How much better will be A12 & Raven Ridge compared to A10-7890k?

[otinane]

As title says, if i was to upgrade my desktop system, mainly used as workstation (Linux with some mid-heavy virtualization, firefox, python programming etc, all at the same time) on a WD Blue or Black 1TB, and also some light on line gaming on a dedicated SSD with Win 10 only installed (and the MMO of course), should you wait for the AM4 motherboard and the DDR4 memory, along with a A12 or a Raven Ridge APU, or should i go with the 4.1GHz and lower overall costs?

Do we expect some new tech out there where the current hardware won't be able to cope with, or just sit back and wait for the new chips to come out, and buy the current ones, at an even lower price?

 

[DrMrLordX]

The A12-9800 is a known quantity. You can look up benches of it on the 'net. If you have trouble I can probably hunt some down for you . . . just assume that the 7890k may do better in a few applications due to its larger l2 cache (mostly some games).

Raven Ridge will be 4c/8t Zen + probably 12CU (768 shaders). It'll kick either Bristol Ridge or Kaveri in the ass.

 

[Glo.]

Raven Ridge will be 4c/8t Zen + probably 12CU (768 shaders). It'll kick either Bristol Ridge or Kaveri in the ass.

35W TDP 4C/8T with HBM2, and Vega (16 CU design) as top end option.

After Zen announcement more is apparent. Vega will have similar Neural network between the CU's(NCU) to allow best possible utilization of them, and highest possible efficiency. The GPUs will also turbo themselves while staying on the TDP target. The patent we have discussed from very long time ago was specfically designed for this. Also its important to note, that Vega can be Scalar+Vector arch.

It is completely new beginning in terms of performance for AMD in the notebook space.

 

[.vodka]

I think it's a given by now that Raven Ridge will obliterate Carrizo/BR, make the old generation look like a cheap toy.

Summit Ridge will launch first in Q1... when is RR supposed to launch? Q2 alongside server SR?

 

[DrMrLordX]

Summit Ridge launches Q1 2017 on desktop. Raven Ridge is probably Q3 on desktop. I have no idea when/where Raven Ridge will launch in the mobile space.

BTW I expect higher TDP versions of Raven Ridge for the desktop, which is the segment referenced by the OP, so I'm selectively ignoring the mobile products for now.

 

[sirmo]

I think Zen+Vega APUs have a potential to change the game. Really. APU will still be bandwidth limited, but the efficiency will go up. Up until now AMD's iGPU have really been held back by poor CPU cores. With Zen that might be a solved issue and as a result I expect the iGPU side to start to shine.

Add HBM2 to the mix and we might get an incredible APU on our hands. HBM2 version won't be cheap though.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Real question is "How much better would an i5 or i7 with a discrete gpu be?" Answer, a lot depending on which dgpu you get. I dont see any point in waiting a year for an unknown quantity (both for price and performance) apu when you can have better performance right now for a very competitive price. I would be very surprised if any apu in the foreseeable future can even match the performance of a currently available 100.00 range dgpu like the RX460 or 1050.

 

[deasd]

I don't find any test about BR with DDR4 above 3000MHz, I think BR should have a nice boost when using DDR4 and way better than Streamroller A10.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Bristol Ridge can't support DDR4 above 2400 MHz. It has the same memory controller limitations as Kaveri. Le sigh.

 

[NostaSeronx]

Bristol Ridge can't support DDR4 above 2400 MHz. It has the same memory controller limitations as Kaveri. Le sigh.

It might actually be higher than that. The issue is that the DDR4-2400 number is for official 1.2V support. 1.05V Low Voltage and >2666 MHz DDR4 JEDEC is not currently out. AMD AMP(non-JEDEC) on the AM4 platform supports 2933/3200 MHz 1.2V/1.3V DDR4 on Summit/Bristol/Stoney/Raven.

(GF28A(Advanced)((Carrizo/Carrizo-L/Beema) is equivalent to SS28LPH with more Vt/IO-V, larger PDK(IP), GF28HPA(High Performance Automotive) is equivelent to SS28FD w/o Body Biasing)

 

[DrMrLordX]

It might actually be higher than that. The issue is that the DDR4-2400 number is for official 1.2V support. 1.05V Low Voltage and >2666 MHz DDR4 JEDEC is not currently out. AMD AMP(non-JEDEC) on the AM4 platform supports 2933/3200 MHz 1.2V/1.3V DDR4 on Summit/Bristol/Stoney/Raven.

(GF28A(Advanced)((Carrizo/Carrizo-L/Beema) is equivalent to SS28LPH with more Vt/IO-V, larger PDK(IP), GF28HPA(High Performance Automotive) is equivelent to SS28FD w/o Body Biasing)

It's not the platform that is the limitation. It's the IMC of Carrizo and Bristol Ridge. The Stilt can explain it better than I, but basically, the board manufacturers can't do anything in the UEFI to make higher multipliers available. Voltage in this case is irrelevant, as are AMP settings.

 

[NostaSeronx]

It's the IMC of Carrizo and Bristol Ridge.

Carrizo and Bristol Ridge don't use the same die. Sure, same IP but definitely not the same die.

Carrizo = Cadence Denali DDR 4/3/3L HS-2400 GF28HPP
Bristol/Stoney/Summit/Raven Ridges = Rambus R+ DDR4/3 PHY 800-3200 GF28SLP, SS28LPP, SS/GF14LPP.

FP4, so far has no inclination that it supports DDR4 beyond 2400 MHz.
FT4, Stoney Ridge supports DDR4 2400 MHz, while on FP4 it only supports DDR4 2133 MHz.
(Neither FP4/FT4 show numbers for 1.05 volts, only 1.2 volts. So any improvements on that end from the lower heat/power consumption is unknown)
FP5/AM4, definitely support 3200 MHz.

should you wait for the AM4 motherboard and the DDR4 memory, along with a A12 or a Raven Ridge APU, or should i go with the 4.1GHz and lower overall costs?

A12 or Raven for AVX2 primarily and the generally lower power consumption. A12-9800 is 65W(vs 95W) has a new Northbridge(More GB/s, Less nanoseconds, more CPU perf w/ less cache), higher iGPU clock speed (1108 MHz vs 866 MHz)((vs 7890k)). The platform is also more future proof being that it is 1331 pins, rather than 906 pins. AM4 is also much more overclock friendly than FM2+. Also, the current leaks show that AMD's Bristol Ridge iGPU is 1/2th Double Precision to 1 Single Precision.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Carrizo and Bristol Ridge don't use the same die. Sure, same IP but definitely not the same die.

That's funny. From here it looked like Bristol Ridge was a near-zero-effort copy-paste of Carrizo with some changes to power management. Though I don't remember Carrizo getting such good DP performance in AIDA64 . . .