AMD's chips look really good
theres been no superpi or luxmark single thread or cinbench
AMD did a test, and proved, clock by clock to be a little faster then a recent Broadwell-E model running on 3Ghz. Now how that test has performed does'nt really matter. You cant really cheat a multi-threaded test unless you cripple some cores, multipliers and choice of memory. If AMD does that in order to make the AMD product look better, then they will fail eventually and proberly be sued for promissing something they did'nt deliver.
Architect on K10 (Jim keller) was lead on that project for a few years. They defenitly know what they are doing my friend.
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don't be dense people
always assume that AMD(or any vendor) is lying they have a history of it they are not to be trusted they are guilty until proven innocent
full stop on that hype train please