Friday, March 11th 2022
AMD Readies Even More Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop SKUs for April
Earlier this week, we learned about AMD making several additions to its Ryzen 5000 Socket AM4 desktop processor lineup, to better compete against the bulk of the 12th Gen Intel Core "Alder Lake" processors. It turns out that there are three more additions to the lineup that we missed, because they're slated for a slightly later availability from the other chips (later by weeks).
The first of these three is the Ryzen 7 5700 (non-X). This chip is uniquely different from the Ryzen 7 5700X and the Ryzen 7 5600G. It is an 8-core/16-thread processor that's based on the 7 nm "Cezanne" silicon, with its iGPU disabled. This means you still get eight "Zen 3" CPU cores, but no iGPU, just 16 MB of L3 cache, and the PCI-Express interface of the chip is limited Gen 3. The Ryzen 3 5100 is the spiritual successor to the very interesting Ryzen 3 3100. It is a 4-core/8-thread processor based on the same "Cezanne" silicon with "Zen 3" cores, but with only 8 MB of L3 cache, and the iGPU remaining disabled. The third chip on the anvil is the Ryzen 7 4700, an interesting 8-core/16-thread offering based on the older "Renoir" silicon with "Zen 2" CPU cores.
Sources:
Wccftech, VideoCardz
The first of these three is the Ryzen 7 5700 (non-X). This chip is uniquely different from the Ryzen 7 5700X and the Ryzen 7 5600G. It is an 8-core/16-thread processor that's based on the 7 nm "Cezanne" silicon, with its iGPU disabled. This means you still get eight "Zen 3" CPU cores, but no iGPU, just 16 MB of L3 cache, and the PCI-Express interface of the chip is limited Gen 3. The Ryzen 3 5100 is the spiritual successor to the very interesting Ryzen 3 3100. It is a 4-core/8-thread processor based on the same "Cezanne" silicon with "Zen 3" cores, but with only 8 MB of L3 cache, and the iGPU remaining disabled. The third chip on the anvil is the Ryzen 7 4700, an interesting 8-core/16-thread offering based on the older "Renoir" silicon with "Zen 2" CPU cores.
53 Comments on AMD Readies Even More Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop SKUs for April
The mitigations are both in microcode and the OS, and we don't know if Windows is going to implement the full variant. The vulnerability affects ARM as well, but not AMD.
No way am I dumping $300-500 on hard to get DDR5 which shows no tangible performance uplift over DDR4 that cost a quarter of the price.
This is going to hurt AMD's market share for the next year or two.
Not everybody wants, needs or can afford an i7 12700K based system
Plus, these mitigations are a fact of life by now. They're heavier at first, people figure out how to lessen the perf hit after a while. And they affect both Intel and AMD. And ARM. And Apple, if anyone cares to look hard enough.
Can't wait for reviews on that 5800X3D though, interested to see how the 3D cache works out.
For a while, there was the "but you need an expensive motherboard if you go Intel" argument. But now that H670 is here, AMD had to make a move.
That's why we love competition ;)
It's not as if AMD could change their plans last year, when it became apparent that there would be supply issues. The issue isn't even making the actual DDR5 dies, the issue right now is shipping, packaging and testing, shipping, power regulation components, shipping, retail packaging and shipping.
Imho, what AMD did wrong was that instead of having DDR4 as a backup, they were instead confident enough with a little nudge they will help expedite this transition. And it backfire.
Take that with the usual "hindsight is always 20/20".
Nobody should be "cheering" for any chip making corporation. They are not your friend, they are not your local sports team, they do not donate 15% of their profits to charity.
Its for profit first, and its what R&D is dictated to produce for. If they can charge more money for a product - they do, they did and they will continue to do so, just like Intel.
Nobody is sending or should send users to crusade in the name of competition, or romanticize some none existent rags to riches story.
When AMD transitioned from DDR3 to DDR4 there were afaik, no CPUs with support for both memory standards, as AM3+ was DDR3 and AM4 was DDR4.
As such, it's not so strange the company did the same now when they transition to a new socket, CPU architecture and chipset, even if the latter isn't really relevant to memory support.
DDR4 and DDR5 are as you know, very different in how they operate, unlike say LPDDR4, which is a lot more similar to DDR5 than DDR4.
Intel seems to have a bunch of weird issues with their DDR4 support on Alder Lake, but it's possible that part of the reason for that is because Intel only gave the board makers two months to finish their Z690 boards. Either which way, it seems to be a pretty terrible memory controller compared to what Intel has done previous with regards to DDR4.
(I know I'm a sample of 1, I'm just saying I haven't heard of issues before.)DDR4 performance is up there with much faster DDR5 sticks. I would like to know what you would deem adequate if this is "pretty terrible".