By Jimmy Thang on Jul 31, 2017 08:00 am
AMD held a press event in Los Angeles, California this weekend to detail its upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphics cards and Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. We learned a bunch of new things about AMD's new high-performance CPUs and are going to outline five things you need to know about them.
SKUs
We already knew that there will be two SKUs: the 1950X, 1920X. We learned that there will be a third lower SKU, the 1900X. They will all use a new sTR4 socket and will require an x399 chipset-compatible motherboard. AMD tells us that there will be motherboards from Asrock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI at launch. All three SKUs represent high-end CPUs that are geared towards enthusiasts like developers, prosumers, and multitasking gamers who stream and run multiple applications at once.
Specs
We've outlined the specs for the three AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs below: | | 1950X | 1920X | 1900X | Cores | 16 | 12 | 8 | Threads | 32 | 24 | 16 | PCIe lanes | 64 | 64 | 64 | Base clock | 3.4GHz | 3.5GHz | 3.8GHz | Boost clock | 4GHz | 4GHz | 4GHz | TDP | 180w | 180w | 180w |
The 1950X CPU is going to be the first 16-core processor to hit the consumer desktop market. All of the CPUs support quad-channel memory configurations, carry a 180w TDP, and are unlocked (meaning they are overclockable). With the 1900X, AMD says that the 8-core CPU will be able to boost up to 4.2GHz, provided the processor has adequate cooling.
Price
Here are the prices for the three Threadripper CPUs: 1950x: $999 1920x: $799 1900x: $549
If all you need are strictly gaming CPUs, these processors are not for you. Threadripper is designed for streamers or users who game and like to run multiple compute-heavy workloads at the same time. All SKUs come with a torque wrench, which you will need to install the processors, and a cooling bracket, which is required to install a closed-loop liquid cooler.
Performance
AMD claims that its 16-core $999 1950X runs 38 percent faster than Intel's similarly-priced 10-core i9 7900X CPU in the Cinebench nT benchmark. AMD also claims that its $799 12-core 1920X processor is 11 percent faster than 7900X in the same test. The company is pitching Threadripper as the "ultimate multi-tasking machine" and that it will allow you to do things like play games and render 3D graphics at the same time. AMD also asserts that its 1950X is up to 29 percent more power efficient than Intel's i9 7900X CPU in multi-threaded workloads.
Threadripper Release Date
AMD's 1950X and 1920X Threadripper CPUs are set to launch August 10th. You can pre-order those processors starting July 31. The 8-core 1900X is set to release on August 31.
By Jimmy Thang on Jul 31, 2017 08:00 am
AMD Radeon RX Vega SKUs
AMD invited us to a press event in Los Angeles, California and revealed detailed information and specs on its Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and highly-anticipated RX Vega graphics cards. We're going to boil down what we learned and what you need to know. SKUs The first thing to know is that AMD is rolling out multiple RX Vega graphics cards that will use the company's new Vega architecture, which supplants Polaris. The top tier SKU is called Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled. As you can imagine, it's a liquid-cooled GPU. The next SKU is the Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition, which is an air-cooled variant that comes in a limited edition metal shroud. Beyond that there is the RX Vega 64, which uses a standard reference chassis and cooling solution. The most affordable option is the RX Vega 56. We'll explain what the 64 and 56 numbers represent in the next slide on specs.
AMD RX Vega Specs
AMD released the following specs on all three RX Vega cards: | | RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled | RX Vega 64 | RX Vega 56 | Compute Units | 64 | 64 | 56 | Stream Processors | 4096 | 4096 | 3584 | Core Clock | 1406MHz | 1247MHz | 1156MHz | Boost Clock | 1677MHz | 1546MHz | 1471MHz | VRAM | 8GB HBM2 | 8GB HBM2 | 8GB HBM2 | Teraflops | 13.7 | 12.66 | 10.5 | TDP | 350W | 290W | 210W | Manufacturing Process | 14nm FinFet | 14nm FinFet | 14nm FinFet | Architecture | Vega | Vega | Vega |
RX Vega 64 is named as such because it has 64 compute units. As you can imagine, RX Vega 56 offers 56 compute units. The higher-clocked liquid-cooled version is a 13.7 teraflop graphics card. The air-cooled version is a 12.66 teraflop GPU, and the Vega 56 is a 10.5 teraflop solution. AMD mostly focused on the specs of its air-cooled RX Vega 64 SKU. We learned that it's a card with 12.5 billion transistors, has 256 texture units, and uses 8GB of second-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2). This makes it capable of delivering 484GB/s of memory bandwidth with a 2048-bit memory bus width. The card also has 4MB of L2 cache. AMD asserts that the card's extremely fast memory and high-bandwidth cache controller will allow developers to create larger game worlds. The company also touts that the GPU features a more complete DirectX 12 integration. RX Vega 64 features 12.5 billion 14nm transistors and uses 45MB of SRAM across the GPU. While the air-cooled RX Vega 64 features a 1546MHz boost clock, AMD says that the card is designed to run at higher frequencies, and should be able to reach 1.7GHz or higher. Here are the thermal design power (TDP) ratings of the three cards: As you can see from the TDP numbers above, these are very power-hungry cards.
RX Vega Performance
In terms of performance, AMD asserts that RX Vega 64 is competitive with Nvidia's $549 GeForce GTX 1080. The company conducted several gaming benchmarks on the GTX 1080, and across all tests its frame rate fluctuated between 45 FPS and 78 FPS. The air-cooled RX Vega 64, running the same tests, showed a minimum FPS of 53 and a maximum FPS of 76. While the maximum FPS is two frames lower, the minimum frame rate is eight frames higher. AMD also asserts that RX Vega 64 will be able to run over 100 modern games at 4K 60FPS or better. In addition, the company says that the Radeon RX Vega 56 will be competitive with the GTX 1070.
Design
We had a chance to take a look at the Limited Edition RX Vega 64. It features an illuminated logo, isothermic vapor chamber, 30mm fan, and a metal chassis with a brushed finish. The card requires two 8-pin power connectors and features four ports: three DisplayPort and one HDMI. The Liquid Cooled variant sports a similar body, but has a 120mm radiator and fan attached to it.
Price
The standard air-cooled version of AMD's RX Vega 64 will launch at $499. This is $50 less than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080. AMD will release its Vega 56 SKU for $399, which makes it the same price as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1070. AMD has also announced several bundles, which include two free games (Prey 2 and Wolfenstein II), a $100 discount on a Ryzen 7 CPU, and a $200 discount on a Samsung ultra-wide monitor. The bundle packs are outlined below: Radeon AquaPack with RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled for $699 Radeon Black Pack with RX Vega 64 Air Cooled for $599 Radeon Red Pack with RX Vega 56 for $499.
The only way to get the liquid-cooled card is to pay for the $699 pack, which includes the two aforementioned games and discounts.
Release Date
AMD didn't give a specific date, but said you should expect to see the card on store shelves this August.
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