New details on ZEN3 has surfaced, in specific the professional series EPYC based on Milan architecture. ZEN3 based processors in many forms will find their way to many platforms of course, but based on leaked information, AMD will deliver yet another breakthrough in the server segment with its third-generation EPYC family of processors.
According to a report from Andreas Schilling who bases this on an internal slide from an OEM, AMD Zen 3 Core architecture has increased IPC performance by 15%, that value we already have heard many times. And 15% IPC in processor land, is a lot. However, there is a certain range of SKUs within the EPYC Milan line that would offer even higher performance. AMD is taking a different approach with EPYC Milan CPUs, segmenting all 64 cores for compute-intensive workloads on a lower frequency and then 32 cores with maximizing clock frequency performance.
ZEN3 might seem to be based off ZEN2, it however is a different processor in the sense that the structure of the Core Compute Die (CCD) and thus the Core Compute Complex (CCX) differs. The current CCDs each consist of two CCX clusters in which the L3 cache is divided into two 16 MB. For Zen 3 it looks different now as the L3 cache for ZEN3 will be 32 MB. The number of cores with eight per CCD is identical, but the CCX clusters in its preceding form no longer exist.
| Naples | Rome | Milan | Genoa | |
| Platform | SP3 | SP3 | SP3 | SP5 |
| Cores | 32x Zen | 64x Zen 2 | 64x Zen 3 | > 64x Zen 4 |
| CCD / L3 cache | 8 cores per CCD 2x 16 MB L3 cache |
8 cores per CCD 2x 16 MB L3 cache |
8 cores per CCD 1x 32 MB L3 cache |
- |
| Node | 14 nm | 7 nm | 7 nm | 5 nm |
| RAM | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR5 |
| PCIe | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 4.0 | PCIe 5.0 |
| TDP Watt | 120~180 | 120~225 | 120~225 | 120~240W |
The new slides also list some performance values and these mention an IPC performance increase of +15% for integer workloads. For EPYC processors with up to 32 cores, AMD wants to achieve a performance increase of +20% compared to the Rome processors with Zen 2 cores. Single-treaded performance should increase by +20%. For the larger EPYC processors with up to 64 cores, AMD expects a performance increase of around 10 to 15%. AMD would be able to achieve a higher clock rate for processors with fewer cores. For Milan, AMD is concentrating on improving the performance of the individual cores.
The desktop version of Zen 3 codename is Vermeer, and would be released later this year or early next year. And yeah, after Milan .. Geonoa with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, that's an indicator where AMD is headed, with desktop processors as well of course.
AMD ZEN3 for EPYC Milan Processors to gain 20% performance
