In just a few days, we’ll be celebrating the one-year anniversary of AMD’s 4th Generation EPYC CPU lineup in the market. AMD’s Zen 4 based 9000 series, codenamed “Genoa,” ushered in next-level, benchmark-crushing performance, thanks, in part, to the series flagship 96-core EPYC 9654.
Though Zen 4 holds the performance crown in AMD’s lineup of high-performance processors, as does its subsequent addition of 3D die stacked and Zen 4c core options to the lineup with Genoa-X, the older Zen 3 series still attracts users seeking value over sheer power.
Fueled by rapid innovation in AI, the demand for cost-effective and proven mainstream solutions in the mid-market and channel is growing rapidly. To help meet that demand, AMD announced it will be extending its 3rd Gen AMD EPYC lineup with six new CPUs, enabling a wider array of broadly deployed server solutions with impressive performance, energy efficiency, and modern security features at an attractive price point.
Originally launched in March of 2021, AMD’s Zen 3-based EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Milan,” still offers compelling performance even in 2023, though it doesn’t support some of the latest technologies like DDR5 memory. The EPYC 7003 series supports up to 64 cores, eight channels of DDR4 memory, up to 128 lanes of PCIe Gen 4, and up to 768MB of L3 cache on its die-stacked processors. TDP ranges from 120W to 280W, depending on clock speed and core count.
“We have seen a clear opportunity to give our customers more options that bring the leadership performance and efficiency of EPYC to less technically demanding but still business-critical workloads,” said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager of AMD’s Server Business Unit. “Servers powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC CPUs deliver impressive price-performance on widely deployed, cost-effective and proven mainstream technologies.”
The new offerings consist of a new 8-core and 16-core SKU in both 1P and 1P/2P options, as well as a new 1P option for the 48-core 7643 and 56-core 7663. These SKUs will be available through 2026, according to AMD.
AMD said there is considerable value to be had from upgrading older infrastructure, even if it isn’t to the latest and greatest technologies like the Zen 4-based EPYC processors. In fact, there is a real cost to “doing nothing,” AMD insisted.
In the provided example comparing 4+ year-old infrastructure (using the 12-core Skylake era Xeon Gold 5118 and the 64-core EPYC 7763), significant savings could be realized from infrastructure consolidation, power savings, and administrative overhead. AMD said its analysis considered hardware deprecation, vSphere support costs, and licensing.
The full lineup of 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors, including the six new SKUs, is available today and is fully compatible with existing AMD EPYC 7003 Series systems.
