AMD’s New 280W 64-Core Rome CPU: The EPYC 7H12
by Dr. Ian Cutress on September 18, 2019 9:15 AM EST
If there’s something that gets everyone excited, it is more performance. On the Enterprise side, AMD has made big strides with its latest EPYC processor stack, featuring up to 64 cores per socket with 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes and 8-channel memory, featuring a very high performance per dollar in the marketplace. In order to coincide with the launch of the processor line-up in Europe today, AMD is unveiling a new chip to act as the new Halo product: the EPYC 7H12.
The new processor features a higher base frequency and a higher boost frequency that the previous top-of-the-line processor, the EPYC 7742. The new EPYC 7H12 has a rated TDP of 280W, and as a result the chip is being marketed for server environments that offer liquid cooled solutions only. AMD is very specific about this, especially in the market for which this CPU is aimed at. One of AMD’s main partners, Atos, is set to offer an 1U solution featuring eight of these CPUs, all liquid cooled.
| AMD EPYC 7002 Processors (2P) | ||||||
| Cores Threads |
Frequency (GHz) | L3* | TDP | Price | ||
| Base | Max | |||||
| EPYC 7H12 | 64 / 128 | 2.60 | 3.30 | 256 MB | 280 W | ? |
| EPYC 7742 | 64 / 128 | 2.25 | 3.40 | 256 MB | 225 W | $6950 |
| EPYC 7702 | 64 / 128 | 2.00 | 3.35 | 256 MB | 200 W | $6450 |
| EPYC 7642 | 48 / 96 | 2.30 | 3.20 | 256 MB | 225 W | $4775 |
| EPYC 7552 | 48 / 96 | 2.20 | 3.30 | 192 MB | 200 W | $4025 |
For a base frequency, the EPYC 7H12 will be set at 2.6 GHz, and a turbo frequency of 3.3 GHz. Compared to the EPYC 7742, that’s +350 MHz on base and -100 MHz on turbo, for an increase in +55W TDP. The higher TDP means the 7H12 is expected to have an all-core turbo a lot higher than the 7742. The EPYC 7H12 is socket compatible with all other Rome processors.
With this new CPU, AMD is clearly going after the high-performance compute market. The chip still affords the same specifications as the rest of the stack, such as the PCIe lanes, the memory support, and security features, should any other market be interested, but AMD expects this CPU to be installed in large HPC datacenters. AMD published raw LINPACK metrics with a performance uplift of the 7H12 over the 7742 at around 11%.
We asked AMD if this is a chip designed for specific partners who can enable liquid cooling servers, or for any OEM that wants it. AMD responded stating the latter – this chip will have general availability, but given the target market, they are pushing it only for liquid cooled HPC systems. AMD states they have other processors better suited to certain other fields, such as finance.
We expect AMD’s OEM partners to be evaluating the 7H12 for their system offerings, with further announcements in due course.
Related Reading
- AMD Rome Second Generation EPYC Review: 2x 64-core Benchmarked
- The AMD 2nd Gen EPYC "Rome" Launch Live Blog
- Lenovo Launches ThinkSystem SR635 & SR655 Servers with AMD’s EPYC ‘Rome’ CPUs
- AMD Zen 2 Microarchitecture Analysis: Ryzen 3000 and EPYC Rome
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
Joshua-Graham - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
And you are correct - Weather and Nuclear simulations (and other science stuff like DNA sequencing). In the Article AMD specially said this is aimed at the HPC market and said they had other skus for traditional enterprises. HPC is a science application heavy market.BeCurieUs - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
Also, virtualization servers, right? Or does that put itself on single-core performance as well?Supercell99 - Thursday, September 19, 2019 - link
you haven't seen multithread porn downloads on infiniband :Djordanclock - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
Gondalf, it's time for your meds. You're talking crazy again.Korguz - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
hstewart... is that you ???Aephe - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
He's not even trying to hide it...Korguz - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
nope.. not in the least.Qasar - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
hey Gondalf , what ever it is you are smoking, could i have some ?? that must be some pretty good stuff you are on !!!alufan - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
really?https://www.redsharknews.com/technology/item/6647-...
https://hexus.net/tech/news/systems/133871-gigabyt...
Am no AMD or Intel Fanboi I just want the best bang for my hard earned, in a million years I would never need a quarter of the processing power of one of these CPUs but I cant resist a good troll, bear in mind AMD has been nowhere for the last say 10 years in CPUs, all of a sudden they are back and in all things other than games are royally kicking intels ass just like intel did with the core 2 duo so swings and roundabouts, mark the date and then see what market share AMD has grown in 6-12 Months then tell me the same about doughnuts btw doughnuts are cheap, disposable and very bad for your health and learn to spell whilst your at it
Schmide - Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - link
Here's a fun exercise. Let 56 core 400w Cascade Lake have the turbo frequency and let 64 core 280w Rome have the base frequency. Before we even talk about ipc we getRome 2.6 x 64 / 280 = 0.59
Cascade Lake 3.8 x 56 / 400 = 0.53
So in this ideal case Intel ipc must be 11% greater to match perf per watt.
The above numbers are meaningless except to appease the single thread hounds in the server arena.