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Since nobody yet mentioned it, just going to remind everyone that a 16 core, 32 thread desktop chip for Zen 2 will exist, and be priced under 800 dollars.
by 127 7y ago
Since nobody yet mentioned it, just going to remind everyone that a 16 core, 32 thread desktop chip for Zen 2 will exist, and be priced under 800 dollars.
- baybal2 7y agoThey will surely push 12 cored ones first. They glue 2 downgraded dies and get ones CPU that costs more than 2 defective dies sold separately. Just brilliant
- DiabloD3 7y agoThey are 8 core dies of a higher bin that would have been clocked the same (or possibly lower) in an equivalent 4 die Epyc part. Given the fact that it is a higher bin, they are rare. What part of that illustrates they're defective, or that it legitimately costs more than if it was sold separately?
- baybal2 7y agoVery likely 6 cored dies simply have 1 or 2 defective cores that were either damaged during manufacturing or failed test. As for frequencies, modern day finfets can clock way way higher than planar devices, and are more limited by thermals than anything else.
- paulmd 7y agoThat's the fairy-tale but most chips come off the line with all cores functional and the manufacturer disables some of the cores. Taken to the extreme - there just aren't that many chips with, say, 4 broken cores and yet the rest of the chip still works. Demand is highest for these cheap parts and supply is lowest, so you disable cores. The other thing is, these 12Cs are actually clocked significantly higher (and have much more cache enabled) than the lower-end parts. So these are not simply "bad silicon". Really this is a misnomer in general since there is a variety of ways silicon can be "bad". Bad clocks, damaged cache, damaged cores, etc etc. Binning gives you the opportunity to pick the best cores on a chip too. So if a chip had two cores that could only do 4 GHz but the rest of them could do 4.4 GHz or whatever, then all of them might be functional yet it might fail binning as a fast 8C chip, but you could disable the two derpy cores and ship it as a very fast 6C chip. The binning process is a deeply trade secret kinda thing, but is undoubtedly much more complex than people generally believe. It's not "top X% silicon becomes Epyc, next X% silicon becomes threadripper", etc. All that is known for sure is that AMD is very efficient at using every part of the buffalo.
- baybal2 7y agoClock ceiling became largely irrelevant with finfets, even most low end zen dies were hitting 3-3.5ghz when overclocked. Downbinned dies are clocked higher because they have more thermal leeway with 2 cores disabled.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoI don't think binning chips is anything new. If it performs well and lasts, I don't care if it's nothing but goats blood and binder twine holding it together.
- baybal2 7y agoThe trick here is that they reversed the paradigm and managed to sell two downbinned dies for "more* than their combined retail price if sold as standalone CPUs.
- snuxoll 7y agoThe market charges based on perceived value, not cost of materials. You aren't going to be getting a 12-core Intel chip for $500, that's for sure.
- teolandon 7y agoSource on that <800 dollar figure? Is it all just leaks?
- neogodless 7y agohttps://www.anandtech.com/show/14516/amd-16-core-ryzen-9-3950x-up-to-4-7-ghz-105w-coming-september https://www.anandtech.com/show/14516/amd-16-core-ryzen-9-395... Announced and priced at $749.
- brandmeyer 7y agoThe 2950x is the existing 16C/32T and retails for just under 800 USD right now. I don't see why the next gen product would cost significantly more for similar performance.
- vardump 7y agoSure. But two memory channels is not amazing. I'll hold out for ThreadRipper, with 4 channels. Although AMD Rome Epyc got massive 8.