AMD's "7nm" Zen 2 8-core Ryzen 7 3700X and 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X CPUs have been reviewed:
The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 3700X and 3900X Raising The Bar
From the conclusion page:
In the majority of controlled tests, AMD has done something they haven't been able to achieve in almost 15 years, since the tail-end of the Athlon 64's reign in 2005: that is to have a CPU microarchitecture with higher performance per clock than Intel's leading architecture. Zen 2 finally achieves this symbolic mark by a hair's margin, with the new core improving IPC by 10-13% when compared to Zen+.
Having said that, Intel still very much holds the single-threaded performance crown by a few percent. Intel's higher achieved frequencies as well as continued larger lead in memory sensitive workloads are still goals that AMD has to work towards to, and future Zen iterations will have to further improve in order to have a shot at the ST performance crown.
[...] In the majority of our system benchmarks, AMD more often than not is able to best Intel's Core i7-9700K and i9-9900K in terms of performance. It was particularly interesting to see the new 3rd gen Ryzens post larger improvements in the web tests, all thanks to Zen 2's improved and larger op cache.
In anything that is more than lightly multi-threaded, AMD is also able to take the performance crown among mainstream desktop processors, thanks to their inclusion of 12 cores in their top SKU Ryzen 3900X. For total MT throughput, Intel can still beat this with their massive X-series HEDT chips, but these server-derrived parts are in a completely different class in both features and price, and AMD has their own Threadripper parts to rival that. All of this means that for heavily threaded scenarios, the 3900X rules the roost among true desktop processors.
[...] Perhaps the best arguments for the 3700X and 3900X is their value as well as their power efficiency. At $329 the 3700X particularly seems exciting, and gamers will want to take note that it posts the same gaming performance as the $499 3900X. Considering that AMD is also shipping the CPU with the perfectly reasonable Wrath Spire cooler, this also adds on to the value that you get if you're budget conscious.
The 3900X essentially has no real competition when it comes to the multi-threaded performance that it's able to deliver. Here the chip not only bests Intel's mainstream desktop designs, but it's able to go toe-to-toe with the lowest rung of Intel's more specialized HEDT platforms. Even AMD's own Threadripper line-up is made irrelevant below 16 cores.
Also at Tom's Hardware, Guru3D, and Wccftech.
See also: AMD Zen 2 Microarchitecture Analysis: Ryzen 3000 and EPYC Rome
Previously: AMD and Intel at Computex 2019: First Ryzen 3000-Series CPUs and Navi GPU Announced
AMD Details Three Navi GPUs and First Mainstream 16-Core CPU
Related Stories
At Computex 2019 in Taipei, AMD CEO Lisa Su gave a keynote presentation announcing the first "7nm" Navi GPU and Ryzen 3000-series CPUs. All of the products will support PCI Express 4.0.
Contrary to recent reports, AMD says that the Navi microarchitecture is not based on Graphics Core Next (GCN), but rather a new "RDNA" macroarchitecture ('R' for Radeon), although the extent of the difference is not clear. There is also no conflict with Nvidia's naming scheme; the 5000-series naming is a reference to the company's 50th anniversary.
AMD claims that Navi GPUs will have 25% better performance/clock and 50% better performance/Watt vs. Vega GPUs. AMD Radeon RX 5700 is the first "7nm" Navi GPU to be announced. It was compared with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2070, with the RX 5700 outperforming the RTX 2070 by 10% in the AMD-favorable game Strange Brigade. Pricing and other launch details will be revealed on June 10.
AMD also announced the first five Ryzen 3000-series CPUs, all of which will be released on July 7:
| CPU | Cores / Threads | Frequency | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 3900X | 12 / 24 | 3.8 - 4.6 GHz | 105 W | $499 |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 8 / 16 | 3.9 - 4.5 GHz | 105 W | $399 |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | 8 / 16 | 3.6 - 4.4 GHz | 65 W | $329 |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | 6 / 12 | 3.8 - 4.4 GHz | 95 W | $249 |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | 6 / 12 | 3.6 - 4.2 GHz | 65 W | $199 |
The Ryzen 9 3900X is the only CPU in the list using two core chiplets, each with 6 of 8 cores enabled. AMD has held back on releasing a 16-core monster for now. AMD compared the Ryzen 9 3900X to the $1,189 Intel Core i9-9920X, the Ryzen 7 3800X to the $499 Intel Core i9-9900K, and the Ryzen 7 3700X to the Intel Core i7-9700K, with the AMD chips outperforming the Intel chips in certain single and multi-threaded benchmarks (wait for the reviews before drawing any definitive conclusions). All five of the processors will come with a bundled cooler, as seen in this list.
At AMD's keynote at the 2019 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), AMD CEO Lisa Su announced three new "7nm" Navi GPUs and a new CPU.
The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT will have 2560 stream processors (40 compute units) capable of 9.75 TFLOPs of FP32 performance, with 8 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 VRAM. The price is $449. The AMD RX 5700 cuts that down to 2304 SPs (36 CUs), 7.9 TFLOPs, at $379. There is a higher clocked "50th anniversary" version of the 5700 XT that offers up to 10.14 teraflops for $499. A teraflop on one of these new cards supposedly means better graphics performance than older Polaris-based GPUs:
Looking at these clockspeed values then, in terms of raw throughput the new card is expected to get between 9 TFLOPs and 9.75 TFLOPs of FP32 compute/shading throughput. This is a decent jump over the Polaris cards, but on the surface it doesn't look like a huge, generational jump, and this is where AMD's RDNA architecture comes in. AMD has made numerous optimizations to improve their GPU utilization – that is, how well they put those FLOPs to good use – so a teraflop on a 5700 card means more than it does on preceding AMD cards. Overall, AMD says that they're getting around 25% more work done per clock on the whole in gaming workloads. So raw specs can be deceiving.
The GPUs do not include real-time raytracing or variable rate pixel shading support. These may appear on a future generation of GPUs. Instead, AMD talked about support for DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression, a contrast-enhancing post-processing filter, AMD Radeon Image Sharpening, and a Radeon Anti-lag feature to reduce input lag.
Towards the end of the presentation, AMD revealed the 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, the company's fully-fledged Ryzen CPU with two 8-core "7nm" Zen 2 chiplets. Compared to the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, the 3950X has a slightly higher boost clock and L2 cache, with the same 105 Watt TDP, for $749. This is the full lineup so far:
| CPU | Cores / Threads | Frequency | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 9 3950X | 16 / 32 | 3.5 - 4.7 GHz | 105 W | $749 |
| Ryzen 9 3900X | 12 / 24 | 3.8 - 4.6 GHz | 105 W | $499 |
| Ryzen 7 3800X | 8 / 16 | 3.9 - 4.5 GHz | 105 W | $399 |
| Ryzen 7 3700X | 8 / 16 | 3.6 - 4.4 GHz | 65 W | $329 |
| Ryzen 5 3600X | 6 / 12 | 3.8 - 4.4 GHz | 95 W | $249 |
| Ryzen 5 3600 | 6 / 12 | 3.6 - 4.2 GHz | 65 W | $199 |
Previously: AMD and Intel at Computex 2019: First Ryzen 3000-Series CPUs and Navi GPU Announced
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @05:49AM (4 children)
I'm reading the AnandTech comments and there's some argument over Fallout and ZombieLoad patches not being available yet, which -could- hurt Intel's performance.
Otherwise, Intel's comparable chips still perform favorably, although not due to IPC, but clock speeds that are a few hundred MHz faster. AMD's chips have gone from being beaten in almost every single-threaded test to matching or exceeding Intel in some of them. And of course, the 12-core just destroys Intel's offerings in multithreaded performance.
16-core 3950X lands in September.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @06:13AM
Another interesting bit:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14605/the-and-ryzen-3700x-3900x-review-raising-the-bar/7 [anandtech.com]
So it's possible that the Ryzen 7 3700X could compete better with i7-9700K (8c/8t) if you disable 8 threads, depending on what you are doing with it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday July 08 2019, @08:10AM (2 children)
I'm still hoping for a Threadripper 3. If that comes out, it's time to upgrade the workstation :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @08:39AM (1 child)
March: AMD: 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper in 2019 [anandtech.com]
May: AMD Removes Third Generation Ryzen Threadripper From Their Roadmap For No Reason [wccftech.com]
May (at Computex): All Ryzen: Q&A with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su [anandtech.com]
June: EXCLUSIVE: AMD Is Working On A Monster 64-Core Threadripper, Landing As Early As Q4 2019 [wccftech.com]
A little delayed, but could be coming before the end of 2019, with a core count increase. Maybe doubled to 64, with cheaper 48-core and 32-core parts.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday July 08 2019, @08:53AM
Thanks for that, I hadn't seen the last one. A 64-core would be sweeeeeet for many of my workloads (currently only using a dual Xeon-10-core).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 08 2019, @09:02AM
If I was building a new PC I might go for the Ryzen 3700X since it's cheaper, I don't just play games and I don't need the "best".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @12:26PM (8 children)
I suppose that's reserved for the smartphone market these days, but... I can play Steam games on my 15W NUC7i5 that graphically rival the (admittedly 10+ year old) PS3.
Would anyone else be jazzed to get this level of performance in a passively cooled NUC sized package?
I don't care if cooling fans suck or blow, I don't want them in my equipment.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Monday July 08 2019, @03:24PM (5 children)
the x570's all seem to have tiny fans on the chipsets.
that's a big read FAIL to me ;(
I will try using the new cpus with the x470 or b450; likely will skip the 570 and its stoopid noisy failure-prone (yes, it will fail, eventually) fan.
odd that the new chips are power efficient but the chipset is not! plus, pci4 is too new and likely this chipset is a learning one for amd and the next will be more serious.
still, I have to say, the launch was a complete failure. here in the bay area, I went to frys to buy something on launch day and nothing could be bought! not a single 3k series cpu in stock at the sunnyvale frys; just walking distance from amd HQ!! not that it matters, but still, optics are odd that launch-day in silicon valley had no stores with chips in stock and even amazon 'forgot' to make a big deal over the launch; no mobos listed and you had to search hard for the chips; and they were not even ready to ship.
fail, amd. your so-called launch was pathetic. consider firing your marketing guys who flubbed this. I was happy to hand over money to you on your launch, but it seems you are not even ready to launch with any seriousness. sigh ;(
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @04:42PM (2 children)
The 7/7 date was chosen to emphasize "7nm", but it fell on a Sunday. That's probably why you saw limited availability. Today could be considered the real launch day.
As hot as the X570 chipset it, you don't need to buy one if power and heat are your concerns. You can use existing AM4 motherboards, as you point out. You won't get PCIe4 but there is going to be some skippage with that anyway (like Intel skipping to PCIe5).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 09 2019, @12:03AM (1 child)
They take months to get any new stock in now, and when they do they rarely have the latest and greatest.
Another issue: They have dozens of kinds of non-ECC UDIMMs, a dozen or two kinds of (crappy) ECC RDIMMs, but no boards in-store that support Registered memory, and no Unregistered ECC memory for the swat of boards they carry that DO support ECC UDIMMs (AMD).
Furthermore their videocard selection has never recovered since the mining craze 2-3 years ago, and they still have hundreds of PCIe x1 to x16 bus relocator cards on the store shelves, discounted down to 1-8 dollars apiece now. Their stocking game seems to be all over the place and not really what customers want, or price competitive on what they have.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 09 2019, @12:09AM
Microcenter > Fry's, if you're lucky enough to be near one.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 08 2019, @10:17PM (1 child)
x470 and b450 work fine, although you might need a BIOS update, which means you want a "flashback" motherboard (one that can update its own firmware) unless you already have an old CPU to do the update with. There's basically no performance difference between x570 and x470. It is mostly to enable PCIe 4.0.
Presumably, there will be a "b550" at some point that includes PCIe 4.0 but without all the whizbang expensive stuff you need to buy to get an x570. Hopefully, it will be passively cooled.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday July 10 2019, @02:29PM
just got an r5-3600 chip and b450 mobo. I have to now say, I'm VERY VERY IMPRESSED.
latest 5.2 kernel build, make -j12 gets me a bzImage in less than 2 minuts. dayum!
modules build is about 5 minutes. not default modules but most modules are 'm' in .config for me.
once I see grub prompt and time how long it gets to text-mode login prompt, its about 4 seconds. not kidding.
nvme is 1tb and hdparm shows about 2600mb/sec (a better HP one gave me nearly 3000). my older samsung on a skylake i7 only gives 1700.
make -j12 is such a trip ;) $200 for the cpu and $150 for the mini-itx mobo.
os is ubuntu 16.04 and I keep the kernel updated, as you can see.
systemd has not bit me on this build, but I have 16.04 as userland so its quite old (but quite stable).
...coming to work today as a build server ;)
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @05:30PM (1 child)
Some fans [thetechlounge.com] are quieter than others. The cooling situation is probably better than what it was a decade ago.
Apparently, up to 28W chips [anandtech.com] can be cooled passively. Drop from the 35-45 Watt TDPs that you see on some chips (mostly desktop APUs), and you could at least reach that.
Ultimately, I think we would need a transistor revolution [soylentnews.org] in order to cut all TDPs below 15W and make most cooling obsolete. We may also need on-chip/package DRAM and/or universal memory since moving data around can generate a lot of heat. There's also talk of workloads being spread out across many cores using AI prediction, in order to utilize more cores while cutting clock speeds, but it remains to be seen whether that's vaporware.
I can't deny that I like using a fanless system (like the laptop I'm typing on). I also see standalone VR driving up the performance of very low TDP SoCs. AMD's main Ryzen 3000-series lineup doesn't need to target these TDPs because most users want high performance. These chips are designed to compete with the likes of the i7-9700K and i9-9900K.
Where AMD does have a blind spot is the below-15W laptop APU segment. Intel has Core M and various other parts, while AMD put out two 6W Excavator chips [notebookcheck.net], on the ol' "28nm" node, not Zen. From what I see on WikiChip [wikichip.org], there has never been a Zen or Zen+ CPU with less than 15W TDP. Could there be a Zen power efficiency floor that prevents below-15W segments from being hit?
Right at 15W (12W is mentioned but that's a "configurable TDP-down"), there is this embedded chip [linuxgizmos.com] and some mobile chips [wikichip.org]. AFAIK AMD has not emphasized this form factor while Intel has continued to pay attention to it.
We could always move in the other direction [soylentnews.org]. ;)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday July 08 2019, @05:40PM
"Back in the day" (2005) I was betting on AMD to get a sizeable new chunk of the market based on their much lower power yet competitively performing new chips. Then the Eye of Intel opened on low power concerns and blasted my AMD stock options into oblivion.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by garrulus on Monday July 08 2019, @12:54PM (1 child)
My next Arma III rig will have a 3600X
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 08 2019, @04:27PM
AMD mobos tend to be cheaper and you get a bundled cooler with the CPUs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]