AMD has announced several new EPYC CPUs during a virtual event. In the first quarter of 2022, ‘Milan-X’ will be available, a variant of the existing Zen 3-based processors with 3D V-Cache. AMD also released the first details about the future Zen 4 CPUs.
3D EPYC Generation Refresh with 3D V-Cache
After AMD announced that Facebook parent company Meta will also use EPYC CPUs in its data centers, the processor designer first revealed the processors that use the 3D V-Cache shown earlier this year. It is a new version of the existing third-generation EPYC CPUs based on Zen 3 cores, but with 64MB 3D V-Cache literally on top of the already existing 32MB L3 cache of each chiplet. In total there will be four EPYC models with 3D V-Cache, each using eight chiplets. This gives the chips a total of 768MB L3 cache each.
Because the architecture and form factor of the processors has not changed, the new CPUs are compatible with existing servers and motherboards for the third generation EPYC chips. However, a bios update is required to use the new variants. According to AMD, the huge L3 cache leads to a performance gain of up to fifty percent in specific workloads. The company cited the applications Ansys Fluent 2021.1, Ansys CFX 2021.R2, and Altair Radioss 2021 as examples. These are all three software packages that simulate several physical models simultaneously.
| Fashion model | cores/threads | Clock speed | boost clock | Tdp | L3 cache |
| EPYC 7773X | 64C/128T | 2.20GHz | 3.50GHz | 280W | 768MB |
| EPYC 7573X | 32C/64T | 2.80GHz | 3.60GHz | 280W | 768MB |
| EPYC 7473X | 24C/48T | 2.80GHz | 3.70GHz | 240W | 768MB |
| EPYC 7373X | 16C/32T | 3.05GHz | 3.80GHz | 240W | 768MB |
Fourth Generation EPYC Comes With Two Types of Zen 4 Cores
In addition to the announcement of the 3D V-Cache CPUs, AMD also announced the arrival of the next generation EPYC chips. Genoa will be the direct successor to Milan and will receive a maximum of 96 Zen 4 cores, another half more than the current maximum of 64 cores. The processors will be produced on TSMC’s 5nm node and will support both DDR5 and PCI Express 5.0. The CXL interconnect will also be supported, after AMD joined the consortium behind that standard in 2019. The Genoa CPUs will hit the market in 2022.
Bergamo is also part of the fourth generation of EPYC CPUs and will use the same socket as Genoa. However, this processor uses an all-new core called Zen 4c, which are optimized for cloud computing. This is a more compact and more economical version of the regular Zen 4 cores, allowing AMD to put up to 128 in a processor. Bergamo is on the roadmap for the first half of 2023.
Whether AMD also plans to combine the normal Zen 4 cores and the more economical Zen 4c cores in one product, as Intel first did with its Alder Lake CPUs, the manufacturer has not yet announced.