Discussion AMD Cezanne/Zen 3 APU Speculation and Discussion

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dr1337

Senior member
May 25, 2020
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Fresh leak out today, not much is known but at least 8cu's is confirmed. Probably an engineering sample, core count is unknown and clocks may not be final.

This is very interesting to me because cezanne is seemingly 8cu only, and it seems unlikely to me that AMD could squeeze any more performance out of vega. A cpu only upgrade of renoir may be lackluster compared to tigerlake's quite large GPU.

What do you guys think? Will zen 3 be a large enough improvement in APU form? Will it have full cache? Are there more than 8cus? Has AMD truly evolved vega yet again or is it more like rdna?
 

moinmoin

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2017
5,109
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I mean, you can argue all day about how open the PC platform compared to consoles, but isn't really a strong selling point against consoles. Majority of consumers doesn't give a damn about openness of the platform over convenience and ease to use factor.
Console markets are certainly successful, but gaming on PC is also increasing. Steam is constantly increasing its user base worldwide, and with console game prices increasing again a PC with its relative abundance of bargain sources is a good alternate in the long run more cost efficient choice in a lot of countries. Just looking at the Steam survey results should give you an idea how varied the markets are and how prevalent lower budget gaming with integrated graphics really is.
 

JasonLD

Senior member
Aug 22, 2017
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Just looking at the Steam survey results should give you an idea how varied the markets are and how prevalent lower budget gaming with integrated graphics really is.

Given the majority of PCs sold are sold with just integrated graphics without gaming in consideration, that isn't a surprising figure. However, I don't see that part of the market being financially prevalent enough for hardware manufacturers and even developers to take notice, since I expect majority of Steam gaming purchases will be skewed toward the ones with dedicated GPU.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,486
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Just got open box 5600G from Microcenter for $220 tax included. I'm guessing someone returned it because it wouldn't work in their system without BIOS flash and they couldn't figure it out/didn't want to bother. This one went into my HTPC. Originally wanted to get a B550 motherboard to go along with it, but then decided to just stick with B450 and upgrade BIOS instead. I had to install Radeon drivers to get sleep option back (it disappeared after CPU swap), but otherwise it works well, PLEX player UI seems to be a bit more responsive, but that could be just confirmation bias. Now if only AMD released R3 APUs into retail channel...
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,486
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There is no reason to spend on a B550 board, since Cezanne is PCIe 3.0 only. Which is the main point of B550/X570. You're not missing any features on B450.
Good point on the PCIe 4.0. I was really surprised these APUs lack 4.0 when I checked, but I suppose that makes sense given the what they are.

I did have another reason I wanted to get a new motherboard, the AsRock b450m pro4 that I use in my HTPC occasionally resets BIOS settings to defaults when we lose power. Really bugs me especially since this is the second Asrock AM4 motherboard that does it to me. Not sure if it's just a flaky motherboard or a BIOS issue. I briefly pondered about just getting a b550 board to fix it, but b550 boards are way more expensive and I'm hoping that new BIOS will solve the resetting to defaults issue.
 

LightningZ71

Golden Member
Mar 10, 2017
1,838
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On the bottom end of the market, there is VERY little price difference between the low to mid B550 Boards and the entry X570 boards. When my son replaced his bricked B450 Pro 4 a few months back, we found that halfway decent B550 boards were within $20 of the low end X570 boards without offering any sort of advantages over them. We chose the x570 for its greater variety of supported processors and other platform features as well as the basic features it has over the B550 when he decides to upgrade his current processor in the future. There are a surprising number of X570 boards available in the sub $175 range, and if you are ok with refurbs, even down to ~$125.
 

Insert_Nickname

Diamond Member
May 6, 2012
4,971
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I did have another reason I wanted to get a new motherboard, the AsRock b450m pro4 that I use in my HTPC occasionally resets BIOS settings to defaults when we lose power. Really bugs me especially since this is the second Asrock AM4 motherboard that does it to me. Not sure if it's just a flaky motherboard or a BIOS issue.

Odd. Could also be a flaky button cell. Worth checking.
 
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dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,658
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Just got open box 5600G from Microcenter for $220 tax included. I'm guessing someone returned it because it wouldn't work in their system without BIOS flash and they couldn't figure it out/didn't want to bother. This one went into my HTPC. Originally wanted to get a B550 motherboard to go along with it, but then decided to just stick with B450 and upgrade BIOS instead. I had to install Radeon drivers to get sleep option back (it disappeared after CPU swap), but otherwise it works well, PLEX player UI seems to be a bit more responsive, but that could be just confirmation bias. Now if only AMD released R3 APUs into retail channel...

I definitely noticed the UI on my Plex player was much snappier after upgrading.
 

Asterox

Golden Member
May 15, 2012
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New model MinisForum EliteMini X500 with R7 5700G.

 

Thibsie

Senior member
Apr 25, 2017
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Just pulled the trigger on a Thinkpad L14 Gen 2 with a 5400u. I have a 16GB kit and a 970 Evo Plus ready to go. Anyone have this APU and can comment on performance? Most reviews are for 5600u and 5800u.

You won't get for a couple days I guess ?
I can't say about the L14 g2 except I'm eying that one (and T14/P14S).

What I can say is that I configured my father's new laptop, which is a E15 G3 (5700u) and I was pleasantly surprised: thinner than I expected, quite responsive, still has a DIMM slot and screen was,'t too bas either, quite light too. This is lower end than L serie so you should be happy IMO.

The L14 has that special thing which is dual DIMM -> 64 GB is possible :D
But screen quality, dunno. Might still go for T14/P14s because of screen and thinness.

Rembrandt teases me though.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
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Screen is supposed to be 250 nits (passable).
You won't get for a couple days I guess ?
I can't say about the L14 g2 except I'm eying that one (and T14/P14S).

What I can say is that I configured my father's new laptop, which is a E15 G3 (5700u) and I was pleasantly surprised: thinner than I expected, quite responsive, still has a DIMM slot and screen was,'t too bas either, quite light too. This is lower end than L serie so you should be happy IMO.

The L14 has that special thing which is dual DIMM -> 64 GB is possible :D
But screen quality, dunno. Might still go for T14/P14s because of screen and thinness.

Rembrandt teases me though.

I couldn’t wait. My E485 2700u imploded. Estimated arrival January. Salvaging the 16GB 2666 kit (yes, 3200 is ideal) and 970 EVO for the new machine. Keeps configuration cost down.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
680
348
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You won't get for a couple days I guess ?
I can't say about the L14 g2 except I'm eying that one (and T14/P14S).

What I can say is that I configured my father's new laptop, which is a E15 G3 (5700u) and I was pleasantly surprised: thinner than I expected, quite responsive, still has a DIMM slot and screen was,'t too bas either, quite light too. This is lower end than L serie so you should be happy IMO.

The L14 has that special thing which is dual DIMM -> 64 GB is possible :D
But screen quality, dunno. Might still go for T14/P14s because of screen and thinness.

Rembrandt teases me though.

What is "dual DIMM"? What does that have to do with achieving 64GB? Just curious.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
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Sorry, I meant dual slots.
Most laptops have one slot or even zero (fixed amount soldered).

Gotcha. Definitely nice to know I can go up to 64GB at some point (although by then the CPU or Vega 6 is probably the bottleneck).

Quick look at Passmark shows the 5400u is significantly faster than the 3400G. Of course that needs some testing on my end. I'll follow up with a short review on the 5400u when it shows up.
 
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eek2121

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2005
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Sorry, I meant dual slots.
Most laptops have one slot or even zero (fixed amount soldered).

The pain with my laptop. It is set up as dual channel (thankfully), but does not even have 1 slot. I did not think this would be an issue (except for upgrades) until I realized the soldered memory is running JEDEC timings.

AMD should really give laptop users better overclocking options. My BIOS is barebones and I would love to do some undervolting and memory overclocking.
 

Thibsie

Senior member
Apr 25, 2017
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Gotcha. Definitely nice to know I can go up to 64GB at some point (although by then the CPU or Vega 6 is probably the bottleneck).

Quick look at Passmark shows the 5400u is significantly faster than the 3400G. Of course that needs some testing on my end. I'll follow up with a short review on the 5400u when it shows up.

Yep, the L G2 has two slots so Max is 2x32 GB.
Even if you don't need 64 GB, it makes 32 GB quite affordable so it is all good.

A pity may not have the opportunity to wait for Rembrandt.

X13 would be good too but only with 32 GB 'cos not free slot. And this seem difficult to order from Europe.
 

burninatortech4

Senior member
Jan 29, 2014
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To hazard a guess, it's the m.2 slot for the WWAN card for a cellular modem.

What key is that? Is it possible to find a niche SSD to function in place of a modem? Looks like a m.2 2242 could physically fit.

Found this on their website: "
  • WWAN: Optional: Integrated Global Mobile Broadband LTE-A 5G Sub 6 LTE CAT 12
"
 
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Thibsie

Senior member
Apr 25, 2017
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What key is that? Is it possible to find a niche SSD to function in place of a modem? Looks like a m.2 2242 could physically fit.

Found this on their website: "
  • WWAN: Optional: Integrated Global Mobile Broadband LTE-A 5G Sub 6 LTE CAT 12
"

At least on T14, the wan slot is not unusable as a second ssd slot unfortunately.
IMO on the left of the wan slot is simply the WiFi/Bluetooth slot.

The E15 has dual SSD slots.
 
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