I think by this time, we all know what Intel and AMD have done during the Computex week. Intel rushed their announcement of the X299 platform and it seems like a sorry excuse to launch something because the spotlight is shining on AMD now. During Computex 2017 AMD announcements, there were a few other things that were missed out initially. Here, I’ll highlight them.
In the high-end desktop (HEDT) scene, we all know Threadripper is real and it has 64 PCIe lanes directly from the CPU itself – which is insane, if you think about it. A simple math equation can show you what these PCIe lanes are capable of doing. A single graphics card will take up 16 lanes, and 4 of them will occupy all 64 lanes outright. However, if you’re not running 4 graphics cards, you can have PCIe NVMe SSDs that take up 4 PCIe lanes only, like the Plextor series of SSDs or the Kingston KC1000, or any other NVMe SSDs. Sacrificing two cores for this insane amount of PCIe lanes sound like a good tradeoff, actually.
When it comes to market domination, AMD has specified a few other things – Ryzen Momentum and Ryzen Mobile in particular.
Ryzen Momentum
Ryzen Momentum is the initiative to get top global PC OEMs like Acer, ASUS, HP, Dell, and Lenovo to have Ryzen-based systems available in the market by the end of Q2 2017. These systems are expected to be powered by Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs. This market is currently flooded with Intel-only systems, which is what AMD is trying to change.
Ryzen Mobile
Then comes the next point – Ryzen Mobile. There are no dates given by AMD as of now, but we all know that AMD’s Ryzen Mobile platform will be coming soon. During Computex 2017, AMD demoed a Ryzen mobile APU in an ultraportable reference design that that has 4 cores and 8 threads with Vega graphics. That laptop is less than 15mm thin. Wow.
Also, you didn’t read it wrongly. It’s a Ryzen Mobile APU. With integratd graphics. According to what AMD has shown, it has an on-die Vega-based graphics processor. I can’t wait to play Overwatch in 1080p with AMD Ryzen Mobile’s integrated graphics!
Ryzen Threadripper and Radeon Vega Demo
I have to say – Threadripper is a much better name than anything that AMD has come up with. It’s a nice play on words, signifying that AMD’s new HEDT platform will have lots of threads while having an edgy name.
Threadripper demoed Prey gameplay at 4K resolution with the upcoming Radeon RX Vega graphic cards – but here’s where people got it wrong. Even Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group, stepped in to correct it. AMD only used two Radeon RX Vega graphic cards to run Prey at 4K during their demo.
The only demo that AMD used 4 graphics card was for Blender with ProRender, where they paired a Threadripper CPU with 4 Radeon Vega Frontier Edition cards.
Launch dates?
We don’t have any launch dates for Ryzen-related stuff here, but AMD did provide dates for their EPYC server CPUs and Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. As for the Radeon RX Vega, we’ll have to wait even longer.
- AMD EPYC server CPUs – June 20, 2017
- Radeon Vega Frontier Edition – June 27, 2017
- Radeon RX Vega – Siggraph 2017
Personally speaking, I’m looking forward to Ryzen on mobile. Getting a total of 8 cores and 16 threads on a laptop? Damn, I thought this would even be possible at this point in time.
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