AMD will launch AM4 platform in March 2016 says industry source

[mysticjbyrd]

http://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboar...am4-platform-march-2016-says-industry-source/

 

[nismotigerwvu]

I would be beyond stunned if Zen came that early. I imagine the most likely case is that the platform launches alongside XV APUs with forward compatibility with the upcoming Zen line. DDR4 might give a nice boost to the iGPU as well.

 

[mysticjbyrd]

I would be beyond stunned if Zen came that early. I imagine the most likely case is that the platform launches alongside XV APUs with forward compatibility with the upcoming Zen line. DDR4 might give a nice boost to the iGPU as well.

Zen won't be out that early. They are saying Zen might be earlier than expected, Q4 2016, based on this information. Personally, I don't see how they come to that conclusion though.

My money is still on Q4.

 

[Shehriazad]

Well yea it's pretty obvious that it's being released for the XV APUs but the boards are (hopefully) the finalized spec so you can carry over to all the Zen products later down the line.

 

[mysticjbyrd]

Zen won't be out that early. They are saying Zen might be earlier than expected, Q4 2016, based on this information. Personally, I don't see how they come to that conclusion though.

My money is still on Q4.

Yup, on the plus side this also allows them to work out any quirks as well.

 

[AtenRa]

Bristol Ridge leak

http://wccftech.com/amd-bristol-ridge-apu-am4-desktop-fp4-mobility/

 

[NTMBK]

Limited to DDR4 2400? Seriously? D: I was hoping for at least 3GHz support.

 

[AtenRa]

The AM4 35W TDP Bristol Ridge iGPU at 900MHz (Color compression) + DDR-4 2400MHz should be faster than 65W TDP Kaveri A10-7800 and 40-50% faster than current 51W TDP Skylake Core i3s.

 

[AtenRa]

Limited to DDR4 2400? Seriously? D: I was hoping for at least 3GHz support.

That is the official supported memory speed, they may be able to operate at higher than 2400MHz.

 

[scannall]

Limited to DDR4 2400? Seriously? D: I was hoping for at least 3GHz support.

That's official support. Likely will be much higher after 'enthusiasts' get their hands on it. Similarly Intel's 6700k only supports up to DDR4 2133 officially, though much higher speeds are possible. It should be interesting to see these APU's and how they perform with a lot more memory bandwidth.

 

[NostaSeronx]

Tell no one about the eDRAM!

 

[NTMBK]

Tell no one about the eDRAM!

It's a low cost 28nm part... I sincerely doubt they are going to slap on eDRAM and crank up the price.

 

[AtenRa]

Its seems that the 35W TDP Laptop (FP4) Bristol Ridge will have the same performance or better than the 65W TDP Desktop Kaveri (A8-7600, A10-7800).

I sure hope OEMs will bring cheap iGPU only 35W TDP laptops (768p freeSync) with DDR-4 2400MHz next year.

 

[NostaSeronx]

It's a low cost 28nm part... I sincerely doubt they are going to slap on eDRAM and crank up the price.

All the -E models supposedly will have eDRAM. Will it be the same amount as Summit Ridge-E who knows?

256 MB eDRAM, one of the reasons why AMD didn't go quad-channel.

 

[ShintaiDK]

The roadmap, not sure where people get the march date from:

Good to see HVEC support:

 

[ShintaiDK]

All the -E models supposedly will have eDRAM. Will it be the same amount as Summit Ridge-E who knows?

256 MB eDRAM, one of the reasons why AMD didn't go quad-channel.

There is no eDRAM.

 

[Sweepr]

Limited to DDR4 2400? Seriously? D: I was hoping for at least 3GHz support.

Pretty disappointing. Bristol Ridge will (most likely) still be bandwidth limited.

The AM4 35W TDP Bristol Ridge iGPU at 900MHz (Color compression) + DDR-4 2400MHz should be faster than 65W TDP Kaveri A10-7800 and 40-50% faster than current 51W TDP Skylake Core i3s.

I assume you're basing this on your crippled Core i3 numbers with carefully selected crap RAM running games that favour AMD. Then yes, maybe.

This is just another set of 28nm 512 SPs APUs which will barely surpass Q2-2015 Broadwell-K (with much worse CPU performance). No match for Skylake-S GT4e coming later in H2-2016 (to LGA desktops, a lot earlier in BGA mobile/servers). And then there's Kaby Lake GT2 to close the gap once again in late 2016.
Hopefully they will launch some interesting stuff in 2017 with the first Zen-based APUs.

 

[DrMrLordX]

That AM4 March rumour has been kicking around for a bit, looks like more solid data is starting to come out. Personally I am not all that impressed with the Bristol Ridge launch specs, though the 3.6/4.0 turbo chip might not be too bad. The colour compression will be nice.

The Stilt warned us that Bristol Ridge has Carrizo's memory controller, which will mean it's basically limited to DDR3-2400 at the top-end, and good luck getting it to run any higher than that. That might require bclk overclocking and if Kaveri is any indicator . . . ugh.

Tell no one about the eDRAM!

You got it. My lips are sealed.

 

[The Stilt]

2400MHz is the maximum frequency the IMC can be set to operate. It is impossible to program it for higher ratios, let alone make it operate stable at those frequencies.
Along with the CPU performance itself, the memory controllers are the weakest aspect in AMDs current designs.

 

[AtenRa]

Well, 2400MHz Memory will limit the iGPU performance at 1080p tremendously even having color compression. 720p/900p performance will get a nice boost though.

 

[The Stilt]

Well, 2400MHz Memory will limit the iGPU performance at 1080p tremendously even having color compression. 720p/900p performance will get a nice boost though.

Indeed it does. However the situation isn´t nearly as bad as on the older APUs without the color compression. FAR from optimal still thou.

 

[BigDaveX]

While Bristol Ridge doesn't look like anything particularly special, it's definitely a sensible move to get a Socket AM4 infrastructure in place before Zen shows up. Launching a CPU with a new architecture, production process, socket and memory type is something that even Intel would probably think twice about doing.

 

[LTC8K6]

Carrizo is already GCN1.2, so it has color compression.

 

[The Stilt]

Carrizo is already GCN1.2, so it has color compression.

And Bristol Ridge is essentially the same exact thing...

 

[Shehriazad]

I just hope that once the AM4 platform is out that they will also release a Bristol Ridge CPU-only part asap. There better be one...I really don't want to yet again be "forced" to buy an APU just to try out the CPU and possibly be stuck with problems that the CPU only versions do not suffer from.

With 2400 Mhz max I really cannot imagine this to be great, anyway. AMD used to always be a bit more on the higher side of Memory clocks...but 2400 Mhz on DDR4 is...well...low.