Before anyone gets too excited about this news, so far this is only a rumour that originates from one source, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t dream, hope and get a little bit excited. A german tech publication got wind from a Motherboard manufacturer that we could see new AMD Zen based motherboards as early as March 2016, well ahead of the otherwise known Q4 2016 plan.
The new AMD Zen CPU will use a new socket and also incorporate the current DDR4 capabilities and as such completely new boards have to be designed. In a routine inquiry about this, the publication got a surprising response from the manufacturer. The response: “The internal timetable foresees a March 2016 launch”. That is a lot sooner than expected.
There are however several ways that this could be both good and bad, true and false. The original Zen timetable has a Q1 2016 schedule that later got pushed. So the company could have been getting the information from old documents. Another possibility could be that we see Opteron CPUs on the new Zen architecture before we get the consumer FX versions around the holiday sales 2016.
Either way, I am one of them that is excited to see what AMD has cooked up in their labs and how well it will perform compared to the competition.
I GOT EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Precisely! AM4 motherboards will have a desktop Carrizo APU offering before Zen CPUs arrive. I would still be surprised to see that happen before summer ’16, but it is certainly a great way to mature a platform and get some much needed cash at the same time. I won’t be buying in early, but computers I build new would be more likely to use AMD now with known Zen upgrades coming than they would otherwise.
Carrizo wont be too bad. Might pick one up for a HTPC. Is it me or is it really exciting with the prospect of some CPU competition again. Really looking forward to next year.
First batch of AM4 chips are not plain Carrizo, but apparently a refresh, Excavator 2.0 cores, latest GCN graphics cores and further enhancements (even tho Excavator 1.0 never made it to desktop to begin with), hopefully the last (consumer) iteration of Bulldozer(Excavator).
To be honest, other than a DDR4 memory controller, I don’t expect something different from the desktop Carrizo compared to the mobile version. Of course R series Carrizo for embedded systems, already comes with DDR4 controller, so it will be nothing new for AMD. The thing is that I don’t think they have the money and the resources for an Excavator 2.0, or to create a new version of the SOC with newer GCN architecture.
Hoping for some powerful 125w as apposed to 35w TDP chips which should have some serious APU performance. Be amazing for a HTPC. But probably unlikely.
125w will be a fail in 2016. You also would have to wait for Zen to see some serious integrated graphics power, probably with HBM memory on the chip working as fast cache memory, like in the case of the Xbox One APU.
Nah 125w TDP wont be a fail if it is a high performing APU. All depends on the application. If it runs like dogs balls then yeah but something like a 4-8 core chip with a really powerful iGPU will be fine. The i7 5930k’s are currently 140w. So I do mean in the higher end market. Not entry level to mid range. Sorry wasn’t clear on that.
Excavator cores are not like Broadwell cores. They can’t play ball in the hi end market. People are not going to get excited by an 8 core APU with Excavator cores. Also DDR4 does have a limit in bandwidth, so even if you throw 1024 stream processors in there with DDR4 memory, you are not going to have an R9 370. AMD needs to put Zen cores in their APUs and add HBM on the chip to get significant extra performance. An 125W TDP APU with 8 excavator cores and plenty of stream processors on it, will just be a faster 8350 barely fighting 4 core Skylakes, with R7 250X graphics best case scenario.
Perhaps they can add a HBM cache on die with Excavator. I know the limits of the bulldozer arch but even something with the power of a FX4350 or even an i3 with basically that spec’d GPU would not be a bad buy provided the price was cheap. Of course we will have to wait for Zen to deliver the higher performance cores never stated that we simply would have Excavator only. Don’t just assume. Yeah I mentioned Carrizo before at that was simply because module vs core they about equal the lappie i3’s and i5’s so they aren’t actually that bad a chip compared to when bulldozer first was released. Core for core they get smashed as usual, but module vs core is a bit fair since i3/5/7’s all have HT even in light weight chips. So bringing out a higher performing (mostly a little on the CPU but mostly make GPU enhancements) chips with higher TDP’s, slap in some HBM for the cache and they’d be sweet lost cost HTPC chips.
Next minute it will be AM3 and AM3+ again. Like me I got the AM3 board and Phenom II 955 thinking I can put a Piledriver in it then they say no you have to get a AM3+ board. *sad face* At least I could stick the Phenom chip in the AM3+ board so it wasn’t too painful.
You might remember the gap in time between FM2+ MB release, and FM2+ APU release.
Moreover, it’s said that the AM4 socket will first see Carrizo before seeing Zen. So even if boards are read by March 2016, it doesn’t mean Zen will be. Only Carrizo for desktop (which is still great, as piledriver is old now)
But well, I’m a dreamer, and I too would like to see it earlier. (Zen obviously)
Yeah, you’re right.
It was obvious that the mainboards will be released a while before Summit Ridge, no need to get excited. We should be happy if AMD manages to get Summit Ridge on the market for Holiday 2016.
Anyone willing to speculate on Zen’s capabilities compared to Skylake? Can AMD possibly catch up considering? I really hope they do but I’m a little pessamistic. IF they fail now christ only knows what the CPU landscape will look like in 5-10 years….
I’m betting Ivy Bridge level IPC
Which isn’t bad considering ivy bridge aint far off of Skylake anyways. I think the 4 core 8 thread chips will be near the i5’s but not quite as fast(maybe with SMT who knows). Multithread wise they wont be much faster than the FX 8350 chips given MT was the FX chips major strong point. Given the i7 6700 is not twice as fast as the 3570 but we know actual cores scale very well over HT or what ever AMD use I think the 8 core 16 thread chips will be up there with the i7 6700’s again perhaps not quite as fast. But this is merely opinion and pure speculation going off of AMD’s rumors if they can even be believed. If I am wrong (most likely am, I am sure someone will be happy to tell me I am.) then as long as the chips fall within 10-20% of Intels top chips but priced accordingly then it wont matter people will still buy these chips.
Of course ! I’m hopeful
AMD will launch AM4 with Bristol Ridge which is Carrizo(Excavator). So not Zen.