AMD to launch 12nm Ryzen in February 2018

humbug · 27 Sep 2017 at 15:36

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20170927PD212.html

AMD has informed its partners that it plans to launch in February 2018 an upgrade version of its Ryzen series processors built using a 12nm low-power (12LP) process at Globalfoundries, according to sources at motherboard makers.

The company will initially release the CPUs codenamed Pinnacle 7, followed by mid-range Pinnacle 5 and entry-level Pinnacle 3 processors in March 2018, the sources disclosed. AMD is also expected to see its share of the desktop CPU market return to 30% in the first half of 2018.

AMD will launch the low-power version of Pinnacle processors in April 2018 and the enterprise version Pinnacle Pro in May 2018.

Their corresponding chipsets, the 400 series, will also become available in March 2018 with X470- or B450-based motherboards to be the first to hit the store shelves. The chipsets are still designed by ASMedia and its orders for the chipsets are expected to grow dramatically starting January 2018.

Thanks to stable chip orders for Microsoft's and Sony's game consoles, increased demand for graphics cards, growing sales for its Ryzen 7/5 processors, new Ryzen Pro product line for the enterprise sector and the top-end Ryzen Treadripper processors, AMD managed to achieve 19% sequential growth in second-quarter 2017 revenues and expects the amount to grow further by 23% in the third quarter.

AMD said it does not comment on products that have not been announced.

Scougar · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:01

Is this the 5Ghz samsung process or something else?

Rainmaker · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:08

Any news on what X470/B450 will bring? I waited for Zen, then I waited for CoffeeLake to compare, and now I almost may as well wait for February... No wonder I've had an FX chip so long haha.

jrwagh333 · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:17

Same here ^

rs155 · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:19

Rainmaker i am in the same boat, everytime i think yea why not i think it's not really worth it yet lol

Rainmaker · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:27

jrwagh333 said:
Same here ^

rs155 said:
Rainmaker i am in the same boat, everytime i think yea why not i think it's not really worth it yet lol

Exactly. While the FX chip usually gets slated (often from people who think everyone games), I don't game. Mine still tears through Usenet downloads, Plex transcodes and code compiles many times faster than I need (especially on Linux), and when my stepson plays Hitman or GTA V through Steam he's still seeing 60+FPS at 1080p so... I'm not rushed. It'd be nice to finally get some new shiny, though. I have a 960 Evo NVME drive sat waiting for upgrade day.

strumpusplunket · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:36

Yep, another in that situation here.

First thought I'd wait to upgrade this 6 year old 2500k until after seeing the Ryzen launch...

Ok, looks good, especially for the money, but some niggles with the platform it seems, maybe wait for it to mature a bit... actually, may as well now wait for Coffeelake...

Looking like it will be what we expected, 7800k with two more cores, have to wait to see the price and chip thermals after launch...

And now, 12nm Zen is only just in the new year!

So now thinking this rig will have to limp through my Christmas gaming marathon until I can see what this Zen refresh brings!

Don't think I was planning on playing anything too taxing until then anyway - Original Sin 2, Nier Automata, maybe Dark Souls III, which this PC should handle fine. Might have to see if frames suffer in Mordor Shadow of War before buying, though.

On the plus side, that's another four months of squirreling away funds for the upgrade

Scougar · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:47

I would have waited if I still had my 7850k system, but I sold that and had an old wolfdale system with integrated gfx that was horrendous to use. Basically, I caved.

Honestly extremely happy with the perf of my system right now CPU wise. I would definitely consider upgrading though if I had the spare money and the bump in performance was increased substantially (i.e. to 4.4/4.5ghz).

I am liking the fast implementation of this perf uplift if it stays on track.

jrwagh333 · 27 Sep 2017 at 16:53

I've got some DDR4 and CorssHair VI waiting for me... was going to wait to see what CFL brings but I might just throw a 1500x in there and then look at the Zen+ 6 and 8 cores next year.

A lot of my work is single-threaded and I have my FX8320 at 4.5ghz so not sure a 1500x clocked to 3.7ghz would beat it or not?

I know Intel is king of single thread but the price of Ryzen is very attractive.

Rainmaker · 27 Sep 2017 at 17:01

jrwagh333 said:
A lot of my work is single-threaded and I have my FX8320 at 4.5ghz so not sure a 1500x clocked to 3.7ghz would beat it or not?

Yeah it will do. For single-threaded benches at stock, Zen chips beat FX by about half (so a 100 Cinebench score for FX8350, and about 160 for Ryzen). Those are off the top of my head, but you get the idea.

jrwagh333 · 27 Sep 2017 at 17:03

I know the 1600 is only about £30 more - but i've got a budget to stick to and need to get a new SSD

Journey · 27 Sep 2017 at 17:54

Great news, that means we'll probably get a little more headroom in the clock's, and could even result in lower power draw, which is already low anyhow. I wonder if this means they are transitioning all of the Ryzen/Threadripper/Epyc dies to the same 12nm.

Nice to see I was right about the new chipsets too, someone attempted to shoot me down for saying that they would be on the cards next year., lol. Hopefully will add some further I/O into the Ryzen platform, will have to wait and see.

voidshatter · 27 Sep 2017 at 17:56

5GHz would be nice!

Mickcas · 27 Sep 2017 at 17:57

Does this mean they won't work on the current 370 boards?

Journey · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:08

Mickcas said:
Does this mean they won't work on the current 370 boards?

No, just means the new chipsets will have newer features.

TallPaul1878 · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:09

Mickcas said:
Does this mean they won't work on the current 370 boards?

It's all speculation right now but AMD have alluded to the fact that the AM4 platform will have a lifespan of a "couple of years". Could be 2, could be 6, nobody knows.

I'd fully expect a current AM4 motherboard to be compatible with the new AMD processors with a BIOS update. I'd be very surprised if they "pulled an Intel" on this one

Mickcas · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:12

Hoping they don't "pull an Intel" I'd be tempted by a faster ryzen next year to go with a Volta gpu

BongoHunter · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:18

I wonder if this is a prereq for Ryzen mobile with more than 4 cores...
AMD definitely need a better lineup for laptops if they want to be keeping the pressure on Intel

humbug · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:27

BongoHunter said:
I wonder if this is a prereq for Ryzen mobile with more than 4 cores...
AMD definitely need a better lineup for laptops if they want to be keeping the pressure on Intel

Ryzen based APU are coming early next year, they are more suitable for Mobile than the Desktop variants we have now, the Ryzen based APU's will have iGPU's.

When they hit AMD will have fast, power efficient mobile APU's with much better Integrated Graphics than Intel.

humbug · 27 Sep 2017 at 18:47