AMD - Zen chitchat

[Xlucine]

Have I missed something, or has AMD decided to take a break from making cards until they release vega? Looking around, I can't find a 580 or 570 in stock anywhere

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How are Biostar's generally? I was going to buy a Gigabyte B350 Gaming 3 but that Biostar one seems like a good deal

Their AMD motherboards generally have been solid but more basic affairs.

Have I missed something, or has AMD decided to take a break from making cards until they release vega? Looking around, I can't find a 580 or 570 in stock anywhere

https://www.reuters.com/article/amd-...-idUSL1N1J3179

[scaryjim]

How are Biostar's generally? ...

I've used a few Biostar board - both Intel and AMD - and never had any issues with them. As CAT says, they tend to be a little more basic, but they're a good budget option.

[qasdfdsaq]

https://www.reuters.com/article/amd-...-idUSL1N1J3179

Shares of Advanced Micro Devices surged nearly 9 percent on Tuesday boosted by strong demand for its chips from cryptocurrency miners, leaving short sellers at a loss for the year.

And were down nearly 5% on Friday. Why can I never bring myself to sell my AMD shares when they're high -_-

[scaryjim]

And were down nearly 5% on Friday. Why can I never bring myself to sell my AMD shares when they're high -_-

Historically AMD shares are still reasonably high. I'm kicking myself for not buying any back in either 2009 or 2016 when they were around $2 and I knew that was massively underpriced...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is the first time I have seen a modern set of graphics cards with low profile,single slot blower coolers:

https://www.techpowerup.com/234270/a...r-workstations

[scaryjim]

I suspect there's a reason for that - looking at the back plates there isn't much space for airflow, and a small blower fan trying to shove air through a small vent is going to be loud, and probably not hugely effective.

The types of computer that service the workstation and enthusiast markets are really very different. It's interesting that they've gone for active cooling at all IMNSHO - many professional cards go with passive cooling and trust to the workstation/server airflow to dump all the heat out of the case.

[Spreadie]

I'm returning my Ryzen setup - I thought it was a problem with the board, but the chap on the phone at Scan said he was going to raise the RMA for both CPU and board - he didn't say as much, but I wonder if there is an deeper issue, because he was quick to say it could be the chip.

I can't remember the last time I had a bad CPU, but I think it was back in the 486 days.

Here's hoping the replacements are OK. In the meantime, I shall be rocking my 2500K rig.

[DanceswithUnix]

The types of computer that service the workstation and enthusiast markets are really very different. It's interesting that they've gone for active cooling at all IMNSHO - many professional cards go with passive cooling and trust to the workstation/server airflow to dump all the heat out of the case.

Active cooling isn't that unusual IME, but workstation cards are generally underclocked compared to consumer cards to keep them running cool and reliable in a market that expects to just plug the card in and use it for three to five years without any grief. That does allow the volts to come down too, so much less heat, and I think we have already seen that this generation has some pretty sweet characteristics for this sort of use where you can drop a lot of heat and only sacrifice a bit of performance.

Wouldn't this form factor be ideal for mining? Cram tons of cards into a single box.

[scaryjim]

... That does allow the volts to come down too, so much less heat, and I think we have already seen that this generation has some pretty sweet characteristics for this sort of use where you can drop a lot of heat and only sacrifice a bit of performance. ...

Yeah, isn't there a workstation card that's essentially an underclocked RX 470 with a TDP of 75W? I was a little surprised that we didn't see something like that released to consumers, although I guess it might have had to be priced out of the market (a bit like the Nano). Hopefully Vega will see the return of lower TDP versions of the top end cards.

... Wouldn't this form factor be ideal for mining? Cram tons of cards into a single box.

Pretty much, yep. IIRC there were a number of 8800GT single slot cards which were much sought-after by folders for large GPU folding farms. WOuldn't even need to be low profile for that, either - just lots of single slot cards. I suspect workstation cards are way too expensive to be worth the outlay for mining, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the "new" AMD mining cards were downclocked single-slot headless cards - if they're savvy they could harvest the lowest bin Polaris 10 and 20 dies, go for ~ 1536 working cores @ ~ 900 MHz to hit a 75W TDP, and I bet they could still charge £200+ for them as headless mining cards...

[DanceswithUnix]

I suspect workstation cards are way too expensive to be worth the outlay for mining, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the "new" AMD mining cards were downclocked single-slot headless cards - if they're savvy they could harvest the lowest bin Polaris 10 and 20 dies, go for ~ 1536 working cores @ ~ 900 MHz to hit a 75W TDP, and I bet they could still charge £200+ for them as headless mining cards...

if they could get down to that sort of TDP, perhaps they could include a PCIe switch on card and put two GPU chips on there for improved density.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm returning my Ryzen setup - I thought it was a problem with the board, but the chap on the phone at Scan said he was going to raise the RMA for both CPU and board - he didn't say as much, but I wonder if there is an deeper issue, because he was quick to say it could be the chip.

I can't remember the last time I had a bad CPU, but I think it was back in the 486 days.

Here's hoping the replacements are OK. In the meantime, I shall be rocking my 2500K rig.

What was the problem??

Mate has an R5 1600 and a MSI Tomahawk with Adata Z1 RAM which has been AMD certified and it's been fine so far - I think most of the issues have been due to the RAM when I have looked on forums.

[Spreadie]

What was the problem??

Mate has an R5 1600 and a MSI Tomahawk with Adata Z1 RAM which has been AMD certified and it's been fine so far - I think most of the issues have been due to the RAM when I have looked on forums.

It won't accept an overclock and won't even run the RAM at it's stock settings - every time it was rebooted it'd return to defaults.

I know Ryzen is picky about RAM - I had a 32GB kit that was great in my Skylake rig but did not behave at all well with Ryzen. I chose this RAM from the motherboard's QVL list to remove any doubt.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It won't accept an overclock and won't even run the RAM at it's stock settings - every time it was rebooted it'd return to defaults.

I know Ryzen is picky about RAM - I had a 32GB kit that was great in my Skylake rig but did not behave at all well with Ryzen. I chose this RAM from the motherboard's QVL list to remove any doubt.

Its certified to run fine at the max supported rate set by AMD which is 2667MHZ - the Adata Z1 set is 3000MHZ,but so far it seems to run at 2667MHZ but he didn't do fiddling around with the BIOS AFAIK,but the recent AGESA update which should help things is still in the process of being implemented in final BIOSes - some companies have released BETA BIOSes,but I tend to be wary of using them if I can avoid it.

Even if you look at the QVL lists it usually states tested at 2667MHZ for example just like with the B350 Tomahawk:

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/supp...#support-mem-2

The only RAM sticks which consistently do over 3000MHZ are those which are single ranked and use Samsung B-die chips:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-review...14d-16gfx.html

Look at my comments in the thread - there is a programme called Thaiphoon Burner which should say what chips your set uses,etc.

[Spreadie]

Yeah, I know about the AGESA update - it was the first thing I did. Let me clarify - if I set the RAM to run at anything above the BIOS default, it reverts back to that default speed at the next reboot.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Yeah, I know about the AGESA update - it was the first thing I did. Let me clarify - if I set the RAM to run at anything above the BIOS default, it reverts back to that default speed at the next reboot.

That is weird - the MSI Tomahawk and another ASRock board a mate used could run the RAM fine at 2667MHZ - something is not right there,but I have noticed the Tomahawk seems to get more updated final and BETA BIOSes than the other boards.

What was the BIOS default?? 2667MHZ or 2133MHZ?? What RAM set is it you used??

I looked at the BETA BIOS updates for the board:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?t...510#msg1615510

The only one which might have had the AGESA update was released yesterday - the previous one is too old.