COMPUTEX 2024 has happened, and we’ve had a few announcements, first and foremost being AMD’s 9000 Ryzen series presentation. The top-line facts are straightforward: spec generally stays the same across the majority. However, it’s moving to TSMC’s N4 4nm (maybe 5nm) process, and combining that with lowering latency, TDP, and increasing the bandwidth between the L1 and L2 memory cache, the CCD, and other pipelines.
That’s impressive, as it’s given AMD a 16 percent IPC performance boost, without increasing voltages or CCDs. Interestingly, that means we haven’t seen an expanded core count on the mainstream chips this generation, either, making this the fourth one in a row where core count has been somewhat stagnant. No doubt this is to retain Threadripper’s workstation and big data dominance, but given how efficient these chips are, it’s a shame we’ve not seen an extra eight cores. Ryzen 9 9990X with 24 cores and 48 threads at 5.5 GHz, anyone?
It wouldn’t be Computex 2024 without every brand sliding the word ‘AI’ into their presentations, and the 9000 series is no exception, generating 20 percent more in AI Acceleration. It’ll also deliver twice as much bandwidth via PCIe 5.0 when GPUs and SSDs of that caliber are used in tandem, although those workloads aren’t what we expect to see on desktop processors.
With such dominant performance available for high-end desktops, is there room for a Xeon or Threadripper outside of pure CPU performance? If so, would you be better off running multiple systems instead of one giant multi-core high-latency rig?
Regardless of theoretical build conundrums, AMD’s 9000 series looks exciting. Combine that with AMD supporting AM4 until 2027, and a bevy of new 5000 series processors, and the next few months should be interesting indeed.