AMD's Ryzen CPUs (Ryzen/TR/Epyc) & Vega/Polaris/Navi GPUs

Not only a monitor review, a Freesync vs Gsync review, comparing function, quality, and cost - which is the best quality, the best function, and the best cost.

AMD created Freesync, and there have been many other posts about Freesync / vs Gsync here as well. FreeSync is a major component of AMD's GPU / APU / CPU solutions, and now a major component of Nvidia's future as well.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search/22328028/?q=freesync&t=post&o=relevance&c[thread]=799348

http://forum.notebookreview.com/search/22328058/?q=freesync&t=post&o=relevance&c[thread]=806608

If you want to start a Freesync vs Gsync thread, that would be nice too, but so far we've been putting them here and in the Nvidia thread.

With the new AMD GPU / APU / CPU releases we will be needing an expansion of the existing Intel vs AMD thread soon as well as an AMD vs Nvidia GPU thread that would welcome the Freesync vs Gsync content.

 

Does it matter? You can use FreeSync monitors on Nvidia GPUs, but you can't use G-Sync monitors on AMD GPUs.

 

MSI Betrays AMD's Socket AM4 Longevity Promise: No Zen2 for 300-series?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...99-xeon-vs-epyc.805695/page-272#post-10897010

 

No real surprise there.
MSI CEO openly stated that they won't be investing into laptops with AMD hw for example (including Zen 2 and Navi) due to their long standing arrangement with Intel.
They are too 'loyal' to Intel (aka, they probably receive too much cash from them and don't want to lose that revenue stream by building units with AMD hw).

It seems almost clear that Intel is holding onto some of its 'star players' by dangling money in front of their faces (or reminding them that they could ended up with reduced revenues if they use AMD), and of course, loyal corporate lapdogs that they are, they would follow the money.
Still, those OEM's might suffer in the long run by ignoring AMD hardware due to their increasing market share in data centers and outselling Intel by double (according to latest news)... plus with Navi on the way.

Its possible that Intel's current node shortages might actually prompt MSI (and few other OEM's) to reconsider their current stance... but, on some level, a small part of me hopes they get burned by their existing position.

I know AMD is also a corporation that is out to make profits, but at the very least, they seem to support open-standards and offer comparable products of pretty high quality (arguably, greater quality) for much lower price than Intel (or even Nvidia for that matter).

EDIT: Asus released new motherboard BIOS-es for their B350 and X370 lineups which reportedly contains same AGESA version that should support Zen 2 (bear in mind that this is according to a Reddit user).

 

Ugh, Intel doing basically the same as when they outright bribed Dell not to use AMD 15 years ago and incurred multi billion dollar fines, because it worked and the fines were a fraction of the revenue they saved by it

I'm sure this time they will do better at hiding the evidence of collusion.

 

IDK, this time the situation is different. Intel doesn't have the inventory to supply Dell - even if money / favors changes hands for exclusivity - so Dell can't ship as much product without using AMD. Last time Dell broke ranks and started offering AMD in Enterprise due to demand - and how bad it was making Dell look publicly, like why weren't Dell shipping the best new server CPU's from AMD??

Dell is already coming out with AMD enterprise hardware due to Intel's inability to deliver product:

PowerEdge Plus AMD EPYC Equals Better Server Performance in Half the Density, at Half the Cost
Zaira Noce • April 9th, 2019
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...99-xeon-vs-epyc.805695/page-272#post-10896579

" Dell EMC PowerEdge R6415 achieves #1 results on TPCx-HS Benchmarks for 1-TB and 10-TB scale factor

 

AMD Ryzen 3000 "Zen 2" BIOS Analysis Reveals New Options for Overclocking & Tweaking
by btarunr Mar 22nd, 2019 02:30 Discuss (70 Comments)
https://www.techpowerup.com/253954/...reveals-new-options-for-overclocking-tweaking

"...
Our resident Ryzen Memory Guru Yuri "1usmus" Bubliy took a really close look at one of these BIOS updates with AGESA 0.0.7.x and found several new controls and options that will be exclusive to "Matisse," and possibly the next-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors. AMD has changed the CBS section title from "Zen Common Options" to "Valhalla Common Options." We have seen this codename on the web quite a bit over the past few days, associated with "Zen 2." We have learned that "Valhalla" could be the codename of the platform consisting of a 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" AM4 processor and its companion AMD 500-series chipset based motherboard, specifically the successor to X470 which is being developed in-house by AMD as opposed to sourcing from ASMedia.

When doing serious memory overclocking, it can happen that the Infinity Fabric can't handle the increased memory speed. Remember, Infinity Fabric runs at a frequency synchronized to memory. For example, with DDR-3200 memory (which runs at 1600 MHz), Infinity Fabric will operate at 1600 MHz. This is the default of Zen, Zen+ and also Zen 2. Unlike earlier generations, the new BIOS offers UCLK options for "Auto", "UCLK==MEMCLK" and "UCLK==MEMCLK/2". The last option is new and will come in handy when overclocking your memory, to achieve stability, but at the cost of some Infinity Fabric bandwidth.

Precision Boost Overdrive will receive more fine-grained control at the BIOS level, and AMD is making significant changes to this feature to make the boost setting more flexible and improve the algorithm. Early adopters of AGESA Combo 0.0.7.x on AMD 400-series chipset motherboards noticed that PBO broke or became buggy on their machines. This is because of poor integration of the new PBO algorithm with the existing one compatible with "Pinnacle Ridge." AMD also implemented "Core Watchdog", a feature that resets the system in case address or data errors destabilize the machine.

The "Matisse" processor will also provide users with finer control over active cores. Since the AM4 package has two 8-core chiplets, you will have the option to disable an entire chiplet, or adjust the core-count in decrements of 2, since each 8-core chiplet consists of two 4-core CCX (compute complexes), much like existing AMD designs. At the chiplet-level you can dial down core counts from 4+4 to 3+3, 2+2, and 1+1, but never asymmetrically, such as 4+0 (which was possible on first-generation Zen). AMD is synchronizing CCX core counts for optimal utilization of L3 cache and memory access. For the 64-core Threadripper that has eight 8-core chiplets, you will be able to disable chiplets as long as you have at least two chiplets enabled.

CAKE, or "coherent AMD socket extender" received an additional setting, namely "CAKE CRC performance Bounds". AMD is implementing IFOP (Infinity Fabric On Package,) or the non-socketed version of IF, in three places on the "Matisse" MCM. The I/O controller die has 100 GB/s IFOP links to each of the two 8-core chiplets, and another 100 GB/s IFOP link connects the two chiplets to each other. For multi-socket implementations of "Zen 2," AMD will provide NUMA node controls, namely "NUMA nodes per socket," with options including "NPS0", "NPS1", "NPS2", "NPS4" and "Auto".

With "Zen 2," AMD is introducing a couple of major new DCT-level features. The first one is called "DRAM Map Inversion," with options including "Disabled", "Enabled" and "Auto". The motherboard vendor description of this option goes like "Properly utilize the parallelism within a channel and DRAM device. Bits that flip more frequently should be used to map resources of greater parallelism within the system." Another is "DRAM Post Package Repair," with options including "Enabled", "Disabled", and "Auto." This new special mode (which is a JEDEC standard) lets the memory manufacturer increase DRAM yields by selectively disabling bad memory cells, to replace them automatically with working ones from a spare area, similar to how storage devices map out bad sectors. We're not sure why such a feature is being exposed to end-users, especially from the client-segment. Perhaps it will be removed on production motherboards.

We've also come across an interesting option related to the I/O controller that lets you select PCI-Express generation up to "Gen 4.0". This could indicate some existing 400-series chipset motherboards could receive PCI-Express Gen 4.0, given that we're examining a 400-series chipset motherboard's firmware. We've heard through credible sources that AMD's PCIe Gen 4.0 implementation involves the use of external re-driver devices on the motherboard. These don't come cheap. Texas Instruments sells Gen 3.0 redrivers for $1.5 a piece in 1,000-unit reel quantities. Motherboard vendors will have to fork out quite at least $15-20 on socket AM4 motherboards with Gen 4.0 slots, given that you need 20 of these redrivers, one per lane. We've come across several other common controls, including "RCD Parity" and "Memory MBIST" (a new memory self-test program).

One of the firmware setup program pages is titled "SoC Miscellaneous Control," and includes the following settings, many of which are industry-standard:

• DRAM Address Command Parity Retry
• Max Parity Error Replay
• Write CRC Enable
• DRAM Write CRC Enable and Retry Limit
• Max Write CRC Error Replay
• Disable Memory Error Injection
• DRAM UECC Retry
• ACPI Settings:
  o ACPI SRAT L3 Cache As NUMA Domain
  o ACPI SLIT Distance Control
  o ACPI SLIT remote relative distance
  o ACPI SLIT virtual distance
  o ACPI SLIT same socket distance
  o ACPI SLIT remote socket distance
  o ACPI SLIT local SLink distance
  o ACPI SLIT remote SLink distance
  o ACPI SLIT local inter-SLink distance
  o ACPI SLIT remote inter-SLink distance
• CLDO_VDDP Control
• Efficiency Mode
• Package Power Limit Control
• DF C-states
• Fixed SOC P-state
• CPPC
• 4-link xGMI max speed
• 3-link xGMI max speed

All in all, AMD Ryzen "Matisse" promises to give advanced and enthusiast users a treasure-chest of tuning options. Thanks again to Yuri "1usmus" Bubliy, who contributed significantly to this article."

 

Dell may have come around somewhat (though not entirely as there was a fiasco with their Zen APU offerings which were again 'crippled' compared to Intel versions while being priced the same or more than comparable Intel systems), but this may not be the case for other OEM's like MSI.

Remember that MSI CEO openly stated they have no immediate plans to develop notebooks using AMD hardware (Zen 2 and Navi included) because of their long standing relationship with Intel, and they thought that investing in AMD might not result in sufficient interest (or something to that effect), whereas with Intel and NV, the demand for their hw has been 'steady' (which is not surprising if that's all they have on offer for laptops).

 

AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs can increase transistor count by 20% over Ryzen 3000 thanks to TSMC’s 7nm+ node
Dave James, April 15, 2019
https://www.pcgamesn.com/amd/zen-3-cpu-tsmc-7nm

"TSMC has already started volume production of its next generation 7nm process; the first to incorporate its advanced EUV tech, and the node which should form the basis for AMD’s Zen 3 processors next year.

The Taiwanese contract manufacturer started mass production of the 7nm+ process in March this year, which is a huge milestone for the technology, and it’s being used to create HiSilicon’s phone SoC, the Kirin 985. And if you don’t know who HiSilicon is, you’ll probably recognise its parent company, Huawei. Even if you’re not necessarily sure how to pronounce it correctly.

AMD isn’t kicking off the launch of its upcoming Ryzen 3000 series processors with TSMC’s new 7nm+ EUV process, instead it’s using the more-established 7nm production node this time around. As this is set to be the first volume production run using the 7nm+ process it makes sense to use it on a smaller, lower frequency chip design to start off with.

But what’s the point in this whole Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography? Well, it’s all about the masks, allowing for fewer manufacturing stages, increased density, and reduced power consumption. All the good stuff, in other words. Oh, and the possibility that it will cater for our silicon needs all the way down to a theoretical 1nm transistor size.

The production run, and density gains, of the 7nm+ design were first mentioned by Commercial Times (via Digitimes) where its report states that mass production began back in March, with 5nm testing production also starting and set to enter volume delivery in some form in 2020. Again, that’s going to be too early for AMD’s next processors, sporting the Zen 3 design, with those chips set to be the first CPUs to deliver on the promise of EUV.

EUV is all about making it easier to create the sort of miniscule transistors that we need to keep Moore’s Law rolling ever onwards (downwards?), which should also make the resulting products cheaper to produce. Hopefully.

TSMC isn’t going wholeheartedly into this brave EUV future straightaway, however, as the 7nm+ design is only going to utilise EUV for a few layers of masks (the design templates used in CPU manufacturing) and not the whole lot of them. Even so, TSMC claims that its 7nm+ design will still allow for chip creators to increase transistor density by 20% and reduce power consumption by 10% under the same operational load.

Samsung is working hard to ensure that its own EUV efforts make waves, and have reportedly signed Nvidia up as launch partners for 2020, while Intel is also expanding its own 7nm EUV manufacturing, pumping billions of dollars into its own fabs.

We don’t know what level of EUV lithography Samsung and Intel will use for their own 7nm designs, but TSMC’s basic introduction will at least give AMD’s Zen 3 processors the “modest device performance opportunities” its CTO, Mark Papermaster, was touting last year.

Zen 3, the next generation of AMD CPUs, will arrive sometime in 2020, giving the new Ryzen 3000 processors a little time in the sun before they’re replaced by something shinier, denser, and on the whole more extreme."

 

He takes a while to get there, but he does get there, with a hotspot temp under 88c, down from 100c+ at stock.

He goes through a nice progression of out of the box to fully tuned, check it out:

Finding the PERFECT BALANCE - AMD Radeon VII Undervolt Guide
TekTick
Published on Apr 16, 2019
Let's see what can be done with tweaking the Radeon VII using some undervolt methods Spoiler alert - Actually - a lot!

 

AMD 50th Anniversary
Celebrating 50 Years of Innovation
AMD designs, integrates and evolves high-performance computing and graphics technology to solve some of the world’s toughest and most interesting challenges.
https://www.amd.com/en/events/50th-anniversary

"Founded in 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up, the AMD journey began with dozens of employees focused on leading-edge semiconductor products. We grew into a global company of 10,000 people, achieving many important industry firsts along the way. From the early days in my engineering career to today, I remain amazed by the impact and future potential of semiconductor technology, and I’m extremely proud to see how far we‘ve come.

AMD today develops high-performance computing and visualization products to solve some of the world’s toughest and most interesting challenges. There was never a better time to be in the semiconductor industry, and we are ready to tackle the next 50 years with high-performance computing and graphics solutions that transform all of our lives.

Dr. Lisa Su
President and Chief Executive Officer"

AMD's 50th anniversary will precipitate special CPUs, GPUs
by Mark Tyson on 16 April 2019, 10:11
https://hexus.net/tech/news/cpu/129614-amds-50th-anniversary-will-precipitate-special-cpus-gpus/

"AMD's 50th Anniversary celebrations are just a fortnight away. It was founded on 1st May 1969, in Sunnyvale, California. As part of the computer processor developer's festivities we have found out that there will be commemorative, special edition hardware in multiple segments. For those interested in PC CPU upgrades AMD's 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X processor might appeal.

AMD 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X
The listing at ShopBLT doesn't provide much in the way of information about the upcoming AMD 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X other than the basics of product name, description, manufacturing part number, and price.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X comes with the Wraith Prism Cooler, just like the standard edition you can buy today. Its part number is YD270XBGAFA50, very much like the boxed processor you can buy today (YD270XBGAFBOX) but with a 50 in place of the BOX string. With this in mind it would be rational to expect the 50th Anniversary to merely differentiate with its packaging, and perhaps some kind of engraving on the IHS and/or cooler.

The modest changes to the 50th Anniversary product are reflected in the pricing. This initial pricing isn't much higher than standard edition processors in the US. As a reminder, HEXUS reviewed the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X processor almost a year ago, alongside the Ryzen 5 2600X. The pair won HEXUS Recommended awards and the former comes with 8C/16T, a 16MB L3 cache, base/turbo clocks of 3.7GHz / 4.3GHz, and has a TDP of 105W."

AMD 50th Anniversary Radeon RX 590 Graphics Card Listed
by Zhiye Liu April 15, 2019 at 11:30 PM - Source: KOMACHI_ENSAKA Twitter
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/s...x-590-amd-50th-anniversary-edition,39083.html

"Portuguese online retailer PCDIGA has listed the Sapphire AMD 50th Anniversary Edition Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GB graphics card for €299.90, or roughly $338.99, on the company's website.

Credit: PCDIGA

According to multiple retailer listings, AMD is preparing to launch a 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X to commemorate the company's 50th anniversary. Apparently, Sapphire, one of AMD's biggest partners, is paying homage to the US chipmaker by releasing the Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GB AMD 50th Anniversary Edition graphics card.

Credit: PCDIGA

The 50th Anniversary Edition will look awfully familiar if you're a fan of Sapphire products. That's because the graphics card employs the same Dual-X cooler that Sapphire has been using for some time. On this occasion, however, Sapphire has dipped the 2.2-slot cooler in gold-colored paint instead of the blue or black color that we've grown accustomed to.

Internally, the 50th Anniversary Edition probably uses a similar combination of two 8mm and two 6mm copper heatpipes under the hood, just like the normal Nitro+ RX 590 8GB or Nitro+ RX 590 8GB Special Edition. The graphics card is also equipped with a fancy metallic backplate to provide enhanced aesthetics, rigidity, and passive cooling.

Credit: PCDIGA

Much like its siblings, the 50th Anniversary Edition has a pair of dual-ball bearing 95mm cooling fans that provide active cooling. The fans are reportedly dust-repellent, run quieter, and have an 85 percent longer life span. They also feature Zero DB Cooling technology, which is Sapphire's fancy way of saying that the fans only turn on when the GPU temperature surpasses a certain threshold. However, the Quick Connect Fan feature is a game changer because only a single screw holds the fan in place so you can swap it out easily and quickly.

The graphics card draws power from one 8-pin and one 6-pin PCIe power connector. As for display connectors, the Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GB AMD 50th Anniversary Edition is outfitted with two HDMI 2.0b ports, two DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, and one dual-link DVI-D port.

The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GB AMD 50th Anniversary Edition shares the exact specifications as the Nitro+ RX 590 8GB and Nitro+ RX 590 8GB Special Edition. It retains AMD's fading Graphics Core Next (GCN) 4.0 microarchitecture and Polaris 30 silicon, which is produced on GlobalFoundries’ 12nm FinFET node. The graphics card still comes with 2,304 Stream Processors and 8GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 2,100MHz (8,400MHz effective) that communicates across a 256-bit memory interface. Even the 1,560MHz boost clock is the same across all three models.

The Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 590 8GB AMD 50th Anniversary Edition is currently selling for €299.90 (~$338.99) on PCDIGA. While Portugal complies to the VAT (value-added tax) rules dictated by the European Union, the country is free to apply its own rate with the condition that it must be higher than 15 percent. Computer hardware should fall under the standard 23 percent rate, so if we deduct it from the price, the graphics card's price drops down to $275.60, which is a $45 premium over the Nitro+ RX 590 8GB Special Edition. That's apparently the price you pay for a collector's item."

Gigabyte Unveils AMD 50th Anniversary X470 Motherboard
by Zhiye Liu April 16, 2019 at 8:10 AM - Source: momomo_us Twitter
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-amd-50th-anniversary-x470-motherboard,39087.html

"Gigabyte is also participating in AMD's 50th-anniversary festivities with its X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 motherboard that joins the ranks of AMD's 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X processor and Sapphire's Radeon RX 590 graphics card.


Credit: Gigabyte

The Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 is an ATX motherboard based on AMD's high-end X470 chipset. The typical black PCB is complemented by orange and silver accents and Gigabyte's usual RGB Fusion 2.0 multi-zone lighting. One of the neater aspects is the addition of a swappable overlay that rests beside the 24-pin power connector. Gigabyte provides the necessary files so you can design and 3D print your own Accent LED overlay to show off your individuality.

The Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 draws power from the 8-pin EPS power connector and an optional 4-pin power connector. The motherboard has a 10+2-phase power delivery subsystem with 10 power phases that feed up to 40A to the CPU, while the SoC (system-on-chip) or memory controller gets two power phases rated for 50A.

The motherboard has four DDR4 memory slots that can house dual-channel DDR4 memory kits up to 64GB and 3,600MHz data transfer rates. AMD Ryzen and Athlon Pro-series processor owners will be happy to know that the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 supports ECC (error-correcting code) memory.


Credit: Gigabyte

There are several storage options on the motherboard as well. For starters, you get six SATA III ports that are directly connected to the X470 chipset and support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. For high-speed storage, the motherboard provides two M.2 ports, which are cooled by passive heatsinks. The M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 port can accommodate PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs up to 110mm while the other M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 port is limited to PCIe SSDs up to 80mm.

The board has three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots in total. However, only the first slot runs at x16 while the remaining two operate at x8 and x4, respectively. As a result, the motherboard supports two-way Nvidia SLI or AMD CrossFire configurations. For good measure, Gigabyte added two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots to the motherboard so you can add other PCIe devices that don't necessarily require a x16 connection.

Credit: Gigabyte

As its name implies, the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 comes with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. There is support for the 11ac 160MHz wireless standard and throughput of 1.73 Gbps. If you prefer an old-school wired connection, the motherboard has a conventional Gigabit Ethernet port as well.

The motherboard employs the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec, which is accompanied by an ES9118 SABRE HiFi SoC, TXC Oscillator, and audiophile-grade WIMA and Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors. The motherboard supports 7.1-channel audio and has five gold-plated analog audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF out connector.

USB connectivity on the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 includes six USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, and two USB 2.0 ports. Two of the USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, which are colored in yellow, feature USB DAC-UP 2 technology, which compensates for voltage drops. These ports are perfect for connecting VR headsets, high-end earphones, gaming peripherals, and external hard drives or SSDs.

Gigabyte hasn't listed the availability or pricing for the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50. Since AMD's 50th anniversary is approaching on May 1, we expect the motherboard to arrive on shelves very soon."

 

Wired has an article regarding the next Sony console system. It seems to be using an AMD third generation Ryzen (7 nm Zen 2) 8-core CPU and a Navi GPU. There's also mention of support for ray tracing (even for audio sources) and a "custom unit for 3D audio" on the AMD chip.
Finally, no 2019 launch.

 

MSI Issues Clarification on Next-Gen AMD CPU Support on 300-series Motherboards
PRESS RELEASE by btarunr Today, 10:52 Discuss (100 Comments)
https://www.techpowerup.com/254669/...en-amd-cpu-support-on-300-series-motherboards

"It has come to our attention that MSI Customer Support has regrettably misinformed an MSI customer with regards to potential support for next-gen AMD CPUs on the MSI X370 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM motherboard. Through this statement we want clarify the current situation.

At this point, we are still performing extensive testing on our existing lineup of 300- and 400-series AM4 motherboards to verify potential compatibility for the next-gen AMD Ryzen CPUs.

To be clear: Our intention is to offer maximum compatibility for as many MSI products as possible. Towards the launch of the next-gen AMD CPUs, we will release a compatibility list of MSI AM4 motherboards.

Below is a full list of upcoming BIOS versions which include compatibility for the next-gen AMD APUs for our 300-Series and 400-Series AM4 motherboards based on the latest AMD Combo PI version 1.0.0.0. These BIOS versions are expected to be released in May this year.
"

 

Lisa Su‏ Verified account @LisaSu
"Super excited to expand our partnership with @Sony on their next-generation @PlayStation console powered by a custom chip with @AMDRyzen Zen2 and @Radeon Navi architecture!"
https://twitter.com/LisaSu/status/1118130682579103744

 

Has Vega 56 Caught the GTX 1080 in 2019?
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Apr 17, 2019

 

Here's more news on the MSI Zen 2 support on B350 and X370 mobos.
It seems previous 'lack of support' was a case of customer support not having up to date information.

MSI clarifies AMD 300- and 400-series motherboard update plans
https://hexus.net/tech/news/mainboa...fQlAxIrUmwOmRrsc7faB1qYqWweoW9izg-RX-hnLZpmLw

This bodes well in this instance, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they DIDN'T include support for Zen 2 on those mobos.
I still dislike MSI for not wanting to make Zen 2/Navi laptops... but time will tell if they change their minds.

 

AMD Radeon Vega VII is 2.5x - 3x as fast as an RX 570, for 4x the cost, which means the RX 570 is 1/2 - 1/3 the speed of an RTX 2080 for 1/5 the cost.

The RX 570 8GB FPS looks more than fast enough to get good game play, for what, like $140 - $150 if you shop around - 4GB more or less than $120-$130 - maybe less on lesser known models / sales?
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=392&sort=price

Radeon VII all around MSRP, some with 3 year warranties:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=437&sort=price

RX 590's, a bunch around $220:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=431&sort=price

Same goes for the RX 56/64, some great prices:
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=404
https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#sort=price&c=405

AMD Radeon VII 16GB vs AMD RX 570 4GB
PC Benchmarks
Published on Apr 20, 2019

 

Several AMD news segments including the MSI BIOS response, AMD 50th anniversary products, TSMC and Samsung EUV 7nm, 6nm, 5nm, and the shocking lack of interest in Nvidia 1660 and what about the 1650? Maybe AMD is taking low / mid range anyway, even without the Navi updates?:

HW News - EA Origin Launcher Malware, PS5 "Ray Tracing," & 5nm EUV
Gamers Nexus
Published on Apr 20, 2019
EA's Origin launcher should be updated to prevent security vulnerabilities, NVIDIA's GTX 1650 specs were revealed, and 5nm EUV is in risk production. We're the most curious about the NVIDIA GTX 1650 specs and pricing for this hardware news story. We want to know if our viewers are actually interested in the 1650 benchmarks, as 1660 (non-Ti) interest was low. Let us know what you think in the comments! Aside from this, Samsung's 5nm EUV is ready for customer sampling, TSMC is working on 7nm EUV, and AMD's 50th anniversary 2700X will be accompanied by 50th anniversary GPUs and motherboards.

 

If only we saw a bit more of this kind of properly optimised Radeon on Vulkan...

https://wccftech.com/amd-rx-vega-64-outperforms-nvidia-rtx-2080-by-14-in-vulkan-enabled-world-war-z/

 

You should also include 4K Vulkan scores, but in all honesty, while at that resolution the 2080ti takes the lead, its only by 1 or 2 FPS over RVII (not much of a difference honestly because that just means they are equal there).

 

Watch out for this particular make / models, bad reports everywhere:

Gigabyte's Radeon RX Vega 56/64 are lemons! Gigabyte is violating the law!
Submitted 12 hours ago by mockingbird
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bfkcvo/gigabytes_radeon_rx_vega_5664_are_lemons_gigabyte/

"Gigabyte's Radeon RX Vega 56/64 are lemons.

You can read some of the reviews here:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814932030

These video cards will fail shortly after use (often as soon as 30 minutes) Gigabyte will replace an RMA defective video card with another detective card. Some people are now on their eighth replacement..."

 

Hmmm, last time Adored TV gave us quite a nice line up - only to have AMD not be cooperative in their announcement - we are still waiting for the AMD CPU lineup for Zen 2 to firm up with release dates and specs.

Given this, take this Adored TV prognostication with a slice of salt, but it would answer why the Radeon VII has been dropping to close to and under MSRP lately.

That special edition model with 3080 + 15% would be +25%-30% over the Vega 64 performance - around and over the Radeon VII performance, for much less $. What a nice comeback for AMD's Radeon Division if that's what is to be announced / released soon, before the Nvidia 7nm comeback (sans RTX).

Analysing Navi - Speculation and Leaks - Part 1
AdoredTV
Published on Apr 18, 2019
What is Navi likely to be?

 

AMD Vega 64 Faster Than RTX 2080 Ti ! In One Game..
Boot Sequence
Published on Apr 22, 2019
"It looks like the Vega GPU’s are still aging very gracefully. In fact, in the newly released left 4 dead style game World War Z, the Vega 64 manages to outperform a 2080 Ti at 1080p and match its performance at 1440p. At 4k it loses but only by around 4 fps. This is truly impressive coming from a card that is around a third of the price of a 2080 Ti.
Even lower end cards from AMD are putting a fight with the RX 580 trading blows with the RTX 2070 and consistently beating the RTX 2060.

Now this is only one game, and the results are definitely due to the use of Vulkan. As we know, vulkan isn’t all that common in triple A PC titles these days, But we might see more and more as playstation titles jump to the PC. The PS4 uses a modified version of Vulkan for most if not all of its games and As we saw a few weeks ago , some of those titles are jumping into PC with vulkan support. Notably Detroit become human has been confirmed to use the API and I wouldn’t be surprised if Beyond two souls and heavy rain would use it too. It's just a shame that brand new games aren’t coming out with full vulkan support that often.

 

It seems ASUS is releasing a cheap version of its 2019 Zephyrus model with AMD Ryzen 7 and Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti. That configuration should have a MSRP of $1200. ( 2:43 in the video)
I believe this could be interesting for adoption of AMD parts in more "mainstream" notebooks.

 

According to the Notebookcheck article the CPU is the AMD Ryzen 7 3750H. If there isn't a design botch somewhere this notebook could be a great opportunity as a stepping stone for AMD to get seen as a worthy competitor to Intel.

 

From this rushed day one review it looks like the AMD Radeon RX 570 is a better performer than the GTX 1650 for less $, no surprise really, but more reviews are needed due to Nvidia's screw-up's with providing drivers.


Dead On Arrival: NVIDIA GTX 1650 Review, Benchmarks, & Overclocking vs. RX 570
Gamers Nexus
Published on Apr 23, 2019
This review of the new NVIDIA GTX 1650 video card focuses on benchmarking the EVGA 1650 XC Ultra Gaming variant. We overclocked, tested games, & power. Our written review of the GTX 1650: https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews...
Once we got the official NVIDIA GTX 1650 drivers -- available to press at the same time as the public -- we immediately set forth benchmarking the card. Results are in, and we now present our review of the EVGA GTX 1650 SC Ultra vs. Gigabyte RX 570 4GB card, with other tested cards including the GTX 1060, 1660, RTX 2060, GTX 1050 Ti, and more.


Nvidia Delays GTX 1650 Reviews by Withholding Drivers
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Apr 23, 2019


Update: Hardware Unboxed gets no sleep, GTX 1650 still pointless with less performance than the RX 570 and costing more.


Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Review, Horrible Value $150 Graphics Card
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Apr 23, 2019


The 1660 is on average 10% slower and 15% more expensive than the AMD Radeon RX 570 - and that's at a $150 1660 price, there are much higher priced models that show little if any FPS difference for the extra $.

 

It seems the ASUS GA502 is already available for order on Amazon and Best Buy. The Amazon model seems to mention the 120 Hz Full HD panel while the Best Buy apparently features Max-Q and 16 GB RAM. I guess specs will be corrected eventually, if needed.
Another Ryzen notebook that appeared on Amazon is the TUF505 which is a bit cheaper and includes a 2.5" drive.

 

Notebookcheck just posted a leaked benchmark that compares both notebooks with AMD 3750H:

 

Looking at those numbers my OC 2080 Ti 136max, 100 average, 88min at 4K Ultra settings.

They reported 59min, and 69 average for the VII In Vulkan at 4K, which is obviously it's best showing. The card wasn't overclocked but still I doubt it's going to make up 31fps. Their 9900k was also at 5.2Ghz while mine was sitting at just 5Ghz.

There is an AMD splash screen for a reason, and it ain't because Nvidia had their hand in the pie. Still I think my 2080 Ti results are just fine considering there hasn't been an Nvidia driver yet. Shame it's a totally dead game, it was fun the first day but I think the EPIC store only launch killed this on PC. Getting into a game now is a huge pain unless it's made a turn around in the last few days.

 

Leaked Intel roadmap shows its 10nm desktop CPUs won't arrive until 2022

https://www.techspot.com/news/79820-leaked-intel-roadmap-shows-10nm-desktop-cpus-wont.html

If this is accurate, then AMD will basically have 3 and a half years to capture market share from Intel in the desktop and mobile sectors (plus the data center sector is looking favorably towards AMD too).
Also, AMD is looking already towards 5nm.
This may be the much needed break AMD needed - because many people still buy Intel out of sheer loyalty and lack of proper information.

I am also skeptical that Intel would just sit back and do nothing.
If anything, I would expect them to just limit 10nm to few mobile products (as the node only seems to allow for that right now) and refocus their efforts on 7nm and beyond.
Short of Intel going to other fabs, it may be difficult for them to catch up if the above report is accurate.
They may be forced to release new products on existing 14nm node though... so new uArch, but older node. Mind you, if the design is sound it can work indeed, but there may be limits.

Hopefully, OEM's will be now leaning a lot more towards AMD, but despite how good Ryzen, Polaris or Vega have been, there is still prejudice against AMD from some OEM's (looking at you MSI for lack of all AMD laptops - among others) and other vendors from recommending AMD as a viable option.

 

I posted a question on his youtube channel if he plans on testing compute capabilities of 2080 and RVII as I'd like to see RVII massive compute in action.
Testing games is ok, but also a bit unrealistic as it gives an un-even picture of just why GCN behaves as it does... and considering comparable gaming perf. and power draw, the RVII looks to be much more efficient (especially because it has massive compute capabilities - which by themselves are very power hungry).

 

Don't count Intel out yet. While we have all this info coming from them on processes we do not get to see what their think tank is up to. I am sure over time we will see them resort to all sorts of marketing etc., as they have in the past, to combat AMD. We all are too idealistic and think of this as just a possible shift of the crown and market saturation, it is no where near that simple.

 

That's why AMD should target Enterprise clients and replace current Intel laptops with AMD Ryzen. If people like @tilleroftheearth make the switch to Ryzen then Intel's market share will be down. If more enterprises adopt Ryzen or EPYC then naturally development focus for both consumers and enterprise will be for Ryzen. ATM, Intel compilers tweak the crap out of their CPUs even with Spectre patches.
Ryzen 3 might be a game changer if AMD intends to forcefully try to gobble up Intel's userbase.

 

More love for the AMD Radeon RX 570...

Is NVIDIA even trying anymore?
JayzTwoCents
Published on Apr 25, 2019

 

Yeah, I know it's from Wccftech

AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs Allegedly Feature 15% Better IPC, Up To 4.5 GHz – X570 Rumored To Have 40 PCIe Lanes, No 3rd Gen Ryzen Support on A320 Boards April 27, 2019

It looks like new reports are coming in regarding AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 3000 processorswhich rock the brand new 7nm Zen 2 core architecture. The latest details come from a popular Chinese tech portal who got their information from various motherboard manufacturers who’ve already received Ryzen 3000 CPU samples.

 

Yeah, lets also not forget that the RX 570 has far more compute capacity at its disposal, AND it can be undervolted to roughly 90W with stock clocks (which is still higher than 1050ti, but ridiculously close for a GPU that has much more power hungry compute at its disposal).

Remind me again WHY don't reviewers touch on compute capabilities of commercial GPU's (which are NOT solely for gaming)?

 

Yeah, I was actually about to post the same article.
Seems like a rehash of what came before to be quite frank... but even if the 4.5GhZ and 15% IPC turn out accurate, Intel won't be able to respond conclusively at all. Intel is ALREADY maxing out the current node and are running into their own exponential voltage wall with diminishing returns.

Plus, when their 9900K is only 7.5% better than 2700x in various games even with a higher core clock advantage, you start realizing that Intel's current offers aren't necessarily worth it... not to mention that on AMD's end, the high frequency and low latency RAM seems to minimize Intel's lead in general (at least in operations where RAM speeds and latencies matter).

 

Most software is still written with Intel hardware in mind... so for AMD to have such a small 'disadvantage' tells me that if the compilers were more AMD 'friendly', we might be seeing different scores.
I also wonder why reviewers don't address this when they are reviewing hardware.

Anyway, both Ryzen and Ryzen+ have been highly disruptive to Intel... especially in the data center.

 

If they use Ryzen specific optimizations then I wonder what the performance will be!

 

I am more amused by the fact that those YT clickbait whores... I mean "content creators" don't touch on more practical aspects (compared to "compute" stuff), like video encoding/decoding. For example, there exists a popular video surveillance software called "Blue Iris" which is pretty inexpensive and unlike many NVRs from companies like Dahua or Hikvision it supports a vast amount of video cameras with extensive customizations. It supports hardware video encoding and decoding using Intel QuickSync and Nvidia's NVENC. Let's say you got into situation where you already saturated your Intel CPU with existing cameras and need to add more cameras without buying another PC. Easiest and cheapest way would be to buy something like this 1650 card for your existing PC running Blue Iris to use its hardware video encoding/decoding. Of course, one might say it would be better to buy an old GTX 1050 which would cost slightly cheaper, however according to Nvidia's specs the hardware encoder/decoder on 1650 can do more, so it would be interesting to see the actual difference between those cards when using Blue Iris or other video surveillance programs which support Nvidia's hardware encoding/decoding in order to determine which card would actually be better.

Unfortunately lazy, greedy YT clickbait content creators just post a few generic "3D Marks" results and few results from games (some of which are irrelevant to some gamers and will be more irrelevant after some time will pass) and do not touch any of such more practical aspects not related to gaming. This is one of the reasons I always use YT Ad blocking even on my smartphone and just blacklist most of such lazy YT clickbaiters after watching a single video ;-)

 

Not sure, but it appears that Linux seems to extract more performance out of Ryzen than Windows does.

 

Linux uses Full generic and no optimisation. Yes, Ryzen runs faster on Linux than Windows.

 

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-volta-nvenc,39161.html

 

I am aware of this fact, however it is irrelevant. I was talking about practical results with specific programs, which can vary based on particular way the encoder/decoder is implemented by the software developer and which are impossible to "approximate" until you actually test the hardware with these specific programs ;-) This is why I said these garbage videos aren't very useful for people who do not circlejerk over 3DMark or Fortnite results whole day ;-)

 

AMD’s 50th Anniversary Celebration - Livestream Link
With Lisa Su + Papermaster
Submitted 7 hours ago by Hifihedgehog
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bjjld5/amds_50th_anniversary_celebration_livestream_link/

Live Replay Link - 40 minutes - (fill out form contact info to see video)
https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/advskx8g

Lisa Su‏ Verified account @LisaSu
So fun ringing the opening bell this morning @Nasdaq celebrating @AMD’s 50th anniversary!! Thanks to all of our employees, partners, and fans on this special day for the entire @AMD family!!

https://twitter.com/LisaSu/status/1123589679729840129


What a beauty
Submitted 2 hours ago by WHOSYOURMAMA147
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bjmqjo/what_a_beauty/

mx5klein Vega Whisperer 3 points 2 hours ago
"Fedex needs to hurry up and get mine to me."

WHOSYOURMAMA147[ S] 2 points 2 hours ago
"I was surprised how fast mine got here"

"Everything pictured and a code for a free AMD t-shirt"

"I got mine from AMDs website (us)"

 

Amazon AWS Offers Another AMD EPYC-Powered Instance: T3a
by Anton Shilov on May 1, 2019 1:00 PM EST
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14284/amazon-offers-another-amd-epyc-powered-instance-t3a

"Amazon Web Services has further expanded its usage of AMD EPYC-based machines for its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances. Last week the company started to offer its new EPYC-powered T3a instances, which enable customers to balance their instance mix based on cost and the amount of throughput they require at a given moment.

AWS’s T3a instances offer burstable performance and are intended for workloads that have low sustained throughput needs, but experience temporary spikes in usage. Amazon says that users of T3a get an assured baseline amount of processing power and can scale it up “to full core performance” when they need more for as long as necessary.

T3a instances are offered in seven sizes in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland), US East (Ohio), and Asia Pacific (Singapore) Regions in On-Demand, Spot, and Reserved Instance form. The specifications look as follows:

This is Amazon’s third announcement of AMD EPYC-powered instances. Previously AWS started to offer M5, R5, M5ad, and R5ad instances based on AMD’s latest server processors."

Amazon AWS Offers Another AMD EPYC-Powered Instance: T3a
Submitted 6 hours ago by JC713
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bjk0qv/amazon_aws_offers_another_amd_epycpowered/

backyardprospector 3 points 2 hours ago
"Are the costs the same when using AMD vs intel instances or is it just what is available in that region/location zone?"

captainant 3 points an hour ago
"The AMD instances are about 10% cheaper than the Intel instances. Assuming AMD is in the region(s) you have workloads in, you can run either instance type no problem. It's just another instance type you can choose to deploy from"

 

Alphacool Eiswolf 240 GPX Pro AMD Radeon VII M01 - Black
https://www.alphacool.com/detail/index/sArticle/24597



Radeon 7 Eiswolf now available alphacool.com
Submitted 2 hours ago by thrakkath
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/bjti7y/radeon_7_eiswolf_now_available/

thrakkath 2 points 2 hours ago
"I was previously told 6-8 weeks by alphacool support. Good news for anyone looking for better cooling on their Radeon 7 who can't afford custom loop!"

TRIPTEXKL AMD 2 points 42 minutes ago
"It's not, this is the AIO GPX for the RVII. Its a passive aluminum sandwich with the pump block combo bolted on. I have this in the 240mm version on my V64 and I usually dont break 45c while pulling 280w for hours at a time."

 

Updates on game bundle + 50th Anniversary products:

AMD 50th Anniversary Gold Edition Products and Free* Games
https://www.amd.com/en/gaming/game-bundle

AMD Radeon™ VII Gold Edition
Get the AMD Radeon ™ VII Gold Edition graphics card with red shroud, as well as 2 FREE* games, a Lisa Su signature sticker, and a free** AMD 50th Anniversary T-Shirt. AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME.

AMD RYZEN™ 7 2700X Gold Edition
Get the AMD Ryzen™ 7 2700X Gold Edition processor, signed by Lisa Su, as well as 2 FREE* games, a Lisa Su signature sticker, and a free** AMD 50th Anniversary T-Shirt. AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME.

 

Replying to Comments: GTX 1650, It's Better than RX 570 because of... Power, Power & Power
Hardware Unboxed
Published on Apr 29, 2019