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AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

lttlabs.com

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Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#81

Post by bradfa »

codedokode wrote: post #72
codedokode wrote: post #67

32 Gb DDR4 RAM module has a bandwidth of 25 Gb/s and costs $160. If you buy 8 of these, you get 256 Gb RAM with 200 Gb/s bandwidth at $1280. And if you buy 16 x 16 Gb modules (each at $60) then you can get 400 Gb/s of bandwidth for $960. The only problem, you need 8 or 16 memory controllers. Memory controllers are not that expensive: Intel Core i3-14100F has 2 channel controller and costs $110, so we can estimate tha…

So what I am trying to say, industry took a wrong turn. Instead of moving to over-priced DDR5, they should just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels. Because a 32Gb DDR5-4800 module costs $360, and two 32Gb DDR4-3200 modules cost $320, so you get twice more size, more bandwidth and it costs you less. DDR5 is just a rip off.

Each memory controller interface is a not-insignificant number of PCB traces. Increasing the number of memory controllers may dramatically increase the number of PCB layers (or may not, it really depends on the CPU pinout) but it definitely will increase the number of pins on the CPU socket.

This is one of the main reasons (the other is the number of PCIe lanes) why high end desktop and server CPUs have like double the number of pins and so much bigger sockets as compared to consumer desktop CPUs.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#82

Post by tbrownaw »

codedokode wrote: post #72
codedokode wrote: post #67

32 Gb DDR4 RAM module has a bandwidth of 25 Gb/s and costs $160. If you buy 8 of these, you get 256 Gb RAM with 200 Gb/s bandwidth at $1280. And if you buy 16 x 16 Gb modules (each at $60) then you can get 400 Gb/s of bandwidth for $960. The only problem, you need 8 or 16 memory controllers. Memory controllers are not that expensive: Intel Core i3-14100F has 2 channel controller and costs $110, so we can estimate tha…

So what I am trying to say, industry took a wrong turn. Instead of moving to over-priced DDR5, they should just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels. Because a 32Gb DDR5-4800 module costs $360, and two 32Gb DDR4-3200 modules cost $320, so you get twice more size, more bandwidth and it costs you less. DDR5 is just a rip off.

> just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels

Isn't adding pins kind of expensive?

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#83

Post by ekholm_e »

kamranjon wrote: post #2

In case it saves anyone some time (from the article): "The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395(Strix Halo) processor has been available since Spring 2025 and the Halo doesn’t offer anything new on that front." It has the same 256 GB/s memory bandwidth limit as every board previously, not sure why this is even being released right now as if it's some new fangled thing - you can go get a Framework Desktop for roughly the same price…

This. I bought Framework Desktop in November 2025 with almost these exact specs for ~$2.5k

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#84

Post by wmf »

codedokode wrote: post #67

32 Gb DDR4 RAM module has a bandwidth of 25 Gb/s and costs $160. If you buy 8 of these, you get 256 Gb RAM with 200 Gb/s bandwidth at $1280. And if you buy 16 x 16 Gb modules (each at $60) then you can get 400 Gb/s of bandwidth for $960. The only problem, you need 8 or 16 memory controllers. Memory controllers are not that expensive: Intel Core i3-14100F has 2 channel controller and costs $110, so we can estimate tha…

If you want Epyc go for it. The motherboards can be quite expensive though.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#85

Post by hparadiz »

kamranjon wrote: post #2

In case it saves anyone some time (from the article): "The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395(Strix Halo) processor has been available since Spring 2025 and the Halo doesn’t offer anything new on that front." It has the same 256 GB/s memory bandwidth limit as every board previously, not sure why this is even being released right now as if it's some new fangled thing - you can go get a Framework Desktop for roughly the same price…

It's being released right now because it's massively profitable and in high demand and has actually gone up in price over the past year so obviously AMD wants to cash in on that instead of selling these units to PC manufacturers at a lower price.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#86

Post by icedchai »

codedokode wrote: post #72
codedokode wrote: post #67

32 Gb DDR4 RAM module has a bandwidth of 25 Gb/s and costs $160. If you buy 8 of these, you get 256 Gb RAM with 200 Gb/s bandwidth at $1280. And if you buy 16 x 16 Gb modules (each at $60) then you can get 400 Gb/s of bandwidth for $960. The only problem, you need 8 or 16 memory controllers. Memory controllers are not that expensive: Intel Core i3-14100F has 2 channel controller and costs $110, so we can estimate tha…

So what I am trying to say, industry took a wrong turn. Instead of moving to over-priced DDR5, they should just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels. Because a 32Gb DDR5-4800 module costs $360, and two 32Gb DDR4-3200 modules cost $320, so you get twice more size, more bandwidth and it costs you less. DDR5 is just a rip off.

In the alternate reality where this happened, wouldn't the price of DDR4 still be sky high? We'll ignore any costs for CPU, chip set, and motherboard redesign. You're just pushing the demand somewhere else.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#87

Post by arnitdo »

tbrownaw wrote: post #82
codedokode wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what I am trying to say, industry took a wrong turn. Instead of moving to over-priced DDR5, they should just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels. Because a 32Gb DDR5-4800 module costs $360, and two 32Gb DDR4-3200 modules cost $320, so you get twice more size, more bandwidth and it costs you less. DDR5 is just a rip off.

> just make even cheapest CPUs support 8/16 DDR4 channels Isn't adding pins kind of expensive?

Well to be honest, there are a lot of NOOP pins on CPUs, but using them basically means fabbing a new die altogether, which is basically making a whole new CPU altogether.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#88

Post by devld »

15 square cm box? Wow. Are there similar size, but less powered (and cheaper) workstations? I need a box that can build chromium reasonably fast and I would rather have something portable like this than a PC tower, but this is an overkill at $4k.

Re: AMD Ryzen AI Halo – $4k AI Dev Kit

#89

Post by dwroberts »

Seems not really worth it? About the same cost as DGX, same amount of memory and yet the bandwidth is actually slightly lower. And also the DGX is CUDA being an Nvidia device which is a big compatibility advantage

For this to be compelling it would need to be eg 256GB minimum or something

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