AMD Launches EPYC 9005 "Turin" Server Processors

AMD is using their Advancing AI event today to announce 5th Gen EPYC "Turin" processors. With up to 192 cores / 384 threads per socket, 17% IPC uplift, AVX-512 with a full 512-bit data path, and the Zen 5 architectural improvements, these new EPYC 9005 processors deliver a significant generational improvement over the EPYC 9004 Genoa and Bergamo processors.

This article offers a look at the EPYC 9005 series and features while also out today are initial benchmarks of some of these new AMD EPYC 9005 series processors. More AMD EPYC 9005 series benchmarks will be published on Phoronix over the coming days and weeks with a lot of exciting areas to explore.

The EPYC 9005 line-up premiering today consists of both "Zen 5" classic and "Zen 5C" dense core offerings.

There are not any 3D V-Cache "X" SKUs being announced today nor is there any announcements yet for any EPYC 8005 or EPYC 4005 processors lower down the stack. With the EPYC 9005 line-up debuting today, the top-end SKU is the EPYC 9965 at 192 cores / 384 threads with a 500 Watt default TDP. At the bottom of the stack is an 8-core EPYC 9015 part with a 155 Watt TDP. There are various frequency optimized "F" and single-socket only "P" SKUs among the initial EPYC 9005 line-up.

While the current Intel Xeon 6 Sierra Forest parts top out at 144 cores and the Xeon 6 Granite Rapids go up to 128 cores, with the Zen 5 dense cores there is 160 cores (EPYC 9845) and the 192 cores (EPYC 9965) options plus the EPYC 9825 to match Sierra Forest at 144 cores. With the 128 cores there is the EPYC 9755 as the top-end classic Zen 5 core option as well as the EPYC 9745 for dense cores while having the benefit of 100 Watts lower TDP. Having 128 classic cores is up from 96 cores with the EPYC 9004 line-up where there was the EPYC 9654/9684X as the top-end Genoa variants.

The EPYC 9005 series does retain the SP5 socket used by EPYC 9004 so just a BIOS update is necessary to offer drop-in upgrade potential. But now with SKUs going up to 500 Watts, not all existing AMD EPYC SP5 platforms will be suited for those top-end variants depending upon the cooling/power configuration. With the EPYC 9005 series is support for DDR5-6000 ECC Registered memory, up from DDR5-4800 with EPYC 9004 series. There is also DDR5-6400 support for some configurations or with upgraded BIOS - it wasn't immediately clear and appears to be a rather last minute bump in order to match DDR5-6400 found with the Intel Xeon 6900P series.

There are some new Zen 5 ISA features to benefit EPYC 9005 like Secure AVIC, but to which the Linux driver support is just available in patch form on the mailing list and hasn't yet been upstreamed. Similarly, SEV-SNP CipherTextHiding, secure TSC support for SNP guests, and PCIe TLP Processing Hints (TPH) is also out on the Linux kernel mailing list and patch form but unfortunately not upstreamed in time for launch day.

At least with GCC 14+ and LLVM Clang 19+ is the Znver5 target now available in those upstream open-source compilers for the new Zen 5 instructions. GCC and LLVM/Clang though still lack the tuning / cost table adjustments and currently carried over from Zen 4.

The EPYC 9005 series does not support MRDIMMs, unlike the new Xeon 6 Granite Rapids processors. The EPYC 9005 series supports 12 channel DDR5 memory like the existing Genoa/Bergamo processors. Besides MRDIMM 8800 support, Intel Granite Rapids supports DDR5-6400 while AMD EPYC 9005 currently tops out at DDR5-6000 (or DDR5-6400 in some configurations).

AMD EPYC 9005 does support CXL 1.0 with Type 1, 2, and 3 devices.

The AMD EPYC 9005 pricing ranges from $527 USD for the 8-core EPYC 9015 to $14,813 USD for the EPYC 9965 192-core processor. The 128-core EPYC 9755 has a suggested price of $12,984. This pricing is much lower than the Xeon 6900P Granite Rapids processors that top out at $17,800 for the Xeon 6980P 128-core processor. Keep in mind these prices from both vendors are the list prices and for large CSPs/hyperscalers they typically are able to purchase processors at significant discounts.

That's the technical overview of the AMD EPYC 9005 "Turin" processors. Let's move onto the exciting area and that's independent benchmarks for how well EPYC 9005 performs generationally and against the competition. Continue reading with the 5th Gen AMD EPYC benchmark articles so far of AMD EPYC 9965 "Turin Dense" Delivers Better Performance/Power Efficiency vs. AmpereOne 192-Core ARM CPU and most excitingly the AMD EPYC 9755 / 9575F / 9965 Performance Benchmarks.