AMD - Zen chitchat

[pp05]

I'm impressed the Ryzen 1200 is offering FX-8350 level performance

[Xlucine]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073Q4G661

The asus laptop with a full-fat ryzen chip (1700 or 1600) is available for sale. Looks to be quite well priced, the price-competitive laptops amazon brings up are all using the HQ mobile processors and 1060 6GB at best

[DanceswithUnix]

I'm impressed the Ryzen 1200 is offering FX-8350 level performance

I paid £125 for my FX-8350 back when they were new, so in terms of cost things haven't gone that far forward unfortunately.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Ryzen 3 1200 could be had for £90 and the exchange rates are worse than in the past,so imagine if the pound was more like $1.50~$1.60!

[pp05]

I paid £125 for my FX-8350 back when they were new, so in terms of cost things haven't gone that far forward unfortunately.

Is yours the black edition. A lot of value still if you want to use windows 7.

For me it's R1200 65w vs 8350 125w. I'm leaning towards pairing r1200 with a 1050ti for now.

[pp05]

The Ryzen 3 1200 could be had for £90 and the exchange rates are worse than in the past,so imagine if the pound was more like $1.50~$1.60!

Looks like the party is over!

I thought ram prices were bad, then I saw GFX cards.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looks like the party is over!

I thought ram prices were bad, then I saw GFX cards.

Tell me about it!! The whole £150 to £300 range has gone mad,and RAM prices are so high I don't care if faster RAM is better,I am sticking with the 16GB of 2400MHZ DDR4 I picked up for £56 this year,if I move to a new platform and CPU in the next 12 months.

Having said that you can get a RX580 8GB or GTX1060 6GB for £230 to £250 as sometimes special offers do come up./

[pp05]

Tell me about it!! The whole £150 to £300 range has gone mad,and RAM prices are so high I don't care if faster RAM is better,I am sticking with the 16GB of 2400MHZ DDR4 I picked up for £56 this year,if I move to a new platform and CPU in the next 12 months.

Having said that you can get a RX580 8GB or GTX1060 6GB for £230 to £250 as sometimes special offers do come up./

Was it branded ram or some smaller unknown make.

Am looking at 90 for Corsair/Crucial 8gb (2x4gb) 2400mhz.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Was it branded ram or some smaller unknown make.

Am looking at 90 for Corsair/Crucial 8gb (2x4gb) 2400mhz.

Corsair - it was at the start of the year.

[scaryjim]

... RAM prices are so high I don't care if faster RAM is better,I am sticking with the 16GB of 2400MHZ DDR4 I picked up for £56 this year ...

Jealous. Can't believe how expensive RAM is currently. I think that's the main reason I'm holding off buying a laptop - I paid around £430 for my current laptop, which has the then-top AMD APU and 8GB of at-the-time reasonably fast DDR3. Now the same money struggles to get me 8GB of any kind of RAM. It's also tromping on my plans for my step-son's Christmas present, as I'd *like* to set him up with 16GB...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Jealous. Can't believe how expensive RAM is currently. I think that's the main reason I'm holding off buying a laptop - I paid around £430 for my current laptop, which has the then-top AMD APU and 8GB of at-the-time reasonably fast DDR3. Now the same money struggles to get me 8GB of any kind of RAM. It's also tromping on my plans for my step-son's Christmas present, as I'd *like* to set him up with 16GB...

In hindsite I wish I had picked up some faster stuff now,but it was a frivolous purchase,as my mate managed to get it for that price when it was £70 to £80 and he didn't need it. Its still unopened!

In the end,unless RAM prices drop,I will be using it even if its not ideal.

[scaryjim]

... In the end,unless RAM prices drop,I will be using it even if its not ideal.

Can't say I blame you. My problem is that you simply can't get 8GB for less than ~ £85 unless you're willing to go as slow as 2400MHz and we all know how memory speed impact performance on Ryzen.

Don't suppose anyone knows how AMD's memory compatibility is currently? It looks like a couple of major retailers (*ahem* SCAN *ahem*) seem to only stock Corsair memory, and iirc there were issues with Corsair memory and Ryzen?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Can't say I blame you. My problem is that you simply can't get 8GB for less than ~ £85 unless you're willing to go as slow as 2400MHz and we all know how memory speed impact performance on Ryzen.

Don't suppose anyone knows how AMD's memory compatibility is currently? It looks like a couple of major retailers (*ahem* SCAN *ahem*) seem to only stock Corsair memory, and iirc there were issues with Corsair memory and Ryzen?

The main issue with Corsair,is there are three revisions for each memory SKU,so you can't tell what you are getting when you order it - it could single ranked,dual ranked,Samsung,Micron or Hynix modules. With other companies although specifications can change there is more chance you can do some research and get something which should work OK.

Edit!!

Also it would not surprise me one bit if in a few years,the memory manufacturers get caught again for price fixing,etc. I remember a decade ago when I built my first Core2 based rig,DDR2 prices also shot up like this,and 4GB of DDR2 cost me £200ish and that was actually cheap for the time. Then they got fined for a previous case of price fixing and the prices interestingly got much better within not a huge amount of time,IIRC!

[pp05]

Can't say I blame you. My problem is that you simply can't get 8GB for less than ~ £85 unless you're willing to go as slow as 2400MHz and we all know how memory speed impact performance on Ryzen.

Don't suppose anyone knows how AMD's memory compatibility is currently? It looks like a couple of major retailers (*ahem* SCAN *ahem*) seem to only stock Corsair memory, and iirc there were issues with Corsair memory and Ryzen?

2400mhz seems to be compatible with the widest range of motherboards. If the fastest is only going to work with the most expensive boards is that a premium worth paying... I don't think it is right now for the majority at the lower end. I saw Corsair vengence 2400mhz for 90, Corsair vengence 3000mhz for 100. Am I going to feel that speed increase in day-to-day use...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

2400mhz seems to be compatible with the widest range of motherboards. If the fastest is only going to work with the most expensive boards is that a premium worth paying... I don't think it is right now for the majority at the lower end. I saw Corsair vengence 2400mhz for 90, Corsair vengence 3000mhz for 100. Am I going to feel that speed increase in day-to-day use...

The MSI Tomahawk B350 can run RAM 3GHZ fine it seems. Apparently some of the Asus B350 also seem OK.

For Ryzen 3 you are limited to 2666MHZ DDR4 anyway - for Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7,3000MHZ to 3200MHZ RAM with lowish latencies seems the ideal in regards to cost and performance,and there is a reasonably decent uplift overall. With Coffee Lake,ideally you would want to aim for between 2666MHZ and 3000MHZ with lowish latencies too.

The main reason,AMD Ryzen seems to get an uplift in performance is due to inter-CCX bandwidth which is half that of system memory bandwidth. Its why I am interested to see if Raven Ridge CPU performance is less dependent on faster RAM.

Also,another thing is its a bit harder to get Ryzen to run RAM at 3GHZ to 3.2GHZ spead across 4 DIMMs,although with newer AGESA versions,it seems to have gotten a bit better in that regard.

If I were you I would aim,for 2666MHZ to 3000MHZ RAM,and run it at lowish latencies.

Since you are only going for 8GB,it makes more sense to do that now,and when RAM prices become saner,replace both the DIMMs with a 16GB kit running at higher clockspeeds(if required).

Having said that if you are upgrading from an Athlon II X2 with 2GB of system RAM,Ryzen 3 with even "slow" RAM will be a HUGE upgrade in CPU performance.

[pp05]

The MSI Tomahawk B350 can run RAM 3GHZ fine it seems. Apparently some of the Asus B350 also seem OK.

For Ryzen 3 you are limited to 2666MHZ DDR4 anyway - for Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7,3000MHZ to 3200MHZ RAM with lowish latencies seems the ideal in regards to cost and performance,and there is a reasonably decent uplift overall. With Coffee Lake,ideally you would want to aim for between 2666MHZ and 3000MHZ with lowish latencies too.

The main reason,AMD Ryzen seems to get an uplift in performance is due to inter-CCX bandwidth which is half that of system memory bandwidth. Its why I am interested to see if Raven Ridge CPU performance is less dependent on faster RAM.

Also,another thing is its a bit harder to get Ryzen to run RAM at 3GHZ to 3.2GHZ spead across 4 DIMMs,although with newer AGESA versions,it seems to have gotten a bit better in that regard.

If I were you I would aim,for 2666MHZ to 3000MHZ RAM,and run it at lowish latencies.

Since you are only going for 8GB,it makes more sense to do that now,and when RAM prices become saner,replace both the DIMMs with a 16GB kit running at higher clockspeeds(if required).

Having said that if you are upgrading from an Athlon II X2 with 2GB of system RAM,Ryzen 3 with even "slow" RAM will be a HUGE upgrade in CPU performance.

I agree Corsair's range is a bit confusing.

There is only £10 in the price between the two on Scan.