AMD Confirms B2 Ryzen 5000 Stepping Brings No Performance Improvements

[Uskompuf]

AMD has recently confirmed that the upcoming B2 stepping for Ryzen 5000 processors will only improve production and availability with no impact on performance. The new stepping will be deployed within the next 6 months and will be fully compatible with existing motherboards without the need for a BIOS update. We initially believed that the new revisions may bring small performance improvements similar to existing Ryzen XT products however with this recent confirmation from AMD we now know that this is not the case. AMD has not confirmed if they are preparing a potential Ryzen 5000XT series which would likely be the final release on the AM4 platform.

As part of our continued effort to expand our manufacturing and logistics capabilities, AMD will gradually move AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Desktop Processors to B2 Revision over the next 6 months. The revision does not bring improvements in terms of functionality or performance, furthermore, no BIOS update will be required.

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[TheGuruStud]

translation: alder lake is a joke and we don't need to do anything

 

[ixi]

translation: alder lake is a joke and we don't need to do anything

Because of that they don't release 5600, 5700, 5700x

 

[ratirt]

Because of that they don't release 5600, 5700, 5700x

I thought AMD did release those for OEM's or am I just talking smack?

translation: alder lake is a joke and we don't need to do anything

Perhaps. I still want Intel to release something purely new. The Alder lake will be a new arch for what I know, and it won’t be great probably. New arch new problems to be solved. Either way, Intel has to start somewhere.

Since there is no new improvement only production ramp up, I guess, there's no point for waiting and getting a 5000 series now is a good idea.
BTW. Have you noticed that 5000 series are available? They are where I live and the prices dropped. Especially for the 5800X

 

[TheDeeGee]

No more WHEAs and insane temps with these?

 

[cyberloner]

No more WHEAs and insane temps with these?

temp can be easily fix by changing pdt tdc edc setting.............
amd is cool quite and fast now............. perfect cpu

 

[watzupken]

translation: alder lake is a joke and we don't need to do anything

Alder Lake may likely result in improved single core performance, but multicore performance is not going to catch up with Zen 3 when their top SKU is expected to only have 8 performance cores with 8 efficient cores.

 

[ratirt]

No more WHEAs and insane temps with these?

Insane temps? That's a weird one bro

 

[watzupken]

No more WHEAs and insane temps with these?

Insane temps like 104 degs with Rocket Lake?

Intel Core i7-11700K Review: Blasting Off with Rocket Lake

www.anandtech.com

 

[tabascosauz]

Insane temps? That's a weird one bro

Vermeer have these occasional 3-5 degree CCD temp spikes when 1 or 2 cores are loaded heavily, doesn't seem to manifest under more multithreaded loads. It's fleeting but easily distinguishable and something that wasn't on previous Ryzens. I sItill need to test with Ryzen Master so it may just be a open source sensor issue, but I doubt RM will reveal anything new as the spikes don't show on Tctl/Tdie or Average sensors (latter of which reports similarly to RM).

And well, there's 5800X but that's easily fixable with PPT alone.

Still, curious about this B2 stepping over previous B0. Didn't 3000XT still show up as Matisse-B0? Makes me wonder what exactly is the reason for the update. Maybe downgrading the binning of CCD2 on 5900X/5950X to improve yields, but stock is already much better so idk. Or maybe reducing CCD1 minimum binning seeing as a lot of Vermeer chips comfortably boost past their rated speeds. Then there was also the dual CCD 5600X, not sure what came of that.

 

[z1n0x]

So improving yields. Probably fixed some small manufacturing defects.

 

[ratirt]

Still, curious about this B2 stepping over previous B0. Didn't 3000XT still show up as Matisse-B0? Makes me wonder what exactly is the reason for the update. Maybe downgrading the binning of CCD2 on 5900X/5950X to improve yields, but stock is already much better so idk. Or maybe reducing CCD1 minimum binning seeing as a lot of Vermeer chips comfortably boost past their rated speeds. Then there was also the dual CCD 5600X, not sure what came of that.

To be honest, I been waiting to upgrade my 2700x since it can't keep up with my 6900xt in some games even at 4k. If this B2 Stepping brings nothing, I may as well purchase a CPU now since the performance will stay as it is with current 5000 series line-up. The reason according to OP is to ramp up availability and production which is weird to me because the stock is way better. I can see every 5000 series CPU available. The prices have dropped as well.

 

[InVasMani]

Alder Lake may likely result in improved single core performance, but multicore performance is not going to catch up with Zen 3 when their top SKU is expected to only have 8 performance cores with 8 efficient cores.

I get what you're saying, but really how many performance cores do you really need? How much multicore do is needed? Single core and multicore are both really useful, but you need a balance. The fact that AMD themselves will be doing a bigLITTLE design tells you plenty it's not a bad concept. Can be it be done better absolutely having a Goldilocks design would be more ideal with a small, large, and medium (aka) just right core size and performance trade off characteristics. I'd be shocked if Intel doesn't shift in that direction over time and AMD could more boldly start in that direction. Smalller weaker cores are fine for certain tasks and if Intel can eek out more single thread performance on the larger cores that's a good trade off.

What's hurting Intel right now isn't bigLITTLE or it's concept it's Intel's manufacturing node needs a shrink desperately that will change things a lot for core count and clock speeds for both big and LITTLE cores within the design. Intel waited to damn long to react on contracting other manufactures to produce it's chips. It's not like Intel didn't know 10nm wasn't a complete mess even now it's not at all what it should be for the node on the other hand 14nm has exceeded expectations for the node itself so 10nm has room to ferment. Let's hope Intel doesn't botch it's next node shrink.

 

[Dredi]

Didn't 3000XT still show up as Matisse-B0? Makes me wonder what exactly is the reason for the update. Maybe downgrading the binning of CCD2 on 5900X/5950X to improve yields, but stock is already much better so idk. Or maybe reducing CCD1 minimum binning seeing as a lot of Vermeer chips comfortably boost past their rated speeds. Then there was also the dual CCD 5600X, not sure what came of that.

stepping and binning have little to do with one another. They likely had some failure points in the original production stepping and the new stepping simply produces slightly higher yields.

They could at any point make changes to the binning of processors you write of, even without a new die stepping.

 

[TomTomTom]

no performance improvements, but they also didnt say anything about degradation. this should be checked.
maybe security vulnerabilities fixes which slightly degrade performance on specific worklods?

 

[TumbleGeorge]

Alder Lake may likely result in improved single core performance, but multicore performance is not going to catch up with Zen 3 when their top SKU is expected to only have 8 performance cores with 8 efficient cores.

Atom cores in ADL will be with equal performance compared to ZEN3 cores. DDR5 generation is just big step ahead and DDR4 has not a chance.

 

[tabascosauz]

To be honest, I been waiting to upgrade my 2700x since it can't keep up with my 6900xt in some games even at 4k. If this B2 Stepping brings nothing, I may as well purchase a CPU now since the performance will stay as it is with current 5000 series line-up. The reason according to OP is to ramp up availability and production which is weird to me because the stock is way better. I can see every 5000 series CPU available. The prices have dropped as well.

Go for it. I think the rampant WHEAs were limited to the first wave of 2020 production. My 2104 5900X was from that first major wave of restock in 2021. The 5900X and 5950X seem consistently binned much better than their predecessors, looking at how mine boosts even on CCD2 I can understand why stock was so abysmal for dual CCD.

They interact much, much better with the scheduler than Matisse did, that much is for sure.

stepping and binning have little to do with one another. They likely had some failure points in the original production stepping and the new stepping simply produces slightly higher yields.

They could at any point make changes to the binning of processors you write of, even without a new die stepping.

Oh, I don't doubt that AMD makes behind the scene changes. The previous gens didn't outwardly advertise multiple steppings, and Matisse went from 3.9@1.3V to 4.5@1.25V on the original stepping. Just curious that AMD's choosing to do this now on Vermeer, had to be something at least somewhat worth noting.

 

[Dredi]

The previous gens didn't outwardly advertise multiple steppings, and Matisse went from 3.9@1.3V to 4.5@1.25V on the original stepping. Just curious that AMD's choosing to do this now on Vermeer, had to be something at least somewhat worth noting.

The 7nm process was still maturing when matisse was in production, and that alone explains the better characteristics of the late production chips. No new stepping is needed for those as the development masks can stay the same and thus no new stepping is created. They didn’t ”outwardly advertise” multiple steppings, because there were no multiple steppings to advertise.

Amd is choosing to do this now because the initial stepping had some yield related problem/bug in it. Otherwise the change would affect performance or feature set, which does not appear to be the case based on the press release. A new stepping just means that they did slight revisions to the development masks, likely just widening some features or increasing keep out areas, nothing more and nothing less.

 

[KarymidoN]

I hope Intel succeeds, AMD with no competition is just Slowly becoming Intel...

 

[Makaveli]

Atom cores in ADL will be with equal performance compared to ZEN3 cores.

I will believe that when I see it.

 

[damric]

Remember the C3 Phenom II also did not bring a performance improvement, same stock clocks.

But oh boy they overclocked so much better than C2.

 

[theGryphon]

I hope Intel succeeds, AMD with no competition is just Slowly becoming Intel...

Far from it.
It's been a new process node for AMD (and TSMC for that matter) and a new core, so process improvements to reduce defects and increase yield, along with some bugfixing are all expected.
Maybe lack of competition from Alder Late did not force their hand to eek out minor performance increases (at the expense of power/temps) or maybe the manufacturing process just didn't have it in it. In any case, it's a win for the consumer if thanks to this stepping availability will increase at/below MSRP and system stability will improve.

 

[HD64G]

Most possibly they will have efficiency and oc improvements by lowering the voltage/frequency curve.

 

[efikkan]

Still, curious about this B2 stepping over previous B0. Didn't 3000XT still show up as Matisse-B0?

Then those are just a higher bin that has been put aside since the beginning.

Makes me wonder what exactly is the reason for the update.

There could be numerous reasons to do a new stepping, including fixing bugs, improve thermals and voltage, or improve yields. This stepping seems to at least do the latter, and it makes totally sense if they see a potential for improvement. By now they've run tens of thousands of wafers and have enough data to point out where the typical defects or weaknesses are, which means they can realign traces and strengthen/improve the weak parts.

 

[R0H1T]

If there's not too much of a supply crunch a quarter or two from now AMD will just release them at or slightly above the current SKU prices, obviously the prices of 5600x-5950x will go down. How much ~ well the more the merrier!