Quote:AMD could launch some of its enthusiast-segment Ryzen Threadripper high-end desktop (HEDT) processors on July 27, 2017. On this day, you will be able to purchase PIB (retail) packages of certain models of Threadripper. You will also be able to purchase gaming desktops and workstations featuring Threadripper on this day. It is expected that AMD will launch about four SKUs, two 12-core, and two 16-core.

Quote:AMD is setting the high-end processor market abuzz this year with its Threadripper CPUs, and Alienware is getting in on the game by sewing up the exclusive OEM launch partner spot for those many-core chips. Among prebuilt PCs, the upcoming Area-51 Threadripper Edition will be the only way to get up to 16 Zen cores and 32 threads in a system from a major manufacturer until the end of the year, according to PCWorld. DIYers will still be able to build a Threadripper system from scratch, though. Alienware says the Threadripper Edition will come factory-overclocked across all of its cores, but that's about all the company is revealing about the system at this time.

(06-14-2017, 09:26 AM)dmcowen674 Wrote: Alienware is Dell right?

Quote:AMD blew the lid off two of its Ryzen Threadripper CPUs this morning. The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X will offer 16 cores and 32 threads clocked at 3.4 GHz base and 4 GHz boost speeds at $999, while the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X will offer 12 cores and 24 threads with a 3.5 GHz base clock and 4.0 GHz boost speeds for $799. We already know both chips will offer 64 PCIe lanes and four channels of DDR4 memory.

AMD demonstrated Threadripper performance using the 1920X compared to Intel's Core i9-7900X and its 10 cores. In Cinebench multi-threaded testing, the 1920X delivered a score of 2431, compared to the i9-7900X at 2167. In a dollar-for-dollar comparison, the $999 Threadripper 1950X turned in a Cinebench score of 3062.

Quote:In a move that could drown out the value proposition of competing Core X processors even further, AMD is reportedly including all-in-one liquid CPU coolers with its two upcoming Ryzen Threadripper processor models, the 12-core/24-thread 1920X and the 16-core/32-thread 1950X.
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According to the source, Threadripper could be available in Japan on the 10th of August. This could mean availability in the US from 9th August.

Quote:Plug in the fan, and you're ready to rock. Threadripper is almost among us. AMD tells us that shipping begins in early August. As you can imagine, our preparatory testing has already begun.

Quote:According to support pages at various motherboard vendors, AMD will likely launch a new 12C/24T Ryzen Threadripper 1920 model, and there are also signs that the company could expand the lineup further.

It appears that AMD is also considering two other new Threadripper SKUs, though the timeline for their release, or if they will come to market, remains unconfirmed. This isn't entirely surprising, as AMD has released "non-X" variants of every Ryzen processor to date, and AMD lists them in its master product list.
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Enter the Ryzen Threadripper 1920. This non-X model is brought to you courtesy of motherboard support pages at Asus, Gigabyte, and ASRock, though ASUS has since scrubbed mention of the processor. Considering the Threadripper 1920 is listed as officially supported, this model is very likely to come to market.
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The first signs of two other new Threadripper processors emerged through AMD (PDF). The company posts a Product Master list on its site, and through a bit of clever decoding prior to the official Threadripper launch, the sharp-eyed folks at Planet3DNow were able to determine that several unannounced Threadripper models were listed in AMD's documents. Here's their explanation of the OPN designations:

• Small OPN Enlightenment:
  
• YD = Ryzen
  
• 1900 = no
  
• A9 = Thermal Power Design
  
• U = Socket ID (SP3r2)
  
• 8 = number of cores in hex
  
• S = cache
  
• AE = Revision where AE = ZP-B1 and AF = ZP-B2
  

We came across this topic last week, but considering that sometimes vendors will list 'proposed' models that never make it to market, we passed on covering it. However, the document correctly foretold the then-unannounced 1900X, so it seems likely the two other unannounced models will also make it to retail.

So, what do the numbers tell us? AMD might release a Threadripper 1900 with 8 cores and 16 threads, along with a 1950 model with 16 cores and 32 threads. Both of these model’s slot logically into the stack and will feature lower XFR frequencies than their "X" counterparts. They'll also be less expensive. We don't know anything else, or if these two models have found their way to the cutting room floor. But given AMD's established history with the Ryzen models, we expect they will come to market.

Interestingly, the EPYC processors are listed in the document with the ZP-B2 Zeppelin die, whereas the Ryzen models use the ZP-B1 die. This could mean either that the EPYC processors use a newer stepping, or perhaps a different die. That could throw some shade on Intel's claims that EPYC is merely a repurposed desktop die.

Quote:Why is this a big deal? Well, because this is the first time the company has used an unboxing embargo to promote a product, and it seems to be a concerted effort on AMD’s part to capitalize on Threadripper pre-orders. The unboxing trend became popular with YouTubers, and initially, many videos would break review embargoes, often to the manufacturer’s chagrin. Yet AMD appears to see the value of this new form of coverage, and we can surmise that adopting a specific and separate unboxing embargo is also an effort to maintain control over the company’s product reveals.
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Any company releasing a new product wants to create as much hype for it as possible, and AMD’s unboxing embargo seems to have paid off in the form of additional Amazon pre-order sales after the initial wave crested. This is also the first time a CPU priced over $350 has ever been on the Amazon Best Sellers list, at least to our knowledge, which makes Threadripper's long stay in the top ten even more impressive.

Quote:If your workloads are CPU-bound, though, Threadripper shines in our benchmarks written to exploit as many cores as you can throw at them. Threadripper outpaces the similarly-priced -7900X in rendering, encoding, and compression. As expected, it isn’t quite as nimble in lightly-threaded applications, such as decompression and portions of the Adobe suite. Those applications continue to favor Intel’s IPC throughput and frequency.

After the Ryzen launch, AMD was faced with the challenge of quickly maturing its motherboard ecosystem and convincing game developers to optimize existing titles for the new architecture. The company has met with success on many fronts in a relatively brief time (it’s hard to believe it’s only been five months), and enablement continues. Threadripper is a unique product that introduces even more complex challenges. No doubt, AMD is ready to take action on those, too. Case in point: Threadripper offers so many cores that some games won't even load. No doubt, Intel will face the same conundrum in the future as it scales out its architectures as well.

AMD is obviously aware of the challenges it faces. Using a combination of BIOS switches and Windows-based utilities, it exposes several knobs that ensure compatibility and address the architectural eccentricities of a data center-inspired desktop product. We’re sure to see well-heeled enthusiasts work through the settings to find the best combinations, even if most want to use Threadripper the way it ships. Of course, we like to experiment, so we’ll spend the coming weeks working on more stressful use-cases and finding the best combinations for different workloads.

Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is a solid entrant for AMD, and the company knows it's going after a niche market here. Those who need what Threadripper offers likely already know. And if that's you, we have to imagine you're elated to know there's an alternative to Intel's steep buy-in, particularly now that AMD is winning in benchmarks it hasn't won in a very long time.

Quote:If Intel had any doubts about whether AMD could compete at the top of the HEDT space, they’re undoubtedly gone by now. Threadripper doesn’t just compete, it often leaves Intel eating dust. Across all of our application benchmarks, Threadripper wins 11 tests, loses five, and ties two. That’s a very solid set of performances, particularly for a company whose top-end CPU was sucking wind six months ago. Intel has already announced that it intends to launch 12, 14, 16, and 18-core processors by the middle of September, but with a top-end price tag of up to $2,000 even those chips will struggle to match Threadripper’s price/performance ratio.

Quote:AMD revealed that the pair of 8-core "Summit Ridge" dies that make up the Ryzen Threadripper multi-chip module are heavily binned. AMD hand-selects the top-5% highest performing "Summit Ridge" dies for Ryzen Threadripper manufacturing, which makes these chips of a higher grade than even what AMD sets aside for Ryzen 7-series socket AM4 chips.

Quote:Software needs to be optimized to see Threadripper as featuring two memory allocation modes - Distributed Mode, and Local Mode. In Distributed Mode, all four memory channels are interleaved with a priority of giving the app access to the highest bandwidth. In Local Mode, the an app loads memory controlled by a particular die first, and only then begins to load memory controlled by the neighboring die. The priority here is latency. In its internal tests, the Distributed Mode yields higher memory bandwidth at the expense of latency (not by much, though); while the Local Mode does the opposite (provides the least latency at the expense of bandwidth).

Quote:Yesterday, we had a news post where someone claimed to hit 4.1GHz on the 16-core Threadripper 1950X. I have to admit I was highly skeptical, and after seeing the Cinebench result I'm even more doubtful that the overclock was actually stable. The report gave a Cinebench 15 result of 3,337, which is pretty good… except I was able to score 3,336, with my Threadripper 1950X running at just 3.9GHz. Hmmm.
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As with other Ryzen chips, overclocking was underwhelming. Maybe my 1950X chip isn't as good as others, and it's summertime which means higher ambient temperatures as well, but for the small gains I'd suggest anyone running Threadripper just stick with stock operation. AMD has done a good job of extracting almost all the performance from the chips at stock clocks, and the process as a whole seems to run into a clockspeed wall of around 4.0GHz, unless you use liquid nitrogen.
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I love that AMD is bringing the fight to Intel, hitting it in the fat HEDT wallet. Enthusiasts have been stuck with only one compelling option for far too long on the CPU side of things. Now, even though Intel has plenty of areas where it can beat Threadripper, for anyone in the market for a high-performance CPU—for software development, content creation, virtualization, and more—AMD is worth a serious look. And the competition will only continue to benefit consumers, as it will mean faster CPUs at lower prices, and hopefully larger performance gains with the next generation of architectures.

Again, Threadripper isn't about playing games. It's complete overkill if that's all you're looking to do. Game developers on the other hand could definitely get some mileage out of the chips. Think about it this way for a moment. Ryzen 5 1500X is a decent CPU that costs around $190. Threadripper 1950X stuffs four of those into a single package, with higher clockspeeds as a bonus. If you can't think of anything useful to do with four PC's worth of power, by all means stick with the AM4 and LGA1151 offerings. But if you've ever wondered what it's like to have a server as your main desktop, Threadripper is basically that—minus the noisy fans.

Quote:Ryzen Threadripper 1920X bears most of the same features touted on Threadripper 1950X. It clearly offers strong performance in threaded applications, but it also comes with higher base clock rates and more overclocking headroom than any Ryzen model we've tested. Compared to the 1950X, you save $200 in exchange for four cores and eight threads. However, you also gain higher performance in many lightly threaded productivity applications.
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Ryzen Threadripper 1920X drops into the gap between Intel's $600 Core i7-7820X and $1000 i9-7900X. It offers less performance than the Intel processors in both new and older games, even after a substantial overclock. Those deltas will shrink at higher resolutions, though. The 1920X's performance is fairly comparable to the higher-end 1950X, although AMD's flagship also exhibits a relatively small lead over the 1920X in stock and overclocked configurations.

Threadripper's true value registers in more intense workloads, such as heavy multitasking while gaming. Moreover, its hefty allotment of 60 available PCIe lanes allows for plenty of expansion. Even though the X399 motherboards are quite stable, more performance-enhancing firmware is trickling out from several vendors. We've already seen much higher gaming performance from the 1950X in Game mode, which is promising. Ryzen-specific optimizations for current titles continue surfacing as well, and we expect most new games to include similar optimizations. Gaming on Ryzen should only improve with time.

Of course, we still recommend sticking with mainstream processors like Ryzen 7/5 or Core i7/i5 for the best gaming value. That recommendation applies to both Intel and AMD high-end CPUs.
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The Threadripper processors are a solid choice for highly parallelized or simultaneous workloads. Intel still enjoys an advantage in most lightly threaded tasks. But overall, the 1920X is more competitive in these applications than the lower-frequency 1950X. Of course, switching into Game mode might enable higher performance in some situations, but we don't think professional users will tolerate constant reboots to toggle back and forth.

Intel's X299 and AMD's X399 platform costs are similar, at least by early indications. Several TR4-specific coolers have already come to market, and we expect more in the future. Surprisingly, the bundled Asetek bracket, which provides poor IHS coverage, is sufficient to attain substantial overclocks (at least by Ryzen standards). We used the bracket and a standard Thermaltake 360mm radiator to achieve a rock-solid 4.1 GHz, so cooling isn't as much of a worry here as it was with Skylake-X. Take note Intel; solder pays off.

Intel's Skylake-X models are still trickling out, so the company will have faster options soon. But they'll launch at hideous price points. Meanwhile, the 1920X slots into the $400 chasm between Core i9-7900X and i7-7820X, and it doesn't appear that Intel will have a Skylake-X processor to compete any time soon. This is a tremendous opportunity for AMD, and it's great news for anyone seeking no-compromise connectivity, competitive responsiveness in everyday apps, and superior performance per dollar in threaded software.

Quote:So, we set out looking for clues. In order to exclude our systems as the source of error, we tested them extensively.

We started with a new, clean Windows image with old and new drivers. We switched between three motherboards from different manufacturers (Asus, Gigabyte, and ASRock) using the latest BIOS. Still nothing to report.

But after we flashed back from BIOS 0503 to the old 0304 (used for our launch review) on Asus' X399 ROG Zenith motherboard, we saw the old temperature values once again, in addition to the already-documented stability problems. We therefore hypothesize that the cause of the error is the AGESA code 1003 Patch 4, and that it is displaying the calculated temperatures incorrectly during overclocking, with the potential for reduced fan curves during increased power consumption.

We tested further with a much weaker AIO cooler, and our overclocking led to significantly lower fan speeds when using the motherboard's PWM-controlled fans. The result is a thermal accident waiting to happen. An air cooler is therefore out of the question for now.

We have already informed AMD about these measurements, and we are awaiting a statement or a new BIOS, which we will re-test for an update. For now, we recommend manually controlling the fans when using the current BIOS versions.

(08-31-2017, 08:54 PM)gstanford Wrote: Why would any business purchase ThreadRipper when consumer Ryzen which it shares the same basic design with can't even manage to compile linux without errors?!

Quote:The story behind Threadripper is a rather unique and interesting one, as uncovered by Forbes in a series of interviews with AMD employees involved with Ryzen.

"It’s not really a story of roadmaps and long-term planning or huge R&D budgets—it’s a lot more personal than that and stemmed from a skunkworks project and a small group of AMD employees who had a vision of a processor they’d really want in terms of a high-performance PC," Sarah Youngbauer from AMD's communications team told Forbes.

"They worked on it in their spare time and it was really a passion project for about a year before they sought the green light from management, which is quite unusual— it was something they really cared about," Youngbauer added.

Youngbauer credits the group's early efforts for Threadripper ultimately becoming a reality several years later. Otherwise, there might not be a Threadripper, she says.

Quote:I think "Threadripper" is an apt name for a product that delivered almost double the amount of cores as the competition's highest core-count CPUs for the HEDT market. Don't expect AMD's Threadripper to sit and wait for Intel's answers, however. While AMD is enjoying the performance crown with its 16-core, 32-thread behemoths as of now, Intel's 18-core response will certainly snatch the HEDT performance crown back from AMD. At least, it will, if AMD doesn't expand on Threadripper's core-counts. AMD's John Taylor himself says he doesn't expect Threadripper's lineup to be finished with the current 8, 12 and 16-core CPUs it currently features; and looking at Threadripper's development history and EPYC roots, it's easy to see it wouldn't take AMD that long - or that much - to increase core counts above what they currently stand at. MCM designs may have their shortcomings, but AMD has shown - and will continue to show - how these are, more likely than not, the industry's future.

Quote:Beyond recommending against Creator mode for gaming, we can't simply suggest one "best" combination of settings for single- and multi-threaded titles. There is simply too much variance as we expand the breadth of our suite. And that's likely why AMD enabled as many options as it did. Unfortunately, characterizing the behavior of your favorite games and rebooting between sessions probably won't be a popular pastime among enthusiasts.

Compromise might be the best approach. Leaving all threads active and switching to local memory access seems to provide the best of both worlds. This mode attempts to pin memory to the die executing the workload, thus offering a decent performance boost. But it also leaves the 1950X's complement of 32 threads available for heavy processing. Overall, this gives you optimal performance.

Of course, there are a few titles that won't initialize when confronted with 32 threads, so Legacy mode is a requirement in those isolated cases. It will be interesting to see how Intel tackles the same issue when its high-end Skylake-X models land.

Even at its worst, Threadripper delivers adequate performance in a majority of games at 1080p. Most enthusiasts will pair these high-end CPUs with fast graphics cards and high-res monitors though. In that case, Threadripper is easily quick enough to keep up at graphics-bound settings. Having 32 threads at your disposal for heavy lifting in the background is nice, too.

Quote:According to AMD, Threadripper 2 is based on the Zen+ architecture and will be available in two flavors — a 24-core / 48-thread CPU and a 32-core / 64-thread CPU. Both will have a base frequency of 3GHz with a boost of 3.4GHz, though this last is a work-in-progress figure and could change before launch. That’s significantly lower than the Threadripper 1950X, which launched with a peak clock of 4GHz, and it implies that Threadripper 2, like TR itself, will really only be attractive for those users who can truly load the CPU cores with enormous amounts of work.

TDP on both chips will be 250W, but the demos AMD showed were air-cooled. New motherboard designs are expected to be available due to the higher power requirements, though older X399 boards should work. These older boards may not offer as much overclocking potential as users want, though overclocking chips like TR or TR2 is largely a fool’s errand in any case. You might squeeze out another few hundred MHz, but core-to-core variability and the intrinsic difficulty of tuning an overclock for high frequencies across 24-32 cores will limit maximum frequencies.

Quote:AMD's Threadripper 2 announcement has the enthusiast community excited at the prospect of 32 cores and 64 threads coming to the desktop, but you'll need to top the processor with a capable cooler to bring the rumored 250W TDP under control. AMD told us at Computex that the new Threadripper 2 models will come with the Asetek bracket that provides compatibility with leading AIO watercoolers. But the company has also worked with Cooler Master to develop a new air cooler, Wraith Ripper, specifically for the Threadripper's TR4 socket.

Cooler Master will launch and sell the new air cooler separately. The Wraith Ripper cooler comes resplendent with fully-addressable RGB lighting for the Ryzen Threadripper logo and two LED strips that run down the center of the heatsink.

Quote:On the CPU-Z screenshot, the 2990X is running at 3.4 GHz base with up to 4.0 GHz XFR, and carries a 250 W TDP - a believable and very impressive achievement, testament to the 12 nm process and the low leakage it apparently produces. The chip was then overclocked up to 4.2 GHz on all cores, which caused for some thermal throttling, since performance was lower than when the chip was clocked at just 4 GHz on all cores. Gains on this particular piece of silicon were reserved up to 4.12 GHz - the jump to 4.2 GHz must have required another bump in voltage that led to the aforementioned throttling. At 4.12 GHz, the chip scored 6,399 points in Cinebench - a remarkable achievement.

Quote:Thai PC enthusiast Tum Apisak scored a screenshot of this chip lurking around on 3DMark database. The screenshot hints at the possible clock speeds of the 2990X, with a rather healthy nominal clocks of 3.00 GHz, with boost frequencies of 3.80 GHz. XFR 2.0 could automatically overclock the chip even beyond the boost frequency, if your cooling is up to the task. The screenshot also reveals that this database submission was made by someone testing the processor, as a prototype motherboard codenamed "Whitehaven OPS rev B CF4" is listed. AMD is expected to launch its 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors, based on the 12 nm "Zen+" architecture, some time in Q3-2018.

Quote:AMD may not spare Intel's sub-$1000 Core X lineup, either. Prices of first-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors are seeing a dramatic drop, with the flagship Threadripper 1950X being priced under 650€. Prices of the 12-core Threadripper 1920X have slipped to just under 550€. The Core i9-7900X, meanwhile, continues to command a touch over 880€. The drop in prices of first-gen Threadrippers is likely retailers trying to clear out inventories to make room for 2nd generation Threadrippers. It could also be a prelude to AMD announcing more affordable 12-core and 16-core Threadrippers based on the 2nd generation "Zen+" architecture.

Quote:It seems that the marketing money is flowing once again at AMD - certainly buoyed by the company's mainstream, enthusiast and professional success with its Ryzen, Threadripper and Epyc series of processors. The event, being organized between AMD and Ferrari, has been confirmed by multiple sources, according to Videocardz, and should be focused on AMD's upcoming Threadripper 2000 series.