Further Tech and Closing
AMD has also implemented a reliability tracker that optimizes performance over the potential lifetime of a chip. A chip when in use does not physically remain static. It eventually starts to break down when higher speeds and voltages are applied. AMD appears to have implemented a “Lifetime Reliability Goal” for an individual product (think a MTBF) and maximizes the clockspeeds and voltages applied to each individual chip. AMD is able to then keep the clocks high as the filtering mechanism keeps track of potential errors and adjusts the characteristics of that individual die as needed.
Skin Temperature Aware Power Management is again not new, but we are seeing this in use more and more with mobile devices. It is able to adjust very quickly the boost of the CPU and GPU in various workloads so that the Tskin value never goes above max and burns the person holding the device. By dynamically adjust clockspeeds and voltage at a very high rate, longer boost times can be implemented without it getting too hot.
Boot Time Power Supply Calibration is a new one for me. Apparently at boot the system measures multiple voltage points to determine the state of transistor health in the APU vs. the power supply’s health and output. It is able to entirely remove the DC guardband (think of it as a safety net of higher power to insure that the APU will function correctly under load) as well as lower the other traditional guardbands. This allows the voltage control to be more tightly regulated and aggressively lower voltages per chip for reduced power across the board.
In Closing
When we put all of these things together (incremental process enhancement, power and boost technologies developed by AMD) we see a significant boost from year to year with essentially the same design from AMD. While we are well away from the days of the incremental speed refreshes that we were used to with the Athlon 64 or Phenom II chips, the new Bristol Ridge APUs provide some solid improvements over the previous Carrizo parts. AMD has also expanded the lineup to fit in as many form factors and markets as possible. The 15 and 35 watt parts should be able to power a wide variety of laptops and convertibles at multiple price points.
Carrizo was an interesting part and Bristol Ridge has improved upon nearly every aspect. GPU speeds and boost clocks will allow faster gaming in titles that will run well on APUs. CPU enhancements will keep productivity apps running in a snappy manner. Video playback will bring the most advanced codecs to the table while cutting down on power consumption allowing for greater battery life and cooler operation.
While some were certainly hoping to see the AM4 versions of these chips be announced, we will have to be happy that AMD is aggressively chasing the back to school timeline by introducing these parts now. Pricing has not been announced, but we can imagine that it will undercut at every market what Intel is offering. AMD is trying to claw back marketshare in any way it can, and Bristol Ridge gives them another weapon against Intel in this very important market. While the market itself is growing slowly, the amount of marketshare that AMD could grab is tremendous. But that is what happens when a company only controls less than 18% of any one market.
From all indications, Bristol Ridge looks like a solid improvement over last year’s Carrizo. Intel has continued to release new parts to the market, but the differences from year to year with those products has not been great as of late. Haswell, Broadwell, and Skylake have been incrementally better, but AMD seems to have taken a bigger leap with BR over Carrizo as compared to say Skylake over Broadwell. We certainly want AMD to continue to survive, otherwise the CPU market will become very, very boring.
So if the model number ends
So if the model number ends in a 30, that’s the 35 watt part, no gimping OEMs please and some laptops with Dual channel DDR4 options also, are you there with that OEMs!!!
All Windows 10 and no Linux talk from AMD makes me very sad, but maybe there will be better support for Zen/Polaris in the Linux based laptop OEM market. I do not want to have only Intel/Nvidia as my only Linux OS OEM laptop choice with 2020 fast approaching! I really want to be WINTEL free on my next laptop, and maybe Nivida($$$$$) free also for my graphics options on the laptop SKU!
I just converted my Windows
I just converted my Windows 10 HTPC into a Linux HTPC and I’m fairly happy with how easily everything worked. Actually it was a lot easier to get my 10 year old media remote/IR receiver working in Linux than Windows where you have to mess around with AutoHotKey to get it to function properly. Going forward I’d love to get into Zen but they’re going to have to push Linux for me to buy in as I’m moving all my machines away from Windows in the upcoming year or two.
Zen has been supported in
Zen has been supported in some of the Linux kernels that were signed off this year, and it’s going to be well supported by the time it launches in Q4. The real issue is how much thought the board vendors put into supporting Linux with new drivers and proper platform power management.
Good to hear. I’m mostly
Good to hear. I’m mostly concerned with the igpu support working well both performance wise and feature wise as we move towards higher resolutions and things like hardware hevc support. I like to do light gaming on the TV but would rather not have a discreet gpu in the machine sucking power all day.
You wrote :
” disheartening
You wrote :
” disheartening is that it features only 12 PCI-E 3.0 lanes. This may be perfectly fine for the mobile market, but it will likely limit the AM4 platform to 8 usable lanes off of the APU (much like the current X4 845 on the FM2+ platform). ”
How will this affect? This is serious?
It depends on your usage. If
It depends on your usage. If you have this chip in a laptop the lower lane numbers won't affect you. If that laptop uses integrated graphics and a single M.2 connector for storage, it has plenty of lanes. If you have it on a motherboard with discrete graphics, then the PEG slot is going to eat 8 of those. If you somehow decide to do CrossFire… then you are limiting your graphics cards to 2 x 4X PCI-E. Plus, those 4 extra lanes will connect to the motherboard southbridge. So yeah, it could be a little limiting depending on the situation.
Oh, come on AMD. 6 more
Oh, come on AMD. 6 more months with DDR3 on the desktop? Really?
Single channel on the laptops? Really?
And unfortunately Anandtech has shown us that OEMs create laptops with AMD hardware, with specs and prices that wouldn’t upset Intel. So, as with the original Carrizo, we will probably don’t see enough models and those models will be targeting people who don’t know what excavator has to do with cpus.
It belongs to Small Form
It belongs to Small Form Factor not mobile. Wake up AMD!
Great, another year with
Great, another year with nothing to offer. So, we can go with intel and nshitia and forget about this company
Indeed. I should stop buying
Indeed. I should stop buying cr4ppy silicon from AMD and invest in good silicon from Intel for the next 10 years…
That is very stupid if they
That is very stupid if they are thinking of only supporting Windows 10 and not Linux! Mny people are ditching Windows and going to Linux because of Microcraps alliance with the Nazis!
Only problem I see is the
Only problem I see is the 2400 mhz memory limit. Hopefully it will be higher in desktop.