AMD Talks Up Vega Frontier Edition, Epyc, Zen 2, ThreadRipper

[torsionbar28]

Yeah, picking a name designed to appeal to teenage boys is a very odd choice for an enterprise CPU. But it's not like it could underperform bulldozer since it's at least a competent micro-architecture this time and you can just say "AMD Ryzen-based processor" or "32 core Naples CPU" and not one of those things like GIMP where you're just like "Hey, there's this graphics editor you should try, it's what I've been using and it's Free." "Cool, what's it called?" ".......uh .........Krita."

^ LMAO, this x100

[L_A_G]

Rumors are suggesting vega will be introduced with 3 SKUs ranging from $400 to $600. This price point is higher than I expected meaning Vega might be a better performer than I thought it would be. Either that or AMD is asking a crazy price for it. We'll find out very soon.

I wouldn't put too much weight into this particular set of rumors seeing how it's wholly based on a single post on reddit's r/Amd where some person claimed they got the information from a friend who worked for AMD, but didn't want to reveal what they did so they wouldn't get into trouble. The people who moderate that subreddit thought it was just rumor-mongering so they deleted it a few hours later.

Thinking about this and how many sites have picked up on this single reddit post without as much as a peep about where the "information" is actually from makes me wonder if tech reporting in general is to be trusted these days...

[wizard69]

Anyway, here's a newsflash. "Threadripper" is basically two Ryzen dies stuffed in a single package, connected via "Infinity Fabric", which is a custom protocol running over PCIe. Epyc is this, but with 4 dies in a package. And their inter-processor bus, in multi-CPU systems, is also Infinity Fabric.

What does it mean? Well, it depends on how much you like NUMA. Because single-CPU systems will have the memory topology of 2-CPU and 4-CPU systems. Dual-CPU systems (though I don't know if you can do that with Threadripper) will then behave like 4-CPU and 8-CPU systems. So, thread/data locality will be crucial to getting good performance from it.

The aggregate numbers are pretty eye-popping, but you'd do well to think of this as a density play. I'm looking forward to seeing some scalability numbers. I think Intel probably isn't too worried.

This is just a case of fitting the right tool to the job. I'm pretty sure there will be cases where ThreadRipper will be a big win.

[wizard69]

Yeah, picking a name designed to appeal to teenage boys is a very odd choice for an enterprise CPU. But it's not like it could underperform bulldozer since it's at least a competent micro-architecture this time and you can just say "AMD Ryzen-based processor" or "32 core Naples CPU" and not one of those things like GIMP where you're just like "Hey, there's this graphics editor you should try, it's what I've been using and it's Free." "Cool, what's it called?" ".......uh .........Krita."

Most of the enterprise people I've meant could be likened to teenage boys.

[starshipeleven]

Thinking about this and how many sites have picked up on this single reddit post without as much as a peep about where the "information" is actually from makes me wonder if tech reporting in general is to be trusted these days...

Meh, when most tech sites basically copy each other and the non-english ones barely translate the english ones without any check and call it a day....

[starshipeleven]

Most of the enterprise people I've meant could be likened to teenage boys.

This. It's also true outside enterprise. The amount of fake grownups in the world is much higher than many people realize.

[Chewi]

Phew, you had me worried there. I only bought a Ryzen last weekend.

[carewolf]

Just take my money will you!

[Zucca]

"It'll be Epyc!" Not looking forward to all the puns. No thanks.

Sorry but AMD has Ryzen and now they'll pun you down in the most Epyc way possible.

Sounds Awesyme!

[bug77]

Rumors are suggesting vega will be introduced with 3 SKUs ranging from $400 to $600. This price point is higher than I expected meaning Vega might be a better performer than I thought it would be. Either that or AMD is asking a crazy price for it. We'll find out very soon.

Yesterday's rumours. Today AMD just came out and said Vega will be HPC exclusive at the beginning. This is mirroring Nvidia's approach (HPC first, high-end desktop second with everything else much later), but at the same time it means no consumer Vega for a few more months. Not terribly unexpected either, considering the (lack of) HBM2 availability.