Discussion Speculation: Zen 4 (EPYC 4 "Genoa", Ryzen 7000, etc.)

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Vattila

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Oct 22, 2004
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Except for the details about the improvements in the microarchitecture, we now know pretty well what to expect with Zen 3.

The leaked presentation by AMD Senior Manager Martin Hilgeman shows that EPYC 3 "Milan" will, as promised and expected, reuse the current platform (SP3), and the system architecture and packaging looks to be the same, with the same 9-die chiplet design and the same maximum core and thread-count (no SMT-4, contrary to rumour). The biggest change revealed so far is the enlargement of the compute complex from 4 cores to 8 cores, all sharing a larger L3 cache ("32+ MB", likely to double to 64 MB, I think).

Hilgeman's slides did also show that EPYC 4 "Genoa" is in the definition phase (or was at the time of the presentation in September, at least), and will come with a new platform (SP5), with new memory support (likely DDR5).

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What else do you think we will see with Zen 4? PCI-Express 5 support? Increased core-count? 4-way SMT? New packaging (interposer, 2.5D, 3D)? Integrated memory on package (HBM)?

Vote in the poll and share your thoughts! :)
 
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Exist50

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Aug 18, 2016
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Well they did put on their website that the CPUs would be available on Feb 14, and then immediately said that was incorrect. So right now they don't any free passes! :tearsofjoy:

But if it is unlocked that would be awesome!
Yeah, it would be great. It's just kinda sad that AMD marketing is in such disarray we literally can't even trust the spec sheets.
 

Harry_Wild

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Dec 14, 2012
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I was just chatting with Matthew at AMD.com. I was trying to get a more real release date for these(7950x3d and the others), and all he said was "Feb 2023"
Only a week to 3 weeks away! But will retailer stock the CPU? They are very picky on hold CPU inventory and seem to stock the minimum quantities!
 

Exist50

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In2Photos

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Mar 21, 2007
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I've built 2 B650 systems in the last month. The first was my daughter's, using the Gigabyte Aorus Elite AX. It took me an hour to get it to post. Looking back the memory kit I used, despite it being an EXPO kit, was not on their QVL. It took a BIOS update and some fiddling and has worked fine ever since. Well except random issues with the Ethernet port not working on startup occasionally. A reboot fixes the issue.

And then on my build using the MSI Edge it posted fine until I tried to enable EXPO. It took required a BIOS update despite this kit being on the QVL. I had a couple of weird things happen after that when I enabled EXPO. I finally set everything default and tried again and all has been well.

Inexperienced builders will have a horrible time in my opinion. It might get even worse with A620 boards.
 
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Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
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I did not know these were out for public sale yet. Anybody want a Genoa motherboard ?


And with 2 of these you can have 384 cores ! (threads) for only $15,900

 

Just Benching

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Sep 3, 2022
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HUB is testing B650 boards and their initial impression is... bad.

View attachment 75527

While in general I have defended some of the price hikes in motherboards as legitimate due to higher BoM, this kind of poor performance is unacceptable.
Thats fake outrage. Or he is clueless. Did he really expect for the b650 ds3h to boot 6k+ ram? I mean come on now... Its the cheapest gigabyte mobo, and we know how great gigabyte is with memory ocing...

I mean just looking at a picture of it makes it pretty obvious what's going on with that mobo. Lots of z690s failed to boot at 6k+ speeds, so... Its fine? Especially considering zen 4 taps out at 6 or 6.4k, its not a big issue.

Just for reference, my z690 apex, an 800 euros 2 dimm motherboard, couldn't boot anything above 5400 😁
 
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A///

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Feb 24, 2017
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I had a motherboard that burped once. It shot my the CPU clear across the room. In multiple pieces of course. Old hardware was a pain in the tuckus. Especially if a piece of ceramic flew at speed and stabbed you in the ass.
 
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Exist50

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Aug 18, 2016
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HUB is testing B650 boards and their initial impression is... bad.

View attachment 75527

While in general I have defended some of the price hikes in motherboards as legitimate due to higher BoM, this kind of poor performance is unacceptable.
That's quite disappointing, especially since B650E in particular has everything most people would realistically need, even enthusiasts. Also begs the question of what exactly is driving up motherboard prices so much if these boards can't even handle fairly conservative memory speeds. The socket assembly itself?

Been a while since I looked at motherboard design, but it looks like both of those are 6 layer PCBs. That's not super high end, obviously, but doesn't stand out negatively either. Wonder if there's some instability on the DDR5 training side? Perhaps some firmware tweaks could help? I do think it's important for AMD to keep up the quality standards for the mobo manufacturers if they're going to advertise Zen 4 with these memory speeds.
 

DrMrLordX

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That's quite disappointing, especially since B650E in particular has everything most people would realistically need, even enthusiasts. Also begs the question of what exactly is driving up motherboard prices so much if these boards can't even handle fairly conservative memory speeds. The socket assembly itself?

Been a while since I looked at motherboard design, but it looks like both of those are 6 layer PCBs. That's not super high end, obviously, but doesn't stand out negatively either. Wonder if there's some instability on the DDR5 training side? Perhaps some firmware tweaks could help? I do think it's important for AMD to keep up the quality standards for the mobo manufacturers if they're going to advertise Zen 4 with these memory speeds.

Anything that's PCI-e 4.0 compliant or higher is minimum 6-layer. At least that's what I remember from the x570 launch. That's gonna cost you. Plus if the market is contracting overall then they need to jack up prices to make it worth their while to continue offering DiY boards.