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AMD announces Zen 2 design is 'complete', Zen+ now 'sampling' and more

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More processor news today, as AMD has released a fair bit of information from their plans including Zen 2 and Zen+. Firstly, they've announced a price-cut for existing Ryzen processors, although that does depend on what store you go with. I've checked a few UK stores today and their prices have not yet been adjusted.

AMD has confirmed that the Zen CPU core (known as Ryzen) is moving to 12nm with samples now shipping. They are planning to launch these Zen+ 12nm CPUs in April of this year and they confirmed they will be clocked higher and come with "Precision Boost 2". Since this is only a refresh, there shouldn't be massive differences other than AMD tweaking the design to get the most out of it. AMD confirmed Zen+ will continue to use the AM4 socket, but they will also launch the X470 chipset optimized for Zen+.

Moving onto Zen 2, this 7nm design is now "complete", although they aren't giving out a date for that yet. Most likely launching next year, it's quite surprising that they've finalised it so quickly, it seems AMD are firmly back on top-form with their processors now so it's going to be a fun two years for AMD fans.

A little further out, but Zen 3 using 7nm+ is currently planned to be release in 2020, although very little information is available on that.

They will be releasing the Ryzen 5 2400G (4 cores, 8 threads) and Ryzen 3 2200G (4 cores, 4 threads) APUs which will both come with Radeon RX Vega graphics. These should be launching February 12th this year along with mobile processors that will also come with Vega graphics.

Also, AMD will be releasing Radeon Vega Mobile GPU through this year, which will be primarily aimed at ultra-thin notebooks.

See more details here.

Fun fact: Some of the press slides I was sent, had a picture of the Ataribox in it.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: AMD, Hardware
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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25 comments
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Eike Jan 8, 2018
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Quoting: SamsaiObviously cache was a mistake.

Everything beyond 80386 was...! :D
Shmerl Jan 8, 2018
I'm more interested in when refresh of desktop Vega GPUs is coming. It's clearly needed to make AMD competitive again.


Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2018 at 4:21 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: ShmerlI'm more interested in when refresh of desktop Vega GPUs is coming. It's clearly needed to make AMD competitive again.
None of the press slides I was sent even hinted at a refresh of Vega.
Shmerl Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: liamdaweNone of the press slides I was sent even hinted at a refresh of Vega.

Yep, and that's a concern.
Trump Jan 8, 2018
Wonder if zen2 will use the same socket or if we will have to buy new mobo...guess i should read it and see what it says :/
Shmerl Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: TrumpWonder if zen2 will use the same socket or if we will have to buy new mobo

It should use the same socket, but motherboards obviously would need firmware updates.
omer666 Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: liamdaweNone of the press slides I was sent even hinted at a refresh of Vega.

Yep, and that's a concern.

I thought they were rather supposed to unveil Navi sometime soon... aren't they?


Last edited by omer666 on 8 January 2018 at 8:31 pm UTC
razing32 Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: Samsai[
Overall I think this is a point where CPU engineers need to start thinking in terms of "smart" and not purely in the terms of "fast". And if it can't be made smart then make it simple so that you know what the CPU is doing and what it's capable of doing.

Quoteknow what the CPU is doing

Well , off-topic , but I saw a great BlackHat presentation.
Basically some of the code is an enigma to what it will do.

View video on youtube.com


Last edited by razing32 on 8 January 2018 at 8:33 pm UTC
Shmerl Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: omer666I thought they were rather supposed to unveil Navi sometime soon... aren't they?

Navi is planned, but it won't come out until 2019 probably. Too long of a wait for those who were disappointed with bad initial Vega release (too expensive / too power hungry). I.e. it would mean basically another year without proper competition with high end Nvidia. Not a good situation. So I think Vega refresh should be coming in H1 2018.


Last edited by Shmerl on 8 January 2018 at 8:41 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Jan 8, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: omer666I thought they were rather supposed to unveil Navi sometime soon... aren't they?

Navi is planned, but it won't come out until 2019 probably. Too long of a wait for those who were disappointed with bad initial Vega release (too expensive / too power hungry). I.e. it would mean basically another year without proper competition with high end Nvidia. Not a good situation. So I think Vega refresh should be coming in H1 2018.
Well, they have announced a version of Vega made with 7nm made for "machine learning", perhaps using some work towards the refresh?

Edit: Appears I missed a slide, Vega is specifically mentioned as going to 7nm before Vega, but they don't give a date:

This was in the CEO presentation slides, not the Radeon slides...go figure.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 8 January 2018 at 11:24 pm UTC
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