AMD has officially launched the world's first data center chips with 3D V-Cache technology, the EPYC 7003X 'Milan-X' CPU family.
AMD EPYC 7003X Milan-X CPUs Official: Up To 1.5 GB Cache Per 2P Platform Thanks To 3D V-Cache Stacking Technology
AMD EPYC Milan-X server CPU lineup will consist of four processors based on the 7nm Zen 3 core architecture. These include the EPYC 7773X features 64 cores and 128 threads, the EPYC 7573X features 32 cores and 128 threads, the EPYC 7473X features 24 cores and 48 threads while the EPYC 7373X features 16 cores and 32 threads.
The models along with their OPN codes are:
- EPYC 7773X 64 Core (100-000000504)
- EPYC 7573X 32 Core (100-000000506)
- EPYC 7473X 24 Core (100-000000507)
- EPYC 7373X 16 Core (100-000000508)
Building upon our momentum in the data center as well as our history of industry-firsts, 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology showcase our leadership design and packaging technology enabling us to offer the industry’s first workload-tailored server processor with 3D die stacking technology,” said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, AMD. “Our latest processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology provide breakthrough performance for mission-critical technical computing workloads leading to better designed products and faster time to market.
Customers’ increased adoption of data-rich applications requires a new approach to data center infrastructure. Micron and AMD share a vision of delivering full capability of leading DDR5 memory to high-performance data center platforms,” said Raj Hazra, senior vice president and general manager of the Compute and Networking Business Unit at Micron. “Our deep collaboration with AMD includes readying AMD platforms for Micron’s latest DDR5 solutions as well as bringing 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology into our own data centers, where we are already seeing up to a 40% performance improvement over 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors without AMD 3D V-Cache on select EDA workloads.
via AMD
The flagship AMD EPYC 7773X will rock 64 cores, 128 threads and feature a maximum TDP of 280W. The clock speeds will be maintained at 2.2 GHz base and 3.5 GHz boost while the cache amount will drive up to an insane 768 MB. This includes the standard 256 MB of L3 cache that the chip features so essentially, we are looking at 512 MB coming from the stacked L3 SRAM which means that each Zen 3 CCD will feature 64 MB of L3 cache. That's an insane 3x increase over the existing EPYC Milan CPUs. In terms of pricing, the EPYC 7773X costs $8800 US which is $1090 US higher than the MSRP of EPYC 7763, making it 12% more expensive than its predecessor.
The second model is the EPYC 7573X which features 32 cores and 64 threads with a 280W TDP. The base clock is maintained at 2.8 GHz and the boost clock is rated at up to 3.6 GHz. The total cache is 768 MB for this SKU too. Now interestingly, you don't need to have 8 CCDs to reach 32 cores as that can be achieved with a 4 CCD SKU too but considering that you'd need double the amount of stack cache to reach 768 MB, that doesn't look like a very economical option for AMD and hence, even the lower-core count SKUs might be featuring the full 8-CCD chips. The 7573X costs $5590 which is 15% more expensive than the $4860 US pricing of the EPYC 75F3.
With that said, we have the EPYC 7473X which is a 24 core and 48 thread variant with a 2.8 GHz base and 3.7 GHz boost clock and a TDP of 240W while the 16 core and 32 thread EPYC 7373X is configured at a 240W TDP with a base clock of 3.05 GHz and 3.8 GHz boost clock and 768 MB of cache. Both chips cost $3900 and $4185, respectively, which makes them 34 ($2900 74F3) & 267 ($1565 73F3) percent more expensive than their Non-X counterparts.
AMD EPYC 7003X Milan-X CPU Die Shot:
AMD EPYC Milan-X 7003X Server CPU (Preliminary) Specs:
| CPU Name | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | LLC (3D SRAM) | L3 Cache (V-Cache + L3 Cache) | L2 Cache | TDP | Price (ShopBLT) | Price (MSRP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD EPYC 7773X | 64 / 128 | 2.2 GHz | 3.500 GHz | Yes (64 MB per CCD) | 512 + 256 MB | 32 MB | 280W (cTDP 225W Down / 280W Up) | $9609.36 US | $8800 US |
| AMD EPYC 7763 | 64 / 128 | 2.45 GHz | 3.500 GHz | N/A | 256 MB | 32 MB | 280W (cTDP 225W Down / 280W Up) | $8616.41 US | $7890 US |
| AMD EPYC 7573X | 32 / 64 | 2.80 GHz | 3.600 GHz | Yes (64 MB per CCD) | 512 + 256 MB | 32 MB | 280W (cTDP 225W Down / 280W Up) | $6107.88 US | $5590 US |
| AMD EPYC 75F3 | 32 / 64 | 2.95GHz | 4.000 GHz | N/A | 256 MB | 32 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $5312.39 US | $4860 US |
| AMD EPYC 7473X | 24 / 48 | 2.80 GHz | 3.700 GHz | Yes (64 MB per CCD) | 512 + 256 MB | 12 MB | 240W (cTDP 190W Down / 250W Up) | $4290.23 US | $3900 US |
| AMD EPYC 74F3 | 24 / 48 | 3.20 GHz | 4.000 GHz | N/A | 128 MB | 12 MB | 200W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $3197.87 US | $2900 US |
| AMD EPYC 7373X | 16 / 32 | 3.05 GHz | 3.800 GHz | Yes (64 MB per CCD) | 512 + 256 MB | 8 MB | 240W (cTDP 190W Down / 250W Up) | $5137.38 US | $4185 US |
| AMD EPYC 73F3 | 16 / 32 | 3.50 GHz | 4.000 GHz | N/A | 128 MB | 8 MB | 190W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $3874.10 US | $1565 US |
As for performance, AMD showcased a 66% performance uplift in RTL verifications with Milan-X versus the standard Milan CPU. A live demo showcased how Synopsys VCS Functional verification test was completed by Milan-X 16-core SKU much faster than the non-X 16 core SKU. We have also seen latency and bandwidth benchmarks for the Milan-X lineup which means that there are indeed use cases in the HPC segment for chips with such large cache designs. As a result, there will be a lot of customers who will be willing to pay the slight price difference to get access to almost 1 GB of cache per chip.
In case you are looking to read an in-depth review, Michael Larabel of Phoronix has found the new EPYC CPUs to offer strong HPC performance in this 3D V-Cache side-upgrade. You can read the full review over here.
Breakthrough Performance
The world’s highest performance server processors for technical computing, the 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology deliver faster time-to-results on targeted workloads, such as:
- EDA – The 16-core, AMD EPYC 7373X CPU can deliver up to 66 percent faster simulations on Synopsys VCS, when compared to the EPYC 73F3 CPU.
- FEA – The 64-core, AMD EPYC 7773X processor can deliver, on average, 44 percent more performance on Altair Radioss simulation applications compared to the competition’s top-of-stack processor.
- CFD – The 32-core AMD EPYC 7573X processor can solve an average of 88 percent more CFD problems per day than a comparable competitive 32-core count processor while running Ansys CFX.
Industry-wide Ecosystem Support
3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology are available today from a wide array of OEM partners, including, Atos, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Gigabyte, HPE, Lenovo, QCT, and Supermicro.
3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors with AMD 3D V-Cache technology are also broadly supported by AMD software ecosystem partners, including, Altair, Ansys, Cadence, Dassault Systèmes, Siemens, and Synopsys.
Microsoft Azure HBv3 virtual machines (VMs) have now been fully upgraded to 3rd Gen AMD EPYC with AMD 3D V-Cache technology. According to Microsoft, HBv3 VMs are the fastest adopted addition to the Azure HPC platform ever and have seen performance gains of up to 80 percent in key HPC workloads from the addition of AMD 3D V-Cache compared to the previous HBv3 series VMs.
AMD EPYC 7003X Milan-X CPU Family Endnotes:
