The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Review: 3700X and 3900X Raising The Bar
by Andrei Frumusanu & Gavin Bonshor on July 7, 2019 9:00 AM ESTSection by Gavin Bonshor
X570 Motherboards: PCIe 4.0 For Everybody
One of the biggest additions to AMD's AM4 socket is the introduction of the PCIe 4.0 interface. The new generation of X570 motherboards marks the first consumer motherboard chipset to feature PCIe 4.0 natively, which looks to offer users looking for even faster storage, and potentially better bandwidth for next-generation graphics cards over previous iterations of the current GPU architecture. We know that the Zen 2 processors have implemented the new TSMC 7nm manufacturing process with double the L3 cache compared with Zen 1. This new centrally focused IO chiplet is there regardless of the core count and uses the Infinity Fabric interconnect; the AMD X570 chipset uses four PCIe 4.0 lanes to uplink and downlink to the CPU IO die.
Looking at a direct comparison between AMD's AM4 X series chipsets, the X570 chipset adds PCIe 4.0 lanes over the previous X470 and X370's reliance on PCIe 3.0. A big plus point to the new X570 chipset is more support for USB 3.1 Gen2 with AMD allowing motherboard manufacturers to play with 12 flexible PCIe 4.0 lanes and implement features how they wish. This includes 8 x PCIe 4.0 lanes, with two blocks of PCIe 4.0 x4 to play with which vendors can add SATA, PCIe 4.0 x1 slots, and even support for 3 x PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 slots.
AMD X570, X470 and X370 Chipset Comparison | |||
Feature | X570 | X470 | X370 |
PCIe Interface (to peripherals) | 4.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
Max PCH PCIe Lanes | 24 | 24 | 24 |
USB 3.1 Gen2 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
Max USB 3.1 (Gen2/Gen1) | 8/4 | 2/6 | 2/6 |
DDR4 Support | 3200 | 2933 | 2667 |
Max SATA Ports | 8 | 8 | 8 |
PCIe GPU Config | x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x8* |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
x16 x8/x8 x8/x8/x4 |
Memory Channels (Dual) | 2/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
Integrated 802.11ac WiFi MAC | N | N | N |
Chipset TDP | 11W | 4.8W | 6.8W |
Overclocking Support | Y | Y | Y |
XFR2/PB2 Support | Y | Y | N |
One of the biggest changes in the chipset is within its architecture. The X570 chipset is the first Ryzen chipset to be manufactured and designed in-house by AMD, with some helping ASMedia IP blocks, whereas previously with the X470 and X370 chipsets, ASMedia directly developed and produced it using a 55nm process. While going from X370 at 6.8 W TDP at maximum load, X470 was improved upon in terms of power consumption to a lower TDP of 4.8 W. For X570, this has increased massively to an 11 W TDP which causes most vendors to now require small active cooling of the new chip.
Another major change due to the increased power consumption of the X570 chipset when compared to X470 and X370 is the cooling required. All but one of the launched product stack features an actively cooled chipset heatsink which is needed due to the increased power draw when using PCIe 4.0 due to the more complex implementation requirements over PCIe 3.0. While it is expected AMD will work on improving the TDP on future generations when using PCIe 4.0, it's forced manufacturers to implement more premium and more effective ways of keeping componentry on X570 cooler.
This also stretches to the power delivery, as AMD announced that a 16-core desktop Ryzen 3950X processor is set to launch later on in the year, meaning motherboard manufacturers needed to implement the new power deliveries on the new X570 boards with requirements of the high-end chip in mind, with better heatsinks capable of keeping the 105 W TDP processors efficient.
Memory support has also been improved with a seemingly better IMC on the Ryzen 3000 line-up when compared against the Ryzen 2000 and 1000 series of processors. Some motherboard vendors are advertising speeds of up to DDR4-4400 which until X570, was unheard of. X570 also marks a jump up to DDR4-3200 up from DDR4-2933 on X470, and DDR4-2667 on X370. As we investigated in our Ryzen 7 Memory Scaling piece back in 2017, we found out that the Infinity Fabric Interconnect scales well with frequency, and it is something that we will be analyzing once we get the launch of X570 out of the way, and potentially allow motherboard vendors to work on their infant firmware for AMD's new 7nm silicon.
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Korguz - Monday, July 8, 2019 - link
phynaz, whats wrong ?? the fact that the security vulnerabilities like specter and meltdown only affect INTEL, and not amd ??to quote the article from here : https://www.anandtech.com/show/14525/amd-zen-2-mic... " Another aspect to Zen 2 is AMD’s approach to heightened security requirements of modern processors. As has been reported, a good number of the recent array of side channel exploits do not affect AMD processors, primarily because of how AMD manages its TLB buffers that have always required additional security checks before most of this became an issue. Nonetheless, for the issues to which AMD is vulnerable, it has implemented a full hardware-based security platform for them "
but dont let that allow you to think other wise.. cause obviously.. you will continue to post your BS about this...
Maxiking - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
My dear AMD friend, Intel HT works unlike that advertised 4.6ghz. You would need liquid nitrogen to reach it.That 5ghz 28 core on a chiller doesn't look so bad now, hah? Karma is free.
Oxford Guy - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
"Intel HT works"It works to undermine your security, since it is a fundamentally insecure design that can only apparently be remedied by disabling it entirely. Don't take my word for it, take the word of experts like the OpenBSD team, Apple engineers, etc.
Maxiking - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
True, I will decide to trust Apple on this, they do not offer any AMD cpus so they obviously know what they are doing.Also, the HT security problems you keep talking about applies only to certain workloads, like hw virtualization etc. It requires tasks being run 24/7 for a longer period of time, without restarting and the direct access to a machine. So not my case, but thanks for the heads up, I appreciate you care and makes my heart feel warm and fuzzy.
Korguz - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
Maxiking you obviously have NO idea how the intel security issues work, or how they were fixed, or the performance hit you HAVE to take in order to use them. " they do not offer any AMD cpus so they obviously know what they are doing. " or because intel is giving them a kick as deal to use them, or more then likely.. amd didnt have any cpus at the time that met their performance goalsXylade - Monday, July 8, 2019 - link
Another pathetic replyPhynaz - Monday, July 8, 2019 - link
That’s a real winner you’ve posted yourself.RSAUser - Monday, July 8, 2019 - link
Boost is single core, not all core. Same as Intel.You, that number person and P. just seem to be trolling.
You could have mentioned actual things that Intel is better at, e.g. (had to think hard) workloads that are L2 intensive like stock market algorithms depending on how you write it.
Xylade - Monday, July 8, 2019 - link
Hahahaha. Ur post shows how much of a re-tard you are.Micha81 - Sunday, July 7, 2019 - link
Any chance to benchmark Dwarf Fortress, including the impact of different memory speeds ?