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AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

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11–20 of 97 posts

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#11
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Intel's i9 if it exists is a rename of the old HEDT platform. This is also likely unrelated to AMD, with Coffee Lake coming which brings 6-core/6-thread and 6-core/12-thread CPUs to the mainstream (150-300$) Intel likely wants a new tier to relay performance segmentation when even a core i5 will come with 6 cores from Q3 2017 onwards.

Nope. 6 core 12 thread CPUs came to the mainstream a while ago, AMD brought them. The Ryzen 5 1400 is $160. Intel is playing catchup.

The Ryzen CPUs just came out, no OEMs yet, and the sales are not a blimp or Intel's radar yet. Coffee Lake is honestly a more interesting part, it's a 6 core with an IGP, AMD's APU will be 4 core maximum atm.

I know it hurts but AMD needs to have ship an almost unreasonable number of units for several consecutive to be considered mainstream. If Ryzen will be anything like the Athlon 64, AMD would fail to capitalize on it and just be behind Intel when it comes to iterations.

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#14
post #12

How much of a performance hit would be expected for single threaded performance with the new 16-core processors?

Top-end Ryzen chips have a TDP of 95W. (Edit: AM4 socket is rated at >140W TDP.) The new sockets are designed for 180W and up, so they will probably run at the same clock frequencies. That means no hit for single-thread performance.

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#15
post #13

I wonder why it needs so many pins? It only has 4 DDR channels, which is going to be a bottleneck keeping those cores fed. 8 channels would be more appropriate for 16 cores and it would explain why so many pins.

Intel are moving to a similarly big socket for next-gen Xeons, LGA-3647 [0]. It's already in use for socketed Phi processors.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_3647

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#16
post #14
post #12

How much of a performance hit would be expected for single threaded performance with the new 16-core processors?

Top-end Ryzen chips have a TDP of 95W. (Edit: AM4 socket is rated at >140W TDP.) The new sockets are designed for 180W and up, so they will probably run at the same clock frequencies. That means no hit for single-thread performance.

180W!? That thing is a monster.

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#17
post #13

I wonder why it needs so many pins? It only has 4 DDR channels, which is going to be a bottleneck keeping those cores fed. 8 channels would be more appropriate for 16 cores and it would explain why so many pins.

It needs a lot of pins because it's an I/O monster. The socket is going to support their high end server chips with 8 memory channels. Plus, all of their high end line supports 128 pcie lanes, and will have on board an unknown number of usb, sata, and networking lanes. All that adds up to needing a very large socket.

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#18
post #3

Finally it looks like the desktop CPU market could become interesting and competitive again. Intel being pushed to release a new top of the line core i9 processor?! I cannot remember anything like this since the amd64 days more than 10 years ago. Would love to play with one of these setups..

The i9 isn't new. Its a rebranded Skylake-X/KabyLake-X chip. This has been on their roadmap for over a year [1]; they just changed the name to trick consumers into thinking its something new.

The hype between here and reddit about i9 is astounding to me. You've been able to get an i7 in a 10 core variant for a year now [2]. Need 6 cores? Take a time machine back to Q3'11 and pick up an i7 3930k [3]. And if you needed twelve cores, you could buy Xeon [4]! Heck, go crazy, get 22 [5]!

The only difference is likely price; hopefully the i9 is cheaper.

Fundamentally, why you should not be excited about these things: They'll use the enthusiast motherboard socket/chipset, not the consumer socket. And they'll have a 140W TDP, whereas Ryzen has 95W max. These two things are what makes Ryzen so amazing. If you ignore these two things, then you might as well by Xeon; Intel has lead in that category for years and continues to.

[1] http://wccftech.com/intel-skylake-x-kaby-lake-x-q2-2017-road...

[2] http://ark.intel.com/products/94456/Intel-Core-i7-6950X-Proc...

[3] http://ark.intel.com/products/63697/Intel-Core-i7-3930K-Proc...

[4] http://ark.intel.com/products/91767/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-...

[5] http://ark.intel.com/products/93805/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-...

Re: AMD 16-Core ThreadRipper Enthusiast CPUs to Reportedly Utilize 4094 Pin Socket

#19
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Intel's i9 if it exists is a rename of the old HEDT platform. This is also likely unrelated to AMD, with Coffee Lake coming which brings 6-core/6-thread and 6-core/12-thread CPUs to the mainstream (150-300$) Intel likely wants a new tier to relay performance segmentation when even a core i5 will come with 6 cores from Q3 2017 onwards.

Nope. 6 core 12 thread CPUs came to the mainstream a while ago, AMD brought them. The Ryzen 5 1400 is $160. Intel is playing catchup.

Ever heard of the i7 5820k? It was released Q3'14. 6 cores. 12 threads. i7 name. Around $400. [1]

AMD's great revolution was getting the TDP on that core count below 100W, and getting them onto a consumer chipset/socket instead of the enthusiast/server platform. That's it.

We keep saying they forced some revolution in price/performance that Intel has had to respond to. Its 80% hype, 20% truth. Intel was complacent on the desktop, yes. But Ryzen's perf gains over Skylake aren't significantly more than Intel's tick/tock perf gains they push each year; the main difference is that Ryzen focused on the enthusiast, which is something Intel had de-prioritized.

[1] http://ark.intel.com/products/82932/Intel-Core-i7-5820K-Proc...

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