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The Industry Challenging AM4 Platform

james_prior
Staff
Staff
2 0 10.7K

As we approach the introduction of the first processors in the Ryzen™ Desktop “2000” processor series (consisting of the Ryzen™ Desktop processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics and the 2nd Generation Ryzen™ CPUs), we wanted to highlight the fantastic work AMD and our motherboard partners have done to deliver on the promise of a long-term, scalable, high-performance platform used in Desktops based on the AMD Socket AM4.

Nearly one year ago, AMD launched the industry-changing Ryzen™ desktop series of processors, introducing the new Socket AM4 platform. With advanced I/O features and performance, the platform was warmly received especially as more form factors were introduced. As we closed out 2017, over 120 different motherboard models were available for Socket AM4, including mini-ITX for high performance 8-core small form factor builds, and commercial designs supporting DASH for remote manageability in business.

Innovation

The rapid pace of innovation at AMD means that while we were launching Ryzen™ desktop processors, we also introduced new Ryzen™ Mobile processors with Radeon™ Vega graphics featuring the world’s fastest processor for ultrathin and light notebooks5. A new version of this SoC will now be available for the desktop market, harnessing the fantastic power of Radeon™ Vega graphics within the processor, and delivering unprecedented levels of integrated graphics performance to the 30%1 of desktop buyers who require the best integrated graphics capabilities possible.

AMD has been a leader in the market for desktop processor graphics capabilities since the launching the first AMD A-series processors, and the first processors with Radeon™ Graphics were added to the Socket AM4 platform in July 2017 when AMD launched the desktop 7th Generation A-series processors. In conjunction with that launch, firmware updates (known as BIOS), enabled new and additional features and capabilities, seamlessly integrated into motherboards already available in market.

The Benefits of Platform Compatibility

As it was last year with our 7th Generation A-series processors, the path for compatibility with the new Ryzen™ Desktop processors with Radeon™ Graphics is also updated firmware. And in fact, now, as then, many of the motherboards available on sale today are compatible with new Ryzen™ Desktop with Radeon™ Graphics processors without requiring any update – a testament to the benefits of the scalable platform approach that AMD has taken with Socket AM4.

This approach offers impressive performance and features, intended to deliver value at the price point for the end consumer. This can be seen in the reduced costs of upgraded as it does not require any change in platform to enable new processors. Rather, as we’ve already seen just recently, the AMD approach means the Socket AM4 platform is future-ready, with initial launch day motherboards compatible by firmware update to Ryzen™ desktop processors with Radeon graphics launched a year later.

The benefit to AMD is that this gives the new Ryzen™ desktop processors with Radeon graphics a stable, mature, broad ecosystem of platforms, with buyers of all form factors and use cases simply and easily able to enjoy great gaming, content creation, productivity, or media experiences, powered by Ryzen™ processors.

The 2nd Generation Ryzen Desktop Processor

In 2018, AMD plans to introduce the Ryzen™ Desktop “2000 series” processors. This will be delivered by two different SoCs, first launching the Ryzen™ 5 2400G and Ryzen™ 3 2200G on February 12th. These new Ryzen processors include powerful Radeon™ Vega graphics inside – the most powerful processor graphics seen in the desktop market3 to date, at ~2TFLOPS2 of compute in the 65W Ryzen™ 5 2400G. With native modern media capabilities, including support for encoding and decoding H265 media at UltraHD resolution4, the new Ryzen™ desktop processors with Radeon™ graphics are perfect for powering the family PC, modern business desktop, or sleek tiny gaming PC under the TV.

Footnotes:

1 - According to Jon Peddie Research (JPR), 30% of all desktop computers do not ship with a discrete graphics card. https://www.jonpeddie.com/press-releases/add-in-board-market-increased-in-q317-from-last-quarter-and...

2 – Theoretical FLOPS rate based on FP32 capabilities of Ryzen™ 5 2400G; 1.76TFLOPS GPU + 0.231 CPU = 1.99, which is approximately 2TFLOPS

3 – Testing by AMD Performance labs as of 12/08/2017 for the Ryzen 5 2400G, and 09/04/2015 for the Core i7-5775c on the following systems. PC manufacturers may vary configurations yielding different results. Results may vary based on driver versions used.  System Configs:  All systems equipped with Samsung 850 PRO 512GB SSD, Windows 10 RS2 operating system. Socket AM4 System: Ryzen 52400G processor, 16B (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2667 RAM, Graphics Driver 1710181048-17.40-171018a-319170E 23.20.768.0 :: 12/08/2017. Socket LGA1150 System: Core i7-5775c processor, 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1867 MHz RAM, graphics driver 10.18.15.4256:: 09/04/2015 3DMark 11 Performance benchmark used to represent graphics power. The following processors achieved the following scores in 3DMark 11 ‘performance’ benchmark v1.0.132.0: The Ryzen 5 2400G: 5042.  Also in v1.0.132.0, .The Core i7-5775c, the Intel desktop processor with the highest Intel desktop graphics performance, achieved 3094. RZG-01

4 – HEVC (H.265), H.264, and VP9 acceleration are subject to and not operable without inclusion/installation of compatible HEVC players.  GD-81

5 - “Processor for ultrathin notebooks” defined as 15W nominal processor TDP. Based on testing of the AMD Ryzen™ 7 2700U, AMD Ryzen™ 5 2500U, and Core i7-8550U mobile processors as of 10/6/2017 Performance based on Cinebench R15 nT and 3DMark® TimeSpy in order of AMD 2700U, AMD 2500U and Intel 8550U. Cinebench R15 nT results: 660.5, 606.5, 498.2; 3DMark TimeSpy results: 978, 865, 350. 50:50 CPU:GPU weighted relative performance with i7 baseline: Intel i7-8650U = (498.2/498.2*.5) + (350/350*.5) = 100%; AMD Ryzen 5 2500U = (606.5/498.2*.5) + (865/350*.5) = 184%; AMD Ryzen 7 2700U = (660.5/498.2*.5) + (978/350*.5) = 206% RVM-26