* AMD "Zen" thread (inc AM4/APU discussion) *

Ferrari100 · 6 Jun 2016 at 19:58

Wise man say....

'The more you play Zen down now, without facts, the more impact it will have when it lands.'

Beren · 6 Jun 2016 at 23:46

Impatient man say...

'Give me my AM4 board now with a Bristol Ridge 4 core processor that I can make Zen later.'

h4rm0ny · 7 Jun 2016 at 08:38

Martini1991 said:
The benchmarks are shrouded in confusion anyway because of the AMD failure that was stating 51% utilization, and the other Swarm oddities.

It did exactly what AMD wanted - showed off excellent price-performance and generating a lot of discussion. They're saving proper figures for the launch and stated they didn't want to take away from the independent reviewers. It's not a "failure" if it achieves what you wanted. The launch (with benchmarks) is at the end of the month.

Martini1991 said:
Besides, I don't particularly think that the test was a good comparison, it scores the same as much as my stock 290X does if you go off the 1.83 scaling that AMD mentioned etc.

At a greatly reduced price and greatly reduced power consumption. I don't get the persistent setting up targets it was never meant to meet. What the 480 does is move the price-performance curve downwards in one big jump. Yes, it's probably around Fury level, but it's under £200. It is NOT AMD's flagship card. I don't get why a few people are unable to get their head around the idea of a company not launching with their highest end cards. As a mid-range card at a mid-range price, what we've seen of the 480 looks amazing.

Martini1991 said:
Like I say, and I'll stick to it, it either wasn't there, or Zen's not the Intel slayer.

Firstly. it's not there. As I said, that benchmark would no way be running on Zen for basic PR reasons. Secondly, "Intel slayer" is again missing the point. We expect Zen to be around Haswell-E levels based on what we have so far. That's very respectable. What determines its success is whether it achieves that at a good price-performance. Which is why it is a nonsense for you to say something like "or Zen's not the Intel slayer". You could only say that if you were assessing it purely on performance and nobody is expecting it to outperform Intel's best CPUs. We're assessing it on price-performance and whether it meets a minimum performance standard (i.e. Haswell levels). As you wouldn't know anything about pricing even if it were running on Zen, you plainly cannot make such a statement. It's nonsensical.

beany_bot · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:42

Are AMD socket mobos cheaper than Intel typically? Just thinking ahead to Zen vs Kaby lake. If for example then were exactly the same performance. It's likely Zen will be a cheaper chip. But does lower price translate to partner mobos too?

Hagar · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:55

beany_bot said:
Are AMD socket mobos cheaper than Intel typically? Just thinking ahead to Zen vs Kaby lake. If for example then were exactly the same performance. It's likely Zen will be a cheaper chip. But does lower price translate to partner mobos too?

Recent History shows AMD boards more expensive. probably due to volumes. Will see how that pans out with a new chipset and compatibility with DDR4 coming onstream. Possibly on a par with latest Intel offerings.

cheesyboy · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:58

nkata said:
Recent History shows AMD boards more expensive. probably due to volumes. Will see how that pans out with a new chipset and compatibility with DDR4 coming onstream. Possibly on a par with latest Intel offerings.

Probably more due to chip licencing (an AMD northbridge and southbridge on AM3+), and lack of small form factors.

beany_bot · 7 Jun 2016 at 10:59

I would like to go to AMD if the performance is there (just for a change) but wouldn't do it if more expensive than Intel.

humbug · 7 Jun 2016 at 11:02

nkata said:
Recent History shows AMD boards more expensive. probably due to volumes. Will see how that pans out with a new chipset and compatibility with DDR4 coming onstream. Possibly on a par with latest Intel offerings.

Not when i was buying AMD they weren't, AM3+ Sabertooth was £150 while the same spec socket 1155 Sabertooth was £200.
It was the same across the full range with Intel vs AMD boards.

h4rm0ny · 7 Jun 2016 at 11:30

humbug said:
Not when i was buying AMD they weren't, AM3+ Sabertooth was £150 while the same spec socket 1155 Sabertooth was £200.
It was the same across the full range with Intel vs AMD boards.

The same here. Typically they are cheaper but they've risen a bit recently I think mainly due to lower volume. But yes, normally cheaper.

humbug · 7 Jun 2016 at 12:35

h4rm0ny said:
The same here. Typically they are cheaper but they've risen a bit recently I think mainly due to lower volume. But yes, normally cheaper.

I think at this point for a little while now they just make the prices up as the go along.

AM3+ and FM2 are very old, they only sell a few anyway and they probably stopped making them half way through last year so they only have a few left.

Ferrari100 · 7 Jun 2016 at 12:55

Beren said:
Impatient man say...

'Give me my AM4 board now with a Bristol Ridge 4 core processor that I can make Zen later.'

+1

That too.
LOL

AthlonXP1800 · 8 Jun 2016 at 01:57

Zen launch delayed until Q1 2017 due to CPU slow demand and inventory issue.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160607PD202.html

I think Intel probably delayed Kaby Lake-S to Q1 2017 too but are sure Kaby Lake-U and Y are still on track for Q3 launch after OEMs unveiled PCs with Kaby Lake CPUs at Computex.

So Q1 2017 is quite a long time to wait and my 3770K will be almost 5 years old. :eek:

Beren · 8 Jun 2016 at 02:12

Ouch, that is a painfully long wait - I might still go AM4 if they launch by end Q3 with Bristol Ridge, do we know if that is definitely real news? It seems very different to AMD's big press release which was only 10 days ago when we were expecting to see Zen in October.

AllBodies · 8 Jun 2016 at 02:49

AthlonXP1800 said:
Zen launch delayed until Q1 2017 due to CPU slow demand and inventory issue.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160607PD202.html

I think Intel probably delayed Kaby Lake-S to Q1 2017 too but are sure Kaby Lake-U and Y are still on track for Q3 launch after OEMs unveiled PCs with Kaby Lake CPUs at Computex.

So Q1 2017 is quite a long time to wait and my 3770K will be almost 5 years old.

Is this actually legit though?

There's no sources or quotes from Intel/AMD managers? Or even a quote from board partners.

I don't get how they know this.

SiDeards73 · 8 Jun 2016 at 06:10

A few sites are running this article, it's pure speculation though rather than any hard evidence or quotes. It actually makes more sense for AMD to release CPUs if the market is a little slow, if the price point and performance is right it should stimulate the market hopefully.

Maybe people have wised up to Intel's milking and marginal upgrades each gen, but we still need to see solid Zen info, the market is there for the chips if the performance and price are right

Martini1991 · 8 Jun 2016 at 07:44

SiDeards73 said:
A few sites are running this article, it's pure speculation though rather than any hard evidence or quotes. It actually makes more sense for AMD to release CPUs if the market is a little slow, if the price point and performance is right it should stimulate the market hopefully.

Maybe people have wised up to Intel's milking and marginal upgrades each gen, but we still need to see solid Zen info, the market is there for the chips if the performance and price are right

I agree, but that doesn't tend to be the way PC stuff works.
It's all NDA, nothing confirmed.

Now a days we're extra lucky because we get some little event and a launch windows, but not with Zen yet.

meldarthx · 8 Jun 2016 at 08:26

AthlonXP1800 said:
Zen launch delayed until Q1 2017 due to CPU slow demand and inventory issue.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20160607PD202.html

I think Intel probably delayed Kaby Lake-S to Q1 2017 too but are sure Kaby Lake-U and Y are still on track for Q3 launch after OEMs unveiled PCs with Kaby Lake CPUs at Computex.

So Q1 2017 is quite a long time to wait and my 3770K will be almost 5 years old.

come on - say it with me; if it smells like click bate; if it walks like click bate.......its click bate.

This smells of complete and total damage control from a certain company feeding bs. Server part for Zen have always ben 2017; I doubt AMD will delay Zen - over small second of old piledriver cpus - as this is most important launch since sledgehammer.....if not more

opethdisciple · 8 Jun 2016 at 09:38

meldarthx said:
come on - say it with me; if it smells like click bate; if it walks like click bate.......its click bate.

This smells of complete and total damage control from a certain company feeding bs. Server part for Zen have always ben 2017; I doubt AMD will delay Zen - over small second of old piledriver cpus - as this is most important launch since sledgehammer.....if not more

AMD should have called it WARHAMMER!

I'll get my coat.

Beren · 8 Jun 2016 at 10:15

Careful, they could then call the next version BANHAMMER

kylew_is_back · 8 Jun 2016 at 10:39

when they say 40% IPC increase they mean from the FX 9xxx series? if that is the case then it is too little too late.

FX 9xxx at 4.7GHz get 113 Single Core Score in CINEBENCH R15
Skylake at 4.7GHz get 204 Single Core Score in CINEBENCH R15

as we can see from cinebench, Skylake show almost double IPC.

Competitor rules

*** AMD "Zen" thread (inc AM4/APU discussion) ***

* AMD "Zen" thread (inc AM4/APU discussion) *