AMD might not release a hexacore Ryzen
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xrodney
Earlier AMD was selling 3 core CPUs where 1 core was disabled.
It could be possible to do same with Ryzen, but unless you mentioned to cut 2 from 4 cores in one module, it most likely have to be done symmetrically ie cut one core in each module.
I guess we will see later on If AMD will harvest faulty chips in such way.
sverek
4 or 8 cores seems like reasonable to me. Now bring good performance.
Quad core should be standard this days, especially coupled with SSD.
Kaarme
Games will suffer if IPC isn't high enough, so a 6 core would have helped them with that. But of course if a model with 8 cores without HT but with high clocks is cheap enough, it doesn't matter. It wouldn't help them sell really expensive (profitable) luxury models, though, if there's no significant difference compared to cheaper models.
Stormyandcold
Notice the shifting of dates, now this article is saying March (instead of February).
fantaskarsef
hehe... so much for the core-savvy AMD platforms of the past still releasing a quad core, when everybody complains about the age of quad cores and how it should end soon.
It all comes down to IPC, clocks, and most important, pricing to see if Ryzen is a win or lose for AMD. And if we finally see games make use of more than four cores.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Not really. I've already indicated in my news posts that the motherboard manufacturers need some more time due to BIOS related matters. Ryzen is on track from what I heard. I still expect the product announcements late February with availability likely in early March.
IcE
It has to do with how the wafers are being manufactured and the way the chip is designed. Faulty chips aren't going to be binned like traditional chips were. Or at least that's the rumor. It makes sense though, if one core is defective, it might cause that whole side of the chip to be non functional.
fantaskarsef
I didn't know that. If so, that can produce a lot of defective chips... isn't it stupid to design a chip that way, instead of maybe laser cutting it afterwards and sell as a hexacore, for instance?
Inolvidable
On the bright side, if the design of the chip does not allow 6 core processors, the 8 core ones must be price competitive or Ryzen is as good as dead.
In a best case scenario, the 4c/8t Ryzen would be as good as the 7700 4c/8t IPC-wise. In a more reasonable scenario the IPC of the 4c/8t Ryzen would be behind their Intel counterpart to some degree. So they must be very very price competitive in the old and boring 4c/8t segment for people to jump on a new platform. The reliability of Kaby-Lake is something that plays in Intel favour.
In this scenario i can see AMD aiming their 8c/8t Ryzen against the Kaby-Lake 4c/8t with a similar price, slightly less IPC but much more overall multithread performance.
I am enjoyng this Ryzen mistery so far. They have to disclosure in late february though or the excitement will begin to turn into exasperation.
Stormyandcold
Cheers HH.
Re: This rumour, the fact you posted this suggests to me that this lack of 6-cores (due to the 4+4 design) could be a reality?
Any inside info to share?
chispy
So it looks like only 4 cores no HT and 4c 8t with HT ,+ 8 cores no HT and 8c 16t with HT might be what Ryzen brings.
I'm just eagerly awaiting some real leaks and true information on single tread ipc performance compared against what Intel have right now on the table ( specifically performance in games not just synthetics benchmarks that are multithreaded ) , DDR4 performance as well since we do not know anything about that as well , and lastly Raid0 performance numbers on their sata 6 controller chipset , NVMe performance as well.
Lots of questions that i would like to see answers before i can make a well informed decision before i decide if i go the Intel route or AMD Ryzen. Not too long before we see this information out there , i am trying to keep calm @ the waiting game :infinity:
schmidtbag
I find it very hard to believe AMD is dumb enough to design a chip where if 1 core is faulty (from manufacturing), it brings down 3 others with it. The relatively high probability of manufacturing imperfections would make mistakes seriously costly.
Prototypes of this CPU already work just fine, so motherboard manufacturers should not be struggling this long to figure out how to make a proper EFI/BIOS. Considering the functionality of the module system, it wouldn't surprise me if the reason they need more time is because of dealing with one or two disabled cores in a module. If the modules are anything like the kinds in Bulldozer-Excavator, they're supposed to work together to some degree. I'm sure it gets really complicated when any of the 4 cores of any combination could get disabled, where the BIOS maybe has to figure out which one is still usable and compensate for that.
Anyway, if they don't sell any 6-cores, an 8 core without HT sounds good to me.
Enticles
If they do decide to abandon the 6c/6t or 6c/12t cpus it wouldn't be the end of the world. the only people who definitively need more than 4c/8t are prosumers or content creators... and those people would almost definitely go to the 8c/16t model Ryzen instead. for the average user 4c/8t or 8c/8t CPU's will be more than adequate for quite some time to come.
the logic of not making a 6c/6t or 6c/12t is not unreasonable, at least in my opinion
nz3777
Man by the time they release this so-called Zen I wont need a new computer anymore but rather a WALKER! Jesus christ that's all I can say Amd, yet another month set-back! Take some notes from Intel why dont you?
Raider0001
I was hoping for 6c 12t cheap as pie with cheap mobo but if they will push out 8c 8t model for the same amount I will still consider upgrading... but im targeting at a core that is just a bit faster than what I have already because I do not want to sacrifice performance in games I already play which are not heavy multi-core, so yeah, it needs to be all around a better product.
nz3777
The more Time goes bye the less ( Ryzen ) will make an impact.That's my opinion.In a more down to earth saying Intel has them by the Balls! haha.
I was also hoping for a nice 6/12 cpu with decent performance and $ but that looks to be a pipe dream at this point in time.
Enticles
I would disagree with the "Intel having them by the balls" statement as to why it is being delayed by a month.
However, I would not be surprised if Intel has been sandbagging for the last 4+ years with their micro-architectural upgrades / refreshes, and have a real haymaker up their sleeve in anticipation of a good and competitive CPU coming from AMD.
If Ryzen is within 5% of Skylake IPC clock-for-clock then that can be considered a win in the AMD camp, their next hurdle is making sure the pricing is in line with consumer expectations. Their reputation of being cheap and cheerful because of an inability to compete in the past will prevent them from charging the same prices as intel, even if the CPU's perform approximately the same.
Regardless of how late Ryzen gets released, it is nothing but good news for all consumers that AMD gets back on the same level as Intel.
Denial
Their reputation actually hurts them more than most people here realize. Read Anandtech's article AMD's market problem. Page 7 and 10 - although all of it is good.
Even when they do have good products, they basically can't get them into any decent laptops because most consumers see them as a "budget" option and avoid it. AMD lacks the influence over the OEMs to fix it and I'm sure they don't have enough in marketing to do it either. So basically not only does Zen have to be good, but they have to continue to stay competitive for a few generations if they want any real penetration and mindshare change.
The good news is that AMD seems to understand that. Zen already looks really good and AMD is already confident enough to kind of show the road ahead with Zen+ and stuff. The other good news for AMD is Microsoft's Windows on ARM. Intel is facing threats from both AMD and Qualcomm/ARM.
Going to be interesting to see how it all turns out 5 years down the line.
PrMinisterGR
Isn't AMD already doing something in the ARM space too? Wasn't there supposed to be two "Zen" designs, one for x86 and one for ARM?
schmidtbag
Sort of, but the ARM designs have nothing to do with Zen (they couldn't really, Zen is specifically an x86 architecture). There's the Opteron A series, but they have postponed that. They also had plans on doing a hybrid x86-ARM of some sorts but that seems to be even farther away.
