Zen 2 on B350 motherboard?

E

Engr62

Gawd
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Mar 24, 2015
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I know AMD has committed to the AM4 socket until 2020, but what is the likelyhood that a Zen 2 (3000 or whatever) will perform reasonably well on a B350 motherboard? I skipped Zen + in hopes of upgrading my mini-ITX build from an 1800X to Zen 2.
 
When you say reasonably well, you talking about possible overclocking on the board or more or less running a CPU stock? I would guess that makes a difference.
 
The nice thing about Zen+, and I assume Zen 2 will be the same, is that unless you're crushing some encoding 24/7 or something similar, there really isn't much reason to OC. PB2 is extremely effective at boosting the clocks on its own. Go take a look at Kyle's 2700x review. He came to the same conclusion.

With that in mind, I don't see why a B350 board wouldn't be fine running Zen 2. As long as you're not trying to put crazy volts through it, it should be able to run the AM4 standards with no problem. The catch is going to be whether or not your B350 board gets a BIOS update to run the new CPUs, imo. I'm not too familiar with how much support the lower end boards get.

Edit: This is assuming you buy the X model (ie 3700x or whatever the end up calling it).
 
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bpizzle1 said:
The nice thing about Zen+, and I assume Zen 2 will be the same, is that unless you're crushing some encoding 24/7 or something similar, there really isn't much reason to OC. PB2 is extremely effective at boosting the clocks on its own. Go take a look at Kyle's 2700x review. He came to the same conclusion.

With that in mind, I don't see why a B350 board wouldn't be fine running Zen 2. As long as you're not trying to put crazy volts through it, it should be able to run the AM4 standards with no problem. The catch is going to be whether or not your B350 board gets a BIOS update to run the new CPUs, imo. I'm not too familiar with how much support the lower end boards get.
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Coming from a 2700x user with a x470 board, you really don't need to OC. The work involved is not worth the possibility of extra performance. PB2 does a fine job.
 
Well, as you could see, there will be ONLY 8/16t on chip from AMD on Zen 2. Looks like they made it for 2 chiplets aka 16c, but finally decided to go for 1 chiplet aka 8 core or less. Could be a production problem, a price problem, an incapacity on the I/O chip design that brought AMD to that limitation. And at best, a summer launch.
Very bad for AMD, and very good for Intel. Intel is prepping a 10 core part. So those deciding to go for AMD on a new PC, because of Zen 2 16 core, should rethink. Maybe Intel is better worth it.
Some people could make the Z170 mainboard work with their Intel 9000 series with a modified BIOS. All thses taken into account, AMD AM4 and Zen is not at it's advantage anymore.
 
Jandor said:
Well, as you could see, there will be ONLY 8/16t on chip from AMD on Zen 2. Looks like they made it for 2 chiplets aka 16c, but finally decided to go for 1 chiplet aka 8 core or less. Could be a production problem, a price problem, an incapacity on the I/O chip design that brought AMD to that limitation. And at best, a summer launch.
Very bad for AMD, and very good for Intel. Intel is prepping a 10 core part. So those deciding to go for AMD on a new PC, because of Zen 2 16 core, should rethink. Maybe Intel is better worth it.
Some people could make the Z170 mainboard work with their Intel 9000 series with a modified BIOS. All thses taken into account, AMD AM4 and Zen is not at it's advantage anymore.
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Or AMD does not want to tip their hand regarding 16 cores on the desktop...

There is space for either another 8 core chiplet, or for a Navi chiplet for a Zen 2 APU...
 
Jandor said:
Well, as you could see, there will be ONLY 8/16t on chip from AMD on Zen 2. Looks like they made it for 2 chiplets aka 16c, but finally decided to go for 1 chiplet aka 8 core or less. Could be a production problem, a price problem, an incapacity on the I/O chip design that brought AMD to that limitation. And at best, a summer launch.
Very bad for AMD, and very good for Intel. Intel is prepping a 10 core part. So those deciding to go for AMD on a new PC, because of Zen 2 16 core, should rethink. Maybe Intel is better worth it.
Some people could make the Z170 mainboard work with their Intel 9000 series with a modified BIOS. All thses taken into account, AMD AM4 and Zen is not at it's advantage anymore.
Click to expand...
Nah. Definitely would say that's jumping to conclusions. No Ryzen Zen 2 products were officially announced at CES.

When they actually announce their entire lineup of SKUs, we will have a better idea. Your conjecture is as valid as someone who believes there will be a 16 core part. We won't know which is true until the official announcement is made.
 
Jandor said:
Well, as you could see, there will be ONLY 8/16t on chip from AMD on Zen 2. Looks like they made it for 2 chiplets aka 16c, but finally decided to go for 1 chiplet aka 8 core or less. Could be a production problem, a price problem, an incapacity on the I/O chip design that brought AMD to that limitation. And at best, a summer launch.
Very bad for AMD, and very good for Intel. Intel is prepping a 10 core part. So those deciding to go for AMD on a new PC, because of Zen 2 16 core, should rethink. Maybe Intel is better worth it.
Some people could make the Z170 mainboard work with their Intel 9000 series with a modified BIOS. All thses taken into account, AMD AM4 and Zen is not at it's advantage anymore.
Click to expand...


Lolwut
 
Engr62 said:
I know AMD has committed to the AM4 socket until 2020, but what is the likelyhood that a Zen 2 (3000 or whatever) will perform reasonably well on a B350 motherboard? I skipped Zen + in hopes of upgrading my mini-ITX build from an 1800X to Zen 2.
Click to expand...

can b350 support it the answer is yes, but it'll come down motherboard manufactures updating bios for it.. Steve at gamers nexus has a video talking about 400 series support where there might be some issues with boards using PLX chips feeding pci-e slots properly that will need to be updated but says that there should be no issues as far as converting pcie 4.0 to 3.0 from the cpu on 400 series boards which should be the same for 300 series. power usage based on the demo amd did with the 8c/16t part VRM limitations should be even less of an issue for b350/b450 boards with zen 2 6c/8c parts.
 
Jandor said:
Well, as you could see, there will be ONLY 8/16t on chip from AMD on Zen 2. Looks like they made it for 2 chiplets aka 16c, but finally decided to go for 1 chiplet aka 8 core or less. Could be a production problem, a price problem, an incapacity on the I/O chip design that brought AMD to that limitation. And at best, a summer launch.
Very bad for AMD, and very good for Intel. Intel is prepping a 10 core part. So those deciding to go for AMD on a new PC, because of Zen 2 16 core, should rethink. Maybe Intel is better worth it.
Some people could make the Z170 mainboard work with their Intel 9000 series with a modified BIOS. All thses taken into account, AMD AM4 and Zen is not at it's advantage anymore.
Click to expand...

Nope, Lisa already indicated there will be more than 8c on ryzen 3xxx. They basically showed an R5.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3332205/amd/amd-ceo-lisa-su-interview-ryzen-raytracing-radeon.html

“Some people may have noticed on the package some extra room,” she said with a chuckle. “There is some extra room on that package and I think you might expect we will have more than eight cores.”
 
I find it a little unusual that the chiplet was not centered (not so optimal for cooling / heatsink pressure). However it does look like there will at some time be a 2 chiplet design.
 
AMD has hinted at putting things other than cores in chiplet packages. I suspect you would see 7nm GPU silicon sitting in that unused space for their APUs. As for pressute balance, the announcement is still pretty early yet. They could also put a hunk of blank silicon there for IHS support purposes ala Threadripper v1.
 
cyberguyz said:
AMD has hinted at putting things other than cores in chiplet packages. I suspect you would see 7nm GPU silicon sitting in that unused space for their APUs. As for pressute balance, the announcement is still pretty early yet. They could also put a hunk of blank silicon there for IHS support purposes ala Threadripper v1.
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im going to go with amd can bolt on w/e 7nm chiplet with a if link it likes. be it an amd creation or not it adds more custom options for clients. ex need an ai chiplet or an accelerator chiplet toss an if link on it and put it on die
 
cyberguyz said:
AMD has hinted at putting things other than cores in chiplet packages. I suspect you would see 7nm GPU silicon sitting in that unused space for their APUs. As for pressute balance, the announcement is still pretty early yet. They could also put a hunk of blank silicon there for IHS support purposes ala Threadripper v1.
Click to expand...
Wonder if the cost of 7nm chip will keep them from bothering with the blank. The ihs on am4 isn't as big as tr so maybe the larger 14nm chip is enough to support it or the ihs is just more ridgid than tr4 on its own.

Also agree with you maxius. Chiplets for both sides opens tons of possibility for custom processors. Things should get real interesting to see what they come up with.
 
I have the Asrock Ab350 Pro4 and am wondering if it will run the 3700/3700x(12 core). I believe it's only has 9 phase VRM.

It should run the 8 core no problem since it already can run one now.
 
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