Tuesday, May 30th 2017
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Detailed - Why Intel HEDT is in Trouble
AMD today talked a little more about the Ryzen Threadripper, its upcoming line of HEDT (high-end desktop) processors, which will compete with Intel's recently launched Core i7 and Core i9 X-series processors. The chips will still be launched "later this Summer," and AMD hasn't mentioned models, yet. We know of at least two features which will spell trouble for Intel, and it's not the CPU core performance.
The first of two killer Threadripper features is that it has 64 PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes across all its models - 12-core and 16-core. This is unlike Intel, where you get 44 (not 64) PCIe lanes to begin with, and those start with the $999 Core i9-7900X ten-core processor. Models below this are relegated to 28 lanes, removing the biggest advantage of the HEDT platform - to be able to run more than one graphics card at full x16 PCIe bandwidth. The second killer Threadripper feature is its memory controller. AMD announced that Quad-channel DDR4 memory will be available across the lineup. This again is unlike Intel, where the Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X quad-core LGA2066 chips feature just dual-channel memory. All Threadripper chips further feature 32 MB of shared L3 cache. ASUS, ASRock, GIGABYTE, and MSI are said to be developing Ryzen Threadripper motherboards based on the X399 chipset as we speak.
The first of two killer Threadripper features is that it has 64 PCI-Express gen 3.0 lanes across all its models - 12-core and 16-core. This is unlike Intel, where you get 44 (not 64) PCIe lanes to begin with, and those start with the $999 Core i9-7900X ten-core processor. Models below this are relegated to 28 lanes, removing the biggest advantage of the HEDT platform - to be able to run more than one graphics card at full x16 PCIe bandwidth. The second killer Threadripper feature is its memory controller. AMD announced that Quad-channel DDR4 memory will be available across the lineup. This again is unlike Intel, where the Core i5-7640X and Core i7-7740X quad-core LGA2066 chips feature just dual-channel memory. All Threadripper chips further feature 32 MB of shared L3 cache. ASUS, ASRock, GIGABYTE, and MSI are said to be developing Ryzen Threadripper motherboards based on the X399 chipset as we speak.
90 Comments on AMD Ryzen Threadripper Detailed - Why Intel HEDT is in Trouble
lets see how it does, but it will still suck if you OC :/
We know there are uses, but you have to admit the need is really not that much... at least to have intel on its heels...or, "in trouble"...because of it. :kookoo:
Now i get it.
And youve been here for like, 8 days. So, YOU dont get it. :p
Is a $160 CPU Enough for Gaming?
Tech YES City
Published on Jun 14, 2017
Today we pit the AMD Ryzen 5 1400 against the Intel i7 7700k with the Radeon and Geforce Mid-Range Champions (The RX 580 & GTX 1060 Cards) to see how much of a difference there is and also whether the performance you could gain off a 7700k is worth it when compared to the Ryzen 5 1400. Everything in this comparison was overclocked to relatively normal levels for air and water overclocks.
There is nothing wrong with the Ryzen memory controllers. They just needed micro code updates to fix memory comparability. Which they have fixed to a large degree now. Being able to have all those PCI-E lanes help content creators who use programs that utilize GPU's individually will have 3 or 4 video cards. Also, it's great for dedicated peripherals for virtual machines you can assign cores and hard drives per VM. Professionals are not using these CPU's to play video games, because that would be silly when a $200 1600 is the best bang for your buck CPU in that market. Small business could use the $850 16 core Ryzen, and set up 4 or 8 VM workstations with enough hard drives and peripherals, because of all the PCI-E they don't need a bunch of separate cards plugged into their Motherboard to add peripherals like you will need to do with the Intel X series. ThreadRipper will devastate Intel in the HEDT market. Professionals will not be able to use the 6 and 8 core models, because they only have 28 PCI-E lanes. There only option for the true HEDT market that Intel offers will be the 7900X 10 core for $999. That's if you don't need NVME raid. That will cost you another $399, and will only support lesser performing Intel NVME drives. At $1,398 for all the bells and whistles. Also, all the other processors will have to add $399 to the price if you want full NVME raid support. With the hidden cost it now looks like the prices haven't changed very much at all.
I Serve nor get paid by Intel or Amd, why would I promote or condemn the useage of either. when my loyalty will be bought and sold by logic and reason, not by heralds yelling on the rooftops. Good luck with that reasoning, bud.
Basically it comes down to one thing... Clock speed matters!
Case it point, I overclocked my Core i5 3570k CPU to 4.4 GHz (a full 1 GHz faster than stock speeds) and it's amazing what an extra 1 GHz will do for performance.
Computing power for one core = IPCxClock speed. When the IPC is roughly the same, it's the clock speed that makes the difference, when clock speed is roughly the same, then it's up to IPC.
On the other hand, both Intel and AMD are overkill for office needs and web browsing. Gaming leans a bit towards Intel. More heavily threaded (but also more specialized apps) lean a bit towards AMD. I'd hate to be forced to upgrade my CPU this year :D
IPS = Instructions per Second
While everybody's concerned about AMD being able to scale up and become faster than Intel all around, I'm more interesting in seeing them scale down and start offering something for mobile. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they left mobile for later and concentrated on Epyc/enterprise for now. Because there's big money to be made there.
To increase the perceived performance of the chip you can do one of three things...
1. Increase IPC while keeping the clock rate the same.
2. Increase the clock rate while keeping IPC the same.
3. Increase both.
If AMD can improve upon both Ryzen's IPC and the clock rate it will dramatically increase the perceived performance of the processor. I figure that until Ryzen is fab'ed on the 7nm process node that Global Foundries was talking about a couple of days ago higher clock rates on Ryzen won't be possible.
You should read this and educate yourself because this has been know since 1982.
jlelliotton.blogspot.com/p/the-economic-value-of-rapid-response.html
Also any game that is single thread is still CPU limted, Planetside 2, Ware Thunder, Natural Selection 2, Star WArs Empire at War, RCT3, Total War, and the list is basically 99% of all games are still single thread limited. HL2, CS Source in some cases though a 4.8GHz 6700K has just barely keeps it from dipping now.
All the above even a 4.8GHz 6700K is cpu limited. Some are just barely limited like Source. War Thunder is limited a little bit. NS2 and the res are still very much CPU bottleneck.
This is gaming at 120hz and minimum frame drop on ULMB is awful.
I really want to get a 5.2 GHz Kaby and phase change it to 5.5-5.7GHz :/
but money....
Being more serious, by the time they can ramp up clocks on Zen2 and the new fab, intel is going to have something new out too...
So intel has the mainstream users and work stations and niche highend locked but affordable rendering and server space AMD is going to kill Intels market share.