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

If the memory is fine and the PCI-E swap doesn't work, you can try underclocking the 670 a little bit. Sometimes older cards have issues keeping their clocks, especially the memory ones.
 
Got my first Ryzen CPU earlier this week and have been playing with it over the last few days. It'll replace my current servers eventually (need to buy some disks for ZFS but want to get up and running first) and the specs are:
  • Ryzen 7 1700 (with stock cooler)
  • 2x 8 GiB DDR4 ECC RAM @ 2666 MHz (19-19-19-43)
  • Asus PRIME X370-Pro
  • Fractal Design Define R5 Titanium
  • Corsair CX450M PSU
  • Integral 120GB P Series 5 (spare SSD)
  • AMD R7 290 (only spare GPU I had lying around)
Aside from installing Ubuntu Server and a bunch of tools and services, I've been playing with the RAM first. 2666 MHz is the fastest ECC RAM you can buy but it can certainly run faster. I haven't got it to boot at 3200 MHz so far but it seems to work fine at 3000 MHz with 14-17-17-36-1T timings. It passes a 30 minute benchmark suite and shows no ECC errors (corrected or uncorrected) and I'm going to run memtest overnight. If that passes I have a set of safe RAM settings to fall back on if I ever try to go faster later on. Next up is CPU tweaking - I could bump it up a bit at stock voltage but since it'll be idle (or at least not stressed) most of the time, it probably makes more sense to try to undervolt it.

It was quite surreal to actually use decently high end modern parts for once. The thing is essentially silent and doesn't get above 55 degrees during stress testing (admittedly with a stock CPU). It boots pretty quickly too - I'm at the terminal prompt before my desktop would have even finished posting! :D
 
You can probably get it to run at 3.6Ghz with 1.15v~1.175v, or at the stock 3.2Ghz with maybe 1.0v~1.05v. The R7 1700 is very efficient if you undervolt it a little bit, perf/W goes out the window if you start pumping the voltage after about 3.6Ghz.
 
AndreiD said:
You can probably get it to run at 3.6Ghz with 1.15v~1.175v, or at the stock 3.2Ghz with maybe 1.0v~1.05v. The R7 1700 is very efficient if you undervolt it a little bit, perf/W goes out the window if you start pumping the voltage after about 3.6Ghz.
Click to expand...

3.6GHz at 1.188V all cores, I could probably fine tune it a bit with LLC. SOC 1.1V, Gskill 3200C14 at 3333C14 1.4V.
 
AndreiD said:
You can probably get it to run at 3.6Ghz with 1.15v~1.175v, or at the stock 3.2Ghz with maybe 1.0v~1.05v. The R7 1700 is very efficient if you undervolt it a little bit, perf/W goes out the window if you start pumping the voltage after about 3.6Ghz.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm just not sure just yet whether getting an extra 300-400 MHz at stock voltage is going to be useful to me, or how much power it'd actually save to undervolt at stock. It passed the overnight memtest with no errors so I'm happy with that for now. It has passed a 3 hour stress test at -0.075 V offset, now trying -0.1 V.

EDIT: 3h30m into a stress test at -0.1 V and still going. Not sure how to test if it's stable at low usage though. Load power consumption is 125 W, idle is ~58 W. Need to check power consumption at stock to compare but I imagine there's only a few Watts in it.
 
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Stock voltages are a bit generous so I'd still try undervolting it at a fixed frequency. My sample can do 3.6Ghz at 1.175v LLC Auto and it's very efficient and cool at that voltage.
 
So basically compared to the G4560/5600 it's competing against, it has slightly worse CPU performance (except when AVX is used), draws less power, and has a far better iGPU. Definitely a worthy ultra-budget challenger.
 
Yeah looks like a decent chip for that cash. Shame about the lack of overclocking on it though, could've been quite interesting with the ability to overclock.
 
Yes, locking it is dumb IMO because they're giving up a USP compared to Intel. Locking the memory controller is even dumber because it severely hampers their other USP, i.e. a much better iGPU. Maybe these parts are salvaged and have issues with higher core/IMC clocks?
 
Quite possibly, in which case it makes sense to lock them, not because they're deliberately witholding them, but because they simply wouldnt be stable.

That said, could quite easily be either way, not giving AMD a free pass haha
 
DragonQ said:
Yes, locking it is dumb IMO because they're giving up a USP compared to Intel. Locking the memory controller is even dumber because it severely hampers their other USP, i.e. a much better iGPU. Maybe these parts are salvaged and have issues with higher core/IMC clocks?
Click to expand...

It isn't nice to lock but given the target consumers who would go for the cheapest, maybe it is acceptable.
Look at the notebooks with single-channel memory and these APUs... :rolleyes: Single channel and soldered to the mainboard.. Without slots for memory.



:D
 
DragonQ said:
Yes, locking it is dumb IMO because they're giving up a USP compared to Intel. Locking the memory controller is even dumber because it severely hampers their other USP, i.e. a much better iGPU. Maybe these parts are salvaged and have issues with higher core/IMC clocks?
Click to expand...

Whilst it's a disappointment they are locked, likely they are intended to be high volume, low profit OEM chips for dell, hp etc. Having low cost overclockable parts would eat into their core product range at present, which is doing well and allowing AMD to rebuild.
 
4K8KW10 said:
It isn't nice to lock but given the target consumers who would go for the cheapest, maybe it is acceptable.
Look at the notebooks with single-channel memory and these APUs... :rolleyes: Single channel and soldered to the mainboard.. Without slots for memory.


:D
Click to expand...
Nah it's not acceptable. If Intel did it, the reaction would be rightly anger...well, they do lock everything down except the most expensive CPUs and motherboards and that is really crap for enthusiasts. OEMs and laptops obviously won't overclock anyway but the only reason to lock it is to segment the market further; as Hardware Unboxed predicts, there'll likely be slightly higher clocked chips at $65 and $80 or something to fill the gap between the Athlon 200GE and R3 2200G.

Single channel RAM with iGPUs is a sin but not AMD's fault.

Armageus said:
Whilst it's a disappointment they are locked, likely they are intended to be high volume, low profit OEM chips for dell, hp etc. Having low cost overclockable parts would eat into their core product range at present, which is doing well and allowing AMD to rebuild.
Click to expand...
The fact that the vast majority of the target market won't overclock is an argument in favour of unlocking the chips, not against it. What products would it eat into? The R3 2200G is twice the price and a far better performer regardless of if you could overclock the Athlon 200GE or not.
 
DragonQ said:
Nah it's not acceptable. If Intel did it, the reaction would be rightly anger...well, they do lock everything down except the most expensive CPUs and motherboards and that is really crap for enthusiasts. OEMs and laptops obviously won't overclock anyway but the only reason to lock it is to segment the market further; as Hardware Unboxed predicts, there'll likely be slightly higher clocked chips at $65 and $80 or something to fill the gap between the Athlon 200GE and R3 2200G.

Single channel RAM with iGPUs is a sin but not AMD's fault.
Click to expand...

I would say it is in fact AMD's fault, in half.
They can tell the assemblers how to take care of their products.
 
4K8KW10 said:
I would say it is in fact AMD's fault, in half.
They can tell the assemblers how to take care of their products.
Click to expand...

The builders can tell AMD they want the cheapest possible configuration and AMD will make sure its possible. Because it's what customers will buy.

Tweaking and upgrading RAM is niche.
 
Hotwired said:
The builders can tell AMD they want the cheapest possible configuration and AMD will make sure its possible. Because it's what customers will buy.

Tweaking and upgrading RAM is niche.
Click to expand...

I thought everyone does it, not niche.
And what is the difference for the assemblers between putting 2x4GB and 1x8GB except screwing everyone in the process? :confused:
 
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