Question Zen 6 Speculation Thread

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blackangus

Senior member
Aug 5, 2022
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blackangus said:
Well there is speculation - Something based on known information.

As usual, your attempt to define the world according to your own definition is .... wrong.

Dictionary Definition

Speculation: "The forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence."

Not only are you wrong, you are 180 degrees wrong. Speculation, by its very definition, is a theory that has no proof or "known information".

Now, your "speculation" on why we won't see core counts go out the ceiling (RAM per core, or bandwidth per core) may have merit in some situations, but not all.

A productive speculation would be to outline what instances more cores without more RAM or more bandwidth is useful.

Also, as others have done, outlining the cost to AMD to increase core count on A14/A16 is an interesting topic for speculation .... and which node Zen 7 might be on in the future.

I don't consider 512 cores per socket to be out of the realm of possibility for AMD.... although as things sit today, it may well be outside the realm of financial good sense.

1. I think you have attacked the wrong guy with your "As usual..." because I rarely post here and even more rarely argue.
2. The definition you posted and what I said are not mutually exclusive as you imply. There is a term "Baseless Speculation"... which is the difference I am describing.
3. Everything after this clearly shows you quoted the wrong person, as I haven't said anything you posted...

Also theory by definition is based on some known information. You don't get to be a theory until you have some supporting fact to draw a solid line of conclusion. (This is of course the proper scientific usage of the word theory)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theory
The Difference Between Hypothesis and Theory
A hypothesis is an assumption, an idea that is proposed for the sake of argument so that it can be tested to see if it might be true.
In the scientific method, the hypothesis is constructed before any applicable research has been done, apart from a basic background review. You ask a question, read up on what has been studied before, and then form a hypothesis.

A hypothesis is usually tentative; it's an assumption or suggestion made strictly for the objective of being tested.
A theory, in contrast, is a principle that has been formed as an attempt to explain things that have already been substantiated by data.
 
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OneEng2

Senior member
Sep 19, 2022
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It's not competition 512C just doesn't make sense with the density gains you have to significantly increase both your package size and need more Bandwidth to feed the beast.
Normally, I would agree; however, in DC it is my THEORY that the margins justify expense and therefore the upper limit of how big a die will be is only limited by physics and existing machines since nearly any cost can be born as long as it results in AMD retaining the market in this highly profitable segment.

Now, I am not of the opinion that Zen 7 will be in a position where such radical actions will be needed by AMD in order to retain their dominant market position.

So my speculation is that we will not see a 512c part for Zen 7.
 

LightningZ71

Platinum Member
Mar 10, 2017
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Whatever happened to CXL attached RAM? 5th Gen EPYC fully supports the technology and has even partnered with Micron for compatible modules. There's really not a "limit" for total system RAM imposed by the 12-16 channel shoreline limitation, just that you have to pay a smallish price in latency and bandwidth (still massively faster than SSD) for the CXL ram...
 
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reaperrr3

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May 31, 2024
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Normally, I would agree; however, in DC it is my THEORY that the margins justify expense and therefore the upper limit of how big a die will be is only limited by physics and existing machines since nearly any cost can be born as long as it results in AMD retaining the market in this highly profitable segment.

Now, I am not of the opinion that Zen 7 will be in a position where such radical actions will be needed by AMD in order to retain their dominant market position.

So my speculation is that we will not see a 512c part for Zen 7.
Rumors so far suggest 264 cores, instead of Venice-D's 256, which seems believable to me precisely because the figure is so modest.

In my opinion, that points to a layout change of the dense server CCD, from 2 rows of 16 cores to a 3x11 layout.
Since there's also rumors that the L3 is wandering outside the CCD, that's not so far-fetched.

Architecturally, Zen7 is allegedly the next proper tock, with rumored 15-25% IPC uplift, which would require a substantial of additional logic transistors, probably eating up most or all the power- and transistor budget freed up by the A14 shrink, so a tiny core count bump makes sense in that regard, too.
 

poke01

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2022
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Here’s a rule I’ll follow from on, I don’t watch or read the content of anyone who comes on MILD YouTube channel.

Those people are just promoting that grifter. Seriously, I miss Anandtech. :(


People like HUB, Kit, level1tech, are just promoting him and his way of conducting business. You’ve seen that’s guys influence already on these stupid tech sites that publish anything