AMD Ryzen - HEDT Type R... For The Rest Of Us?

Confessional
This write-up is admittedly a really rushed job, the CPU sample was late, the mobo sample was even later... but more importantly, almost everything is now here and what a revelation Ryzen is!

Updates should come along as other test components arrive... video card and thus gaming benches are yet to be finalised, soon hopefully. :)


PC World photo coverage of the official launch Feb 22, 2017, AMD CEO Lisa Su... the face of exceeding joy and accomplishment.

You can also watch the official AMD video if you can have the time and patience.

AMD Type R... Ryzen!

All hail AMD... think they have really done it this time.

After years of selling budget middling CPUs, AMD have now gone straight for the throat firmly targeting the performance desktop market, just wow!

For those unfamiliar with the Battle Royale of AMD vs Intel, many would think the world of Intel and dismiss AMD as  a poor 2nd choice or a has been. For the past decade and more, Intel has beaten AMD decisively at desktop CPUs so much so that AMD is nearly forgotten for many.


Now finally, a brand new AMD 8 cores 16 threads HEDT* CPU for way less... AMD have gone high end performance with low end pricing - AMD Ryzen is here. (* HEDT definition)

Everything is so hush hush and secretive that sample AMD Ryzen was delivered to me in a little non-descript green box.

And the really beautiful sample Asus mobo also came without any serial markings, i/o plate or most accessories along with dire warnings about NDAs and VX baby oils, gulp!

Do note that this sample chip is an earlier Engineering Sample stepping 1 which has been superseded by newer improved steppings and is thus not identical to the retail chip. This hurried preview is definitely not definitive, serving more as an introduction to Ryzen.

And after tiresome years of being served non-metal thermal interface material beneath the IHS by Intel.. see what TIM is given to Ryzen as demonstrated by der8auer. At the prices charged, did it beat around the bush and go cheap like the competition? Not!

* Type R cos it is powerful, fast and just as important, affordable ie. definitely not exorbitantly priced like you know who...

Test Setup

AMD ES Ryzen 7 1700x | Asus ROG CHVI Mobo | 2 x 4GB Kingston Predator DDR4-3000@2933 |
Crucial MX300 SSD | WD Black HDD | Antec Kuhler 920 | Corsair HX850 | Win 10 x64 Anniversary

Open air caseless, SG ambient 27C

PS: Present GPU installed is just a place holder, one tired old Radeon HD6670 waiting to be swapped out for something more modern. Ryzen 7 chips do not have any iGPU.

Notes

• Time constraints meant running the ES Ryzen at stock clocks - it idles at 1.3GHz (0.4V) and boosts to 3.9GHz (1.55V, wah!) due to XFR (Extended Frequency Range) working well on the Asus.
• Time constraints also meant non optimized voltages applied and inadequate breaking in of thermal grease consequently affecting temperatures reported
• XFR boosted voltage of 1.55V can be reduced using a negative offset.
• Presently only Asus models accommodates your current AM3 coolers since Asus specifically provides AM3 plus AM4 mounting holes.
• DDR4-2933 C16 seems to run stable enough in benching but cold starts may happen, needs more tweaking... DDR4-2666 C14 is more forgiving and seems just as fast at lower voltages. Asus advises using 2 DIMMs and slots A2/B2 for higher RAM clocks.
• Watt meter says 30W at idle, 75W running Fritz Chess Benchmark.
• Photos and more sharing of the Asus Crosshair VI used are scheduled to come later. Oh yeah, the mobo is great to tinker with too!

Asus proposes this guide to choosing a Ryzen motherboard
Which motherboard for Ryzen?

Benches

Added just a couple of sample runs at DDR4-2666 to see the significance, if any.

CPU-Z

Straightaway, we see the problem but it is definitely not AMD's though. This shouldn't be happening, at stock this 8 core budget chip is already killing the competition's 10 core HEDT prized cow.

DDR4-2933

DDR4-2666

Cinebench R15

Again, it is consistently fast... for both single and multicore crunching. Wow!


DDR4-2933

DDR4-2666

Passmark Bench

Not bad at all, actually beats 99% of PCs out there with its CPU score, what's there not to like?

Geekbench 4 CPU Bench

Great bang per buck results vs i7-6900K?

SuperPi 1M

The age old AMD bugbear abolished? Sure, looks like it.

Hyperpi 32M

Wonder if anyone's still playing with this bench nowadays?

WinRAR

This synthetic bench loves RAM bandwidth so while this dual channel CPU did very well, it could not overcome quad channel RAM results. Hardware.fr did some detailed investigating into this benchmark and 7Zip results, read it here - click for Google translated article!

7Zip

AIDA64 Bench

Latest version exhibits a caution about non optimized support due to the newness of the chip.

Fritz 9 Chess Benchmark

hwbot x265 Bench

Done at 1080p. Good time to note the low fan speeds and load temps too, totally silent running for now till the gaming card arrives, I guess. lol

HEVC Decoding Bench

Very impressive to say the least...

Finally, got hold of and installed the Asus Strix GTX1060 6GB card here 4/3/17.

Note that synthetic game benches do not always give the complete picture. Modern games with good threaded support and for those who multitask eg. game, record and stream simultaneously, will value the advantage gain from better multicore performance.

For simple pure gaming, the 8 cores 16 threads Ryzen 7 may be way overkill, consider either getting a fast quad or even better still, wait for Ryzen 5 & 3 (almost here?) before deciding. Online fps games involving up to 64 players like Battlefield 1 likely require much more crunching power than smaller games like Overwatch so overkill may ultimately be a matter of relativity.

And according to the latest Steam survey, the most common video resolution presently is still FHD ie. 1920 x 1080 so perhaps, just a few token synthetic gaming numbers done at FHD.

PS: would still advocate gamers to wait a little more for Ryzen 5 and 3, hopefully you can save some money towards a better video card.

3DMark Time Spy

Stock application setting, FHD

3DMark Fire Strike

Stock application setting, FHD. Note "Processor is not recognized" error.

Unigine Heaven

Stock application setting, FHD

More to come... ? Hesitating on deciding what else to run for a HEDT processor when more gaming oriented and budget friendlier Ryzen 5 & 3 series are incoming soon. :)

Daily Usage Monitoring

Not quite day to day usage having ran a few benches earlier too eg. Unigine Heaven, still good for a rough feel of the temps and voltages

Overclocking

Seems a very different kettle of fish altogether with this architecture, meanwhile let's defer to The Stilt for his most valued insights here

"When the "OC Mode" is activated the SMU will disable the voltage controllers, which among other things disables the automatic voltage offsets... Overclocking Ryzen, at least the higher-end models is kind of a double-edged sword. Due to how the Turbo / XFR operates in Zeppelin and the rather slim overclocking margins, the user might end up actually losing single core performance when the CPU is overclocked."


Useful info to bear in mind, lifted from the Asus Ryzen OC guide

Ryzen 7@ 3.85GHz

Overclocking can be done easily since all Ryzen processors are multiplier unlocked. Simply increasing multipliers and voltages tip Ryzen into OC overclocking mode which negates power saving voltage drops.

So if you want power savings while overclocking Ryzen, it' becomes a little more complicated than the usual push multiplier push vcore routine. This necessitates the setting of custom Pstates, hexidecimal numbers in a slightly off-limit BIOS option. but hey, it still works out great!

Vcore used here was not optimized but was more in keeping with the AMD recommended 1.35V for  minimising degradation, the minimum vcore offset and LLC were also used. At these very same voltages, running 3.9GHz became dicey as WHEA cache errors (more SOC next?) start creeping into hwinfo64 reports.

Official AMD Software - Tweaking & Overclocking

AMD Ryzen Master



Hopefully, with more time, maybe a few more gaming benches... provided the loaner test parts are still here and the test rig not dis-assembled. lol

Initial Impressions

Wow oh wow, after a decade+ in the doldrums...  this is a stunning AMD comeback!

Ryzen is simply a monster data cruncher with its much improved single core performance and with so many cores and threads available at very affordable prices, this is certainly a no brainer for power users hungry for more oomph. There's incredible cost performance from the 1700/x models. Do note that buying into the bleeding edge also means early teething issues like BIOS immaturity and incoming patches to both OS and software.

AMD fans, your loyalty has been rewarded. Recalcitrant non-believers still have to thank AMD and its fans for enduring the past decade and yes, thank them all for a much needed more competitive PC environment.

Advice - simply grab Ryzen while you can for a HEDT bargain, it is definitely going to fly off the shelves very quickly. Pure gamers can probably benefit from waiting for Ryzen 3 or 5 to save on some money towards a better gaming card.

AMD Recap

This is as good a time as any to recap the glory days when AMD was David vs Intel's Goliath, king of the desktop in case someone thinks this is just some once off fluke shot.

• 1st GigaHz desktop CPU (thanks AMD, for speed)
• 1st 64 bit desktop CPU (thanks AMD, for 64 bit and loads of usable RAM)
• 1st true dual core  desktop CPU (thanks AMD, for moar coars)

And now, many many thanks to AMD for creating Ryzen despite the arduous uphill situation faced over the last decade against competition >10x bigger and nastier too?



AMD - 2016 revenues of $4,272(m), http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/amd/revenue-eps
Intel - 2016 revenues of $59,387(m), http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/intc/revenue-eps

Good Reads

The Stilt's Ryzen: Strictly technical
elmor's ROG Crosshair VI series 
Asus ROG Forum - Crosshair VI



#Ryzen #Asus #Crosshair