*** AMD "Zen 4" thread (inc AM5/APU discussion) ***

[eddiew]

I wonder if the 6+2+1 VRM design would be enough for an 8 core Zen 4 CPU?

I've been hearing that a lot of AM5 boards have huge overkill VRMs - it's possible this is one that's actually designed for what you can put in it, rather than pushing for marketing numbers.

The specs say "60A power phase"; my uneducated brain suggests that is 360 amps, divide by about 1.4 for the voltage and potentially service up to 255W peak load. Although I suspect it will get hot and not be one of those boards where you can take the VRM heatsinks off and still run a 7950X If you're concerned at all about it's capacity, turn on 105W eco mode on a 7700X at a cost of ~5% performance in fully threaded loads, and be certain that you're far below the comfort threshold for the VRM.

That said, that board is a bit stingy with USB on the back plate.

If I remember right, the Riptide is only a 6-layer PCB, which mostly means you can't make assumptions about it based on the performance of "similar" ATX boards, which are all 8 or 10 layer. I'd wait for reviews on it myself, but I suspect its weak spot won't be the VRMs. I'm not sure any AM5 board has weak VRMs. Which might explain the costs!

 

[Tetras]

The Gigabyte B650M DS3H AM5 motherboard is 'only' £170-£180 now. Not a bad price.

I wonder if the 6+2+1 VRM design would be enough for an 8 core Zen 4 CPU?

The ASRock B650M PG RIPTIDE only costs a little more and has a better VRM + PCIE5 for an NVME SSD...

I should think so, did buildzoid cover it in his round-up?

Edit: he talks about the B650M Gaming X (1:21:00), is that the same VRM?

Edit 2: 1:28:00

Rambling about Gigabyte's AM5 motherboard lineup

My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/buildzoidTeespring: https://teespring.com/stores/actually-hardcore-overclockingBandcamp: https://machineforscreams.bandca...

www.youtube.com

There's a Chinese website (long delivery times, but offers payment via Paypal) selling Zen 4 CPUs, I wonder if these sellers can be trusted?

I shouldn't think the warranty would be valid, even if they can be? But, I don't actually know what AMD's policies are. I'm pretty sure black friday will see more of these discounts from other retailers.

 

[g67575]

Edit: he talks about the B650M Gaming X (1:21:00), is that the same VRM?

Seems decent enough, it looks like it has a similar VRM to the DS3H. Good DDR5 support on Gigabyte boards too. Shame only the higher end models support PCIe5 for storage though.

 

[Tetras]

Shame only the higher end models support PCIe5 for storage though.

At least the AMD support for PCI-E 5.0 M.2 is better/more widespread than Intel, where they hobble the primary PCI-E.

 

[RBImGuy]

Seems decent enough, it looks like it has a similar VRM to the DS3H. Good DDR5 support on Gigabyte boards too. Shame only the higher end models support PCIe5 for storage though.

pcie5 is relevant next generation of cpus
The seperation of tiers now makes it expensive and since its not really needed the big adoption rate happens next gen

 

[g67575]

Ok, but people are buying motherboards now and (if they want PCIe5 for storage) I'd expect don't want to buy another one in 2 years

 

[alec]

(7600X £261, 7700X £360, 7900X £455)

prices would make more sense like this, should make these permanent
arg, I almost convinced myself to wait this gen out. But now getting close to "7700X, here I come"

 

[rumple9]

Edit - Found that offer, it's time limited. Not a bad price for a 7700X, a bit less than what I paid.

There's a Chinese website (long delivery times, but offers payment via Paypal) selling Zen 4 CPUs, I wonder if these sellers can be tr

ustedhen


the chip is held at UK customs for another month and not released until you pay a load of tax on it so no real saving pal

 

[g67575]

Fair enough. I was wondering about customs. In that case, should be avoided.

 

[g67575]

Has anyone tried disabling CPPC on a Zen 3 or Zen 4 CPU?

I've disabled it and not noticed a difference (yet), but then my performance is good anyway...

There's an interesting thread about it here, testing on a 16 core Zen 3 CPU:

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

EDIT - I tried AC:Odyssey and the minimum frame rates were significantly worse with CPPC disabled (sometimes dipping down into the 20s during the benchmark test).

I think because the game has terrible thread management.

 

[cHk4]

Anyone with an ASUS CROSSHAIR X670E HERO updated to the latest BIOS? Notice any improvements?

Version 0805
2022/11/15
ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO BIOS 0805
"1. Update AGESA version to ComboAM5PI 1.0.0.3 patch A + D
2. Improve DRAM compatibility
3. Improve System Performance

 

[g67575]

AC: Odyssey has got to be one of the hardest games to get consistent performance out of. I found out that allowing the game to use around 8 out of 16 threads results in significantly higher minimum framerates (only tested on lowest GFX settings possible), although I suppose this would depend on the CPU.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Think I'll stick to intel for time being.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593260392628703233

 

[g67575]

So, will anyone still be saying that negative stuff in a year I wonder?

Tech changes so quickly, what he didn't say is maybe wait 3-6 months, which might be better advice.

 

[Frenzy]

Think I'll stick to intel for time being.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593260392628703233

From what I can see, a lot of people reporting no problems and one guy complaining. Might not be widespread

 

[Noxia]

So my pc is supposed to die because one person with unspecified hardware said so?

Edit. It's serious, he got two retweets.

Have had some weird issues to be fair but what to attribute it to I don't know. Bios one may be at play, thought it was my cheap monitor just not getting signal.

 

[Journey]

Think I'll stick to intel for time being.

If you can tell his post is a load of balls by the first problem "PCIE lanes die, permanently, because you use them" or in other words he is bitter about not being sampled by AMD and he has a faulty motherboard so went on a rage about it hoping for free coverage and negative press. I am yet to see any of these issues reported elsewhere, other than the last one where people have manually tuned the RAM badly.

 

[the wopster]

Think I'll stick to intel for time being.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1593260392628703233

Not had any problems like that on my system

 

[Noxia]

As if by magic I can't get my pc to boot lol.
Was using it fine last night, have just had to reset bios lol.

I'll update to the new bios and see.

 

[rumple9]

Not had any problems like that on my system

It's a new platform bound to be lots of teething problems. Probably not worth buying for another year until the hardware and bios bugs are ironed out. Unfortunately that takes us to 2024 and AMD has said they are only supporting AM5 to 2025.

7000 series isn't selling well either.