AMD Zen 2 launching with a 16-core CPU can be dumb

AMD Zen 2 launching with a 16-core CPU can be dumb

The newest AMD Zen 2 rumours counsel that the purple staff will doubtlessly be squeezing twice the variety of cores into the following technology of processors after they launch subsequent 12 months. Which would without delay be insanity, utter folly, and stinking of hubris.

Thankfully the hearsay has come direct from non-public conversations with usually un-named sources near WCCFTech. If that phrase doesn’t routinely spike the sodium ranges in your bloodstream you then in all probability haven’t been studying tech information from the previous couple of years.

We know the following technology of AMD processors goes to drop subsequent 12 months, however the firm hasn’t but mentioned what it’s going to be doing when it comes to spec past dropping the manufacturing course of to 7nm.

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The claims from WCCFTech are that AMD goes to lift the ceiling for its AM4 processor core-count from the present eight-core max to someplace between 12 and 16 cores. That means the top-end of that vary would someway handle to jam twice the cores into basically the identical area.

Quite except for the large technological achievement that may require, it might even be a remarkably pointless and unfeasibly silly factor for the purple staff to do. 

The AMD Zen 2 7nm processors are going to be sampling earlier than the tip of this 12 months, making the 2019 spring launch just about nailed on. But if AMD did select to throw 16 core CPUs into the combination for the AM4 platform, with the vary doubtlessly more likely to launch round April subsequent 12 months, that’s solely going to have the impact of severely angering anybody dropping cash on the second-gen Threadripper chips which can be nonetheless to launch. 

AMD CPU process roadmap

The Threadripper 2 processors are anticipated to land in August this 12 months, and can certainly have the identical core-configuration because the earlier technology of monster chips. That ranges from eight cores and 16 threads within the 1900X, by means of the 12-core, 24-thread 1920X, as much as the 16-core, 32-thread 1950X behemoth.

That prime 16-core Threadripper is round $900, whereas the Threadripper 2 model, doubtlessly the 2950X, will likely be across the similar value. I can’t see anybody selecting that chip for the guts of their high-performance PC being completely satisfied on the thought that it might be superceded just a bit over six months later by a brand new, cheaper, extra mainstream processor on the AM4 platform.

AMD Threadripper specs

Sure, you’d solely be getting dual-channel reminiscence with a 16-core Zen 2 CPU – AMD is unlikely so as to add quad-channel RAM to the AM4 platform even when there’s a brand new X570 chipset launched alongside the Zen 2 processors – however would that be sufficient to dampen down the ire of a Threadripper 2 proprietor?

To be honest to WCCFTech, it does counsel the highest core-count for a Zen 2 CPU might be nearer to 12 relatively than 16. That’s a bit extra of a probable config, although appears bizarrely excessive for what would nonetheless be a mainstream vary of processors. But if Intel does launch a Core i9 CPU on the tail finish of this 12 months, with eight cores and 16 threads, then AMD may wish to ensure it has a clearly outlined edge for its most superior processor vary.

Because of that I may actually see AMD wanting to provide its new technology of Zen CPUs a little bit of a core increase – that’s been the touchstone of all its newest processors – however that excessive variety of cores would require some critical rejigging of the CPU advanced (CCX) that’s been on the coronary heart of the Ryzen designs.

AMD Ryzen Core Complex

We know that AMD are going to be utilising the 7nm node for the brand new Zen 2 chips, however that doesn’t imply all of the technical wizardry contained in the CPU will likely be half the scale of the present 14nm or 12nm designs. If it was going for 12 cores that may both require every CCX to be redesigned as a svelte six-core setup – versus the present quad-core structure – or AMD must squeeze three Zen 2 CCX into the identical area that two Zen 1 variations occupy in the mean time.

And if the purple staff have been going for a 16 core most that may imply it must someway double the variety of cores becoming in that very same area. The AM4 CPU socket isn’t going to alter, and must be pin-compatible with the brand new processors, so the Zen 2 silicon will nonetheless have to slot in the very same total bundle as the present Ryzen CPUs.

Then you’ve bought to contemplate simply how lengthy the staff has been engaged on Zen 2. I perceive AMD is utilizing leap-frogging design groups, so the Zen 2 gang would have been arduous at work as Ryzen was hitting the cabinets. But nonetheless, in such a brief turnaround for a 2019 launch to have the ability to double the core-count in the identical area looks as if some critical technical voodoo. 

If AMD does handle it I’ll maintain my fingers up and congratulate it on its CPU magic. And sit tight to see what ludicrous variety of cores it then jams into the third-gen Threadripper designs, and the way the advertising and marketing staff mollifies the poor people who spent good cash on the earlier gen HEDT chips.

Then I’ll attempt to determine what profit a 12 to 16-core processor goes to be for my video games. Not lots, I’ll wager.


 
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