Friday, December 1st 2017
AMD Second-generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" Confirmed to Support AM4
AMD, in an interview with Overclockers UK (OCUK), confirmed that its second-generation Ryzen desktop processors will support the existing AM4 socket, so current Ryzen platform users can seamlessly upgrade to the new processors, with a BIOS update. Most current AM4 socket motherboards will require BIOS updates to support Ryzen "Raven Ridge" desktop APUs, and Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" CPUs, as the two require an update to the latest AGESA 1.0.0.7 version. In the interview, AMD representative James Prior confirmed that the company plans to keep AM4 its mainstream-desktop processor socket all the way up to 2020, which means at least another two to three generations of processors for it.
The next generation is "Pinnacle Ridge," which is rumored to be an optical-shrink of the "Summit Ridge" silicon to the 12 nm process, enabling higher clock speeds. The decision to keep AM4 doesn't mean the company's 300-series chipset will be made to stretch over 3 years. The company could release newer chipsets, particularly to address 300-series chipset's main shortcoming, just 6-8 older PCI-Express gen 2.0 general purpose lanes (while Intel chipsets put out up to 24 gen 3.0 lanes).
Source:
OCUK (Facebook)
The next generation is "Pinnacle Ridge," which is rumored to be an optical-shrink of the "Summit Ridge" silicon to the 12 nm process, enabling higher clock speeds. The decision to keep AM4 doesn't mean the company's 300-series chipset will be made to stretch over 3 years. The company could release newer chipsets, particularly to address 300-series chipset's main shortcoming, just 6-8 older PCI-Express gen 2.0 general purpose lanes (while Intel chipsets put out up to 24 gen 3.0 lanes).
149 Comments on AMD Second-generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" Confirmed to Support AM4
My experience is the features of my motherboard become outdated faster then my need for a new CPU therefore it just never seem important to me that AMD or Intel kept backward compatibility on there motherboards.
Now add in some 5-10% higher clocks from the "12nm shrink" and you got a pretty nice CPU.
I have a Phenom II on an Geforce 2 TI on AGP system, beat that backwards comp-ability!
on the other side I hope they bring out the 4 lost pci-e lanes they've been hiding which requires new socket pinout.
Am1-AM2-AM3 is practically the same just modified it slightly to prevent users from inserting into wrong socket (added or removed a pin)
Back when I was right out of college and had limited funds, I used to only upgrade one part at a time. I recall dropping my Dothan 800mhz into a new motherboard that supported the Athlon XP and DDR. When the Athlon XPs got cheaper, I bought one and saw a noticeable performance gain. Granted, today, there isn't as much incentive to upgrade one part at a time other than the GPU, since typically the higher end CPUs mostly offer more cores to gain performance, but those gains are only realized in specific scenarios. In the single (and even dual) core days, the difference was very noticeable across the board.
Look at amd the last couple of years... m.2 32 gbps? Usb3.1 10 gbps? Pcie 3.0? Ddr4?
Some pretty big things there for a lot of people.
It just depends on the specific user and if they can or want to live without those (any new) features... or pay to add them via addin cards... which then starts biting into any 'savings' from having to buy another mobo.
Personally, id rather buy a new mobo with all the features than stuff my PC with AICs...to each their own. :)
Also AMD has a superior design now with the SoC style Ryzen, Intel on the other hand is still vastly limited by DMI on their desktop chipsets.
Is this as bad as it looks at the moment? How much bandwidth do those Intel boards have connecting to the CPU? Much less than 24 3.0 lanes I suspect?
On the flip side, the AM4 platform has 24 lanes from the CPU which in many cases is better via the chipset. You can at least have one M.2 directly attached to the CPU.
I think the wording should be clarified a bit so folks don't forget about the extra CPU lanes.
Adding a beefier chipset wouldn't be a bad thing though. :)
In any case, my comment wasn't about selling multiple platforms at the same time, it was about the longevity and backwards compatibility of at least the AM2 socket on up.
...Assuming they don't get greedy and start to jack up the prices.
Intel's mainstream socket really covers mainstream needs: from basic multimedia to gaming / advanced use. And they've all had iGPU for years.
Before AM4 this was not true for AMD. One socket was for APUs, the other one was for more powerful CPUs (without iGPU). So you couldn't easily move between these segments.
And it's not really something I came up with. Both AMD and reviewers made a huge fuss about unification of these 2 lines in one platform.
I'd add: USB 3.1 (Gen 2) including Thunderbolt and USB-C.
Generally speaking, "new features" is not the only factor. It's also about typical evolution: interfaces, minor compatibility issues - small things that add up.
Also more and more motherboards have WiFi/BT (finally!).
I've just given my old PC to my grandfather.Purpose was pretty simple. It was made with APUs in mind. AM CPUs didn't have iGPU.
In other words: FM was for those 90% of buyers who are actually responsible for the financial result. But it was a flop... and here we are few years later: most people on the planet don't know (or don't remember) what AMD is.AM2 longevity was rubbish. It was released in 2006 and in 2007 we already got AM2+, which wasn't fully compatible (many mobos didn't get a BIOS update).
AM3 came 3 years later - in 2009.
By comparison, Intel's mainstream socket of the period (775) lasted from 2004 to 2009.
There is no reason AMD can't add more PCI-E lanes as well as a bigger SATA controller to their chipset without any need to change the socket.Hell, AMD had 3 sockets at the same exact time. AM1, AM3+ and FM2+.