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

[mmj_uk]

it seems obvious to me Intel are just cruising... an i5 2nd gen only slightly slower than a i5 6th gen... seriously? (when comparing in the same price bracket)

Intel design their processors for the two big markets - mobile and server.

Intel mainstream is based on mobile parts and they've been improving power efficiency and the iGPU.

Intel enthusiast is based on server parts and they've been using those power efficiency improvements to add more cores instead of a bigger iGPU.

 

[AthlonXP1800]

Finally some news about AMD Zen APU!!!

http://wccftech.com/amd-raven-ridge-apu-vega-zen-hbm-2017/

Upcoming Raven Ridge APU will have next gen Vega GPU, it will have 2 versions with DDR4 and HBM. DDR4 version will have 768 Vega GCN cores and HBM version will have 1024 Vega GCN cores.

 

[d_brennen]

WCCFTech link... News... Sorry, does not compute

I can make up some nonsense and palm it off as "insider info" if you like

E: pure gold, they cite BitsAndChips.it as their sauce

 

[Scougar]

My CPU is fine, but I think it's holding back my 1070, so I really would like a better CPU just so that I'm getting the best from it (I.e. I think performance would be better and I could run higher settings with a better CPU).

 

[AllBodies]

That'll be nice if true, and/or if Vega lives up to the hype.

4 Zen cores and 1000 Vega cores sounds extremely attractive for basically any remotely 'normal' person.

 

[Martini1991]

My CPU is fine, but I think it's holding back my 1070, so I really would like a better CPU just so that I'm getting the best from it (I.e. I think performance would be better and I could run higher settings with a better CPU).

It'll be massively holding back your 1070 (Unless you're at 4K)

 

[DONOHUE07]

Meh, AMD may as well not bother, even if it's better than skylake, the masses will still by Intel cpus over AMD cpus. I'm all honesty it's the same with NVIDIA and the GPU market

 

[Scougar]

It'll be massively holding back your 1070 (Unless you're at 4K)

I have a 4K screen I can use, but the 'lag' in the screen is awful, even at 60fps.

I normally use 1080p for gaming. I don't see an issue, I just thought the performance would have been better in things like BF1, so I'm putting it down to the CPU.

I defo need an upgrade. This 7580K has definitely punched above it's weight and could continue to be fine to be honest, just know it can be better lol.

Excited to see what they finally bring to market and if the motherboards are advanced enough this time.

 

[jigger]

Meh, AMD may as well not bother, even if it's better than skylake, the masses will still by Intel cpus over AMD cpus. I'm all honesty it's the same with NVIDIA and the GPU market

Intel will buy Nvidia shortly. Once that happens and Intel have had time to whip Nvidia into decent enough shape to become Intel's IGPU arm, confidence will finally be restored in the PC market. I wouldn't say Nvidia shouldn't bother before then though. Sure they haven't a clue when in comes to supporting open standards and they're a long way behind in the API race, but Nvidia can still compete for a while yet even though they've locked themselves out of the lucrative APU market and can't build a CPU.

We just need AMD to go bust before Intel can take custody of everything

 

[silversurfer]

I have a 4K screen I can use, but the 'lag' in the screen is awful, even at 60fps.

I normally use 1080p for gaming. I don't see an issue, I just thought the performance would have been better in things like BF1, so I'm putting it down to the CPU.

I defo need an upgrade. This 7580K has definitely punched above it's weight and could continue to be fine to be honest, just know it can be better lol.

Excited to see what they finally bring to market and if the motherboards are advanced enough this time.

http://www.game-debate.com/cpu/inde...i5-4590 3.3GHz-vs-AMD APU A10-7850K Quad-Core

This site says 7580k is 64% below recommended spec.

 

[AllBodies]

Even Deus Ex: MD would be held back a fair bit by the 7850k, and that's not very CPU bound:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1235-deus-ex-mankind-divided-benchmarks/page5.html

Something like Gears of War 4 is much worse:

http://www.techspot.com/review/1263-gears-of-war-4-benchmarks/page4.html

And they haven't tested Civilisation 6 yet, but I'd hate to think how bottlenecked it'll be there.

 

[Nelly]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-ceo-lisa-su-reconfirms-zen-release-in-q1-2017.html

Q1 2017 release date confirmation.

Yup, February 2017 according to this other article >> http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/new-amd-engineering-sample-zen-processors-get-higher-clocks.html

AMDs upcoming ZEN series processors are absolutely dominating the processor news-front this year. The hype is real. New information surfaced about updated engineering sample. The processor that is supposed to run IPC perf as fast as Intels Broadwell-E shows higher clocks.

User AMD Polaris reported that new information new SKUs that have just hit the post-boxes of the mainboard manufacturers. Both processors spotted are A0 revisions and Engineering Samples.

The first one is an 8-core design with AMD's HT implementation and it's got a 3150 MHz base clock, it's all-core turbo is 3300 MHz and the max turbo for 1 core is 3600 Mhz. Yes, here are some improvements regarding the previous 8-core SKU under the same TDP envelope.

The second SKU is a 4-core one with AMD's HT. It's got a 65W TDP and the base clock is still 2900 MHz. All-core turbo is 3100 MHz, max turbo is 3400 MHz. I don't know if it's only an SKU for testing mainboards or something is not okay with the clock-wattage correlation. I mean on higher clocks the 4-core SKU steps into the 95W TDP envelope, AMD can't keep the wattage low. Maybe GloFo's 14nm process needs some maturing.

Retail AM4 mainboards are under production. The whole platform will be ready to have a paper-launch at the end of the year with a real availability in February of 2017. Performance wise the Zen uarch will be around Haswell and Broadwell (except for FMA), it seems it won't catch Skylake clock for clock. It's not a big deal, but if the clocks can't go higher until the start it won't fulfill the expectations.

And we all know that expectations in this case are very high.

 

[Bonjour]

Hoping the high-end chipset supports IOMMU.

 

[Angilion]

Meh, AMD may as well not bother, even if it's better than skylake, the masses will still by Intel cpus over AMD cpus. I'm all honesty it's the same with NVIDIA and the GPU market

AMD can't possibly be planning to compete with Intel on scale. AMD's entire revenue is about the same as the variation in predicted revenue for Intel. it's not about "the masses".

It's not going to be better than Skylake, although it might have a better price/performance ratio.

Intel needs AMD around to avoid monopoly problems, anyway.

 

[NeoWave]

It's not going to be better than Skylake, although it might have a better price/performance ratio.

My feeling too... the top tier Zen won't match Intel performance and performance per watt will be slightly worse but the recommended RRP to buy one will be less than Intel's offering. Could be wrong, we'll see, but still good for consumers if so.

Intel needs AMD around to avoid monopoly problems, anyway.

Iirc monopolies are legal in the US provided the other guys fold and you didn't do it to them using anti-competitive practices (Intel would just have to demonstrate that their CPU is superior to one a competitor could produce to avoid breakup). Thus, I'm pretty sure Intel wishes AMD weren't around and they hadn't sold them that 386 license.

 

[Bonjour]

They kind of needed the x86-64 license from AMD at the time.

 

[Skilty]

To be honest if Zen is on par with Skylake (i7 6700k) or within 10% from a performance perspective with a price point 30% lower then I think AMD could be onto a winner. It certainly makes them a viable option instead of Intel for price/performance and typically motherboards based on their chipsets have been cheaper in the past.

Have put off my rig upgrade until we get some real numbers on it's performance. If it tanks then I guess it will be Kabylake!

 

[Martini1991]

To be honest if Zen is on par with Skylake (i7 6700k) or within 10% from a performance perspective with a price point 30% lower then I think AMD could be onto a winner. It certainly makes them a viable option instead of Intel for price/performance and typically motherboards based on their chipsets have been cheaper in the past.

Have put off my rig upgrade until we get some real numbers on it's performance. If it tanks then I guess it will be Kabylake!

It depends with what chip.
If AMD's flagship chip only gets as fast as a 6700K, then it's meh.

 

[FredFlint]

It depends with what chip.
If AMD's flagship chip only gets as fast as a 6700K, then it's meh.

If it’s per core performance is = 6700K or within 10% it will be great, how many program need more that and are not multithreaded? Hopefully the price will be good too. If its around £300- £350 for the 8 core, i will get one.

 

[Martini1991]

If it’s per core performance is = 6700K or within 10% it will be great, how many program need more that and are not multithreaded? Hopefully the price will be good too. If its around £300- £350 for the 8 core, i will get one.

If a Zen core is within 10% of a skylake core, then yes it'll be quality performance. Price is then a question