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FEATURED AMD ZEN Discussion (Previous Rumor Thread)

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There shouldn't be too much argument here on what processors go to what board.

We read that APU and Performance desktop chips will be on the same platform.

We also know that Opteron chips have been on the desktop market as well. My wife runs Opteron 1389 which happens to be AM3+ compatible but does not feature an APU. However it does have Opteron features such has EEC memory compatibility and different thermal trip and TDP ratings along with P-states and so forth.

So we "could" see an Opteron with 8 cores and iGPU on AM4 platform. Could just be an APU that met criteria to be that of an opteron, they just code this cpu differently. Cpu-z will read opteron vs APU and again, "could" feature iGPU. But there's no hard evidence of this yet.

As far as data centers go, blade servers don't have a need for iGPU. What good would it be to integrate this on a 4P server board? It wouldn't.

So we can safely say there "may" be Opterons with iGPU, but most likely will only be a 1P board and must be compatible in the CPU list for the bios of that board. So then you might see special boards strictly for 1P servers that have an use iGPU.

Certainly must define the term "server" and iGPU. I have a server at home. and has 2 sockets. The onbaord gpu is fine. It doesn't game. It simply shows file paths. iGPU of any kind from any modern server chip is way over kill. And it just doesn't make sense to have a 4P board with 4 iGPUs on it. it would be a waste of gpus and moneys to create such things.
 
Point missed.
Why would you not use a server chip with iGPU if it was cheaper than Intel and offered the same performance, even if you didn't use the iGPU?
 
I've tried to tell this guy that, but he seems to gloss over things that don't jive with his POV. ;)
 
@Shrimp

I've seen the desktop AM4 socket, its not too much different than the AM3+. Now for server I haven't seen, but if its following family history we will see a server socket.

The Opteron will be a 32 core max with GPU integration options. This is AMD's answer to Intel's FPGA based server cpus. The idea behind this is to enable Neural Network and similar vector/parallel style instructions to be ran on more preferred architectures. With this point I highly doubt that the server version of Zen will be available in AM4. Furthermore if we saw desktop opteron this would be way later in the portfolio release. Both Intel and AMD produce their lead platform CPU, and than create other CPUs based on the bad batches. Its not financially possible to create a bunch of different CPU options based on core and frequency. Trickle down economics could learn a thing or two from CPU production.
 
Quick remark:

FPGA on server board is for bootup sequence. Nothing of note there.

SATA could actually be PCIE lanes.

6 chokes is typical for server side CPUs (even at 200W)
 
No. Zen isn't PCIe4... that isn't out yet and won't be with Zen. They are finally jumping to PCIe3. The article also speculates its for the CPU considering what the CPU power lead next to it. ;)

However, many boards have either molex/SATA/PCIe power on the motherboard. The point there is to support multiple video cards. If the spec is 300W, I wonder where that power comes from... 24 pin?
 
The 300w PCIE4 spec ended up being incorrect, it is still a 75w slot.
 
PCI-E connections on the motherboard?

Could this be PCI-E 4.0 power connectors to power up the PCI-E slots to the new spec?

Looks like they're both PCI-E power connectors to me, or they would have different colored shrouds to differentiate. I think the EPS12v connectors are the black shroud on the opposite side of each CPU from those PCI-E power connectors. Why each CPU has 8- and 6-pin PCI-E power? :shrug:

EDIT: The 8-pin black is definitely PCI-E, and the 8-pin clear is definitely EPS12v. The 6-pin clear is definitely NOT PCI-E, though. It has square post holes where PCI-E 6-pin posts should have filled/cut corners. Anybody know what it might actually be?
 
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The caption on that picture is wrong, they're both PCI-E power connectors, hence the white shroud. The EPS12v connectors (black shroud) are on the opposite side of each CPU from those PCI-E power connectors. Why each CPU has 8- and 6-pin PCI-E power? :shrug:

Could be just because it's a pre-release board maybe?
 
The 300w PCIE4 spec ended up being incorrect, it is still a 75w slot.

Got a link i can read about that on? Or do you mean the 300w spec was for the external cabling thats being talked about with pci-e 4.0?

No. Zen isn't PCIe4... that isn't out yet and won't be with Zen. They are finally jumping to PCIe3. The article also speculates its for the CPU considering what the CPU power lead next to it. ;)

However, many boards have either molex/SATA/PCIe power on the motherboard. The point there is to support multiple video cards. If the spec is 300W, I wonder where that power comes from... 24 pin?

There was an edit or something i saw where they mentioned that it could be an 8pin PCI-E power. But if they are only moving to PCI-E 3.0, then none of this talk matters i guess.
 
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