[Tom's HW] Ryzen/Vega AMA Article

[nathanddrews]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-ama,5018.html

They had an AMA on their forum/comments section with Don Woligroski @DonWoligroski Desktop CPU Marketing Manager at AMD. They condensed everything into a single article. There's a lot of stuff in there, some that I haven't seen before, some that I have.

Aspiring techie: What do you think is holding Ryzen's clock speeds back? Compared to Kaby Lake, Ryzen's clock speeds are somewhat sluggish. Do you think that it's something in the architecture or Global Foundry's 14nm process?
DON WOLIGROSKI: If you think about it, Ryzen is an absolute worst-case scenario for clock rates: a brand-new architecture, and a brand-new process. And still we hit 4GHz without too much trouble.
I believe we have tremendous clock speed headroom to take advantage of as we move forward because of this. Lots of improvements to be made.

valeman2012: Any plans for Intel Optane support?
DON WOLIGROSKI: The short answer is no.

PandaNation: Why are FreeSync monitors so much cheaper than their G-Sync counterparts? I know you won't be able to say much, but how does Vega compare to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti and the Nvidia Titan Xp? Big fan of AMD, thinking of doing a Mini-ITX Ryzen 5 build. Keep up the good work!
DON WOLIGROSKI: FreeSync is cheaper because it's an open standard. In many cases a panel manufacturer can make a FreeSync panel by changing their monitor's firmware and having it meet the spec. For G-Sync, Nvidia charges a licensing fee. Because of this differentiation alone, I think the inevitable future is FreeSync.
Vega performance compared to the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti and the Titan Xp looks really nice.
I am also waiting for my MiniITX Ryzen board!

Ditt44: Having just read that AMD has a new power plan available, is this something that we will see integrated with Ryzen after "Date X" or will users have to manually download and update?
DON WOLIGROSKI: For now it’s a manual download. Our long-term goal is to get it automatically updated in Windows, but I don't have a target date on that yet, sorry.

 

[raghu78]

I agree with the statement "If you think about it, Ryzen is an absolute worst-case scenario for clock rates: a brand-new architecture, and a brand-new process" . I think both AMD and GF can bring significant improvements to the architecture and the process with Zen 2 and subsequent generations. Coffeelake vs Zen 2 should be a really good contest. Intel has incentive to really move things forward as there is finally competition in the mainstream CPU market.

 

[Crumpet]

If they can drop 4.5ghz Ryzen chips in Q1 2018 i'll donate my r7 1800x to a worthy friend and grab one..

(i'm an addict, so sue me)

 

[nathanddrews]

If they can drop 4.5ghz Ryzen chips in Q1 2018 i'll donate my r7 1800x to a worthy friend and grab one.

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking to myself, "Crumpet is a pretty cool person, we should be friends. Worthy friends, in fact."

 

[Crumpet]

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking to myself, "Crumpet is a pretty cool person, we should be friends. Worthy friends, in fact."

Hahahaha, you've made me stop and think about it, and no wonder I always feel skint.. In the last year and a half i've given away;

Phenom II 965 BE
Fx8350
Fx6100
Intel i5 6600
8gb DDR3@ 1600
16gb DDR3@ 1600
XFX HD7850
MSI Hawk 5770
Palit Gtx770 jetstream
Gigabyte G1 GTX970
CM Hyper 212 evo (new)
Scythe Ashura SCASR1000
CM HAF 912+
CM Strike X cube
2 AM3 970 series motherboards
Asrock 990FX Killer 3.1
ASRock Z170M Extreme4
2 semi modular power supplies
2x 24" 1080p monitors

I just seem to accumulate tech and I don't see much point in leaving them in boxes when people can make use of them. I guess i'm allergic to making money.

When I get my Vega gpu anyone with a case big enough can have this R9 290, though i'm not sure how much life if any is left in it. Was thinking of donating my boot 120gb SSD and swapping in an NVME M.2...

I definitely have an addiction, but its still healthier than drink or drugs so...

 

[mohit9206]

Funny you should mention that, I was just thinking to myself, "Crumpet is a pretty cool person, we should be friends. Worthy friends, in fact."

No, I'm his true worthy friend. I know it, he knows it, and all the forum members here know it too.

 

[unseenmorbidity]

If they can drop 4.5ghz Ryzen chips in Q1 2018 i'll donate my r7 1800x to a worthy friend and grab one..

(i'm an addict, so sue me)

Hey it's me, your friend.

 

[Crumpet]

I don't handle popularity well..

ANYWAY, back on topic.. The fact that they say Vega's performance is looking nice in comparison to 1080ti and Titan X(p? xpp? Xp service pack 2?) is hopefully good news. Anything GTX 1080 and over they had me, but if they can compete with the 1080ti or Titan cards then i'll definitely cough up a sizeable chunk of my student finance to fund my habit.

 

[dnavas]

If they can drop 4.5ghz Ryzen chips in Q1 2018 i'll ... grab one.

What if it's a choice between a 4G (hah!) threadripper that needs a new cooler and case (and circuit breaker) to run comfortably in, or a 4.5G 8-core? And if you buy the threadripper and outfit a new case and cooler, do you keep the 1800x to upgrade next year or not?

 

[Crumpet]

What if it's a choice between a 4G (hah!) threadripper that needs a new cooler and case (and circuit breaker) to run comfortably in, or a 4.5G 8-core? And if you buy the threadripper and outfit a new case and cooler, do you keep the 1800x to upgrade next year or not?

I take the 4.5ghz 8 core probably.

For as long as games care about single core ipc. Unless there's something very tasty about the threadripper.

 

[nathanddrews]

If Zen 2 hits 4.5GHz (12% increase), gets 5% IPC gains (conservative), and tweaks to CCX and other subsystems... That's going to be very impressive.

 

[IEC]

1. Fair enough.
Kaby Lake = 7th generation of that architecture
Ryzen = 1st generation of new architecture

2. Optane... meh.

3. Looks really nice? That's like being asked "How does this dress look on me?" and saying "It looks... interesting". A wholly unsatisfactory answer that doesn't give a real indication of good or bad.

4. Whenever MSFT incorporates that into an update = can't give an ETA. Fair enough.

 

[sandorski]

1. Fair enough.
Kaby Lake = 7th generation of that architecture
Ryzen = 1st generation of new architecture

2. Optane... meh.

3. Looks really nice? That's like being asked "How does this dress look on me?" and saying "It looks... interesting". A wholly unsatisfactory answer that doesn't give a real indication of good or bad.

4. Whenever MSFT incorporates that into an update = can't give an ETA. Fair enough.

Re 3, ya, it didn't really say anything.