On the radio show on Sunday, it appeared that @Leo was surprised that PCPer was recommending Ryzen 3 for all of their leaderboard systems. I listen to PCPer and other hardware podcasts and they are all covering tons of aspects of how AMD has made a huge leap to the top of the stats in competition with Intel. I know TWiCH covers this some, but it would be cool to hear more on the other shows. I’m especially excited about single core speeds due to my AutoDesk Civil3D software being entirely single threaded and so my processor choice makes a big difference in user experience / annoyance. Thanks!
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Agreed, though I prefer to call it Ryzen 3000 series to avoid confusion with Ryzen 3 SKUs (and core architecture is Zen 2). My current system has a 3700X and I’m going to build a 3950X system when it launches. Excellent performance.
I don’t think Leo keeps up as much with PC hardware news as the average PC tech tuber, though that’s hard even for us who follow it more closely. Leo does keep up with the broader consumer technology space better than almost anyone, though.
Things are also heating up with competition between Intel and AMD, with breaking news of Intel slashing HEDT pricing, so hopefully we see more coverage in Windows Weekly, TTG, and the other shows on TWiT. I like Intel’s products, too, but AMD is really pushing them in both consumer and enterprise, and frankly we need that competition.
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I expect AMD will get a lot more respect after tomorrow’s Surface announcement.
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Could not agree with you more!!! I can’t believe all of the top benchmark slots are all firmly occupied by AMD. Mind blown. I thought Ryzen 2000 was amazing, but 3000 blew my socks off. Any on top of that, it now matters again what memory you buy! Its feels great to be on the cutting edge again.
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I haven’t heard much about their mobile CPUs yet or even rumors. I’m keeping my expectations low. I bet they use a 2000 generation part. But I hope I’m proven wrong.
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Ok I guess I’d better make my new machine a Ryzen 3. Any good Linux compatible AMD laptops out there?
I am quite pleased with the 3000 series of AMD CPUs. I was one of the lucky ones who got a 3900X during release week. It’s my Handbrake recoding machine, and with 12 cores, (24 threads) it really does speed up H.264 recodes a lot. (There are technical reasons why H.265 doesn’t parallelize as well, at least with current codec implementations.)
There were some initial issues with the AGESA (the AMD firmware for the chipset) and I still don’t understand why they’re adding letters onto it instead of simply uprevving the number. (It went from 1.0.0.3, through 1.0.0.3A, 1.0.0.3B, 1.0.0.3AA, 1.0.0.3AB, 1.0.0.3ABB and finally 1.0.0.3ABBA… yes ABBA, I kid you not.) Now that I have the ABBA AGESA things seem to be fairly stable, and my initial issues with RAM compatibility seem to have eased as well. I think there may have also been a tweak included in Windows 10 to address how the CPUs are scheduled as well.
The current issue seems to be availability. The 3900X is virtually unavailable anywhere and the 3950X got delayed by a couple of months. I think I’d like to try building a 3950X when they’re finally available… the extra 4 cores (8 threads) could be useful for further speeding up my Handbrakes.
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That’s the problem, no mobile processors yet. Not a one.
I know benchmarks have limitations, but to have a sea of Intel chips below a clump of AMD chips is amazing. Here is a single threaded chart (again, this matters most to my use of AutoCAD)
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
This is kind of the problem with AMD: it’s an enthusiast’s part, not completely mainstream.
I’ve subscribed to the AMD sub-Reddit and it’s a bunch of nerds fighting over benchmarks.
It does look like Lenovo has an AMD-based ThinkPad. I am waiting for Apple to drop the other shoe on the 16 inch MacBook Pro. If they don’t improve the keyboard then it will be a Windows/Linux machine for me.
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Those laptops are using the 2nd Gen chips (even though they begin with a 3 in the chip SKU) they were a good effort, but nothing like the current 3rd Gen. Maybe they will have 3rd Gen chips at the Microsoft event. Again, 3rd Gen changed everything.
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3rd Gen is finally worth a damn compared to previous generations… LOL sorry, this is a family friendly community.
And let’s not forget that AMD APUs form the backbone of console gaming. They’re in the XBox One and the PS4 and they’re going to be in the PS5 and the XBox (Two?). All this extra power in the 7nm 3000 series should make for some excellent console gaming!
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Good point. I’ll keep my eye peeled for a third-gen laptop.
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If I were building a desktop today, I think it would be with a Ryzen 3.
AMD had soured to me from all the overheated and underperforming laptops I kept seeing during the mid-2000s to mid-2010s, but now when I read Maximum PC (which I do using the $10/month Readly service), it seems like everything desktop is Ryzen 3.
They even just put one together for $350 (sans monitor) that I’ve been tempted to try.
from the August 2019 edition
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Good budget build, but keep in mind that Ryzen 3 2200G is actually same architecture as Ryzen 1000 series, and the current Ryzen APUs (3200G and 3400G) are actually on 2000 series architecture (Zen+). The APUs are behind by a generation versus the CPUs (confusing at first, I know). So it’s a little older, but still a good system build.
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Thanks for the tip. I didn’t realize that. I don’t know if it’s on purpose or by accident, but AMD has made their differentiators as clear as mud. Intel has their model number quirks, but not that bad.
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At some point I would pull the trigger on my PC Build (Ryzen Based). AMD keeps dangling the carrot with not enough stock (supply & demand), releasing new tech quickly or leaking that they will release new tech. It’s rummored now that AMD Zen 3 architecture will now Double Thread Count per Core with SMT4. That’s a huge mulitipliar in performance, even for single core performance. I mighed need my fix, to hold me over until the next-next gen comes out.
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PCPer has a parts list for various classes of PCs on their HW Leaderboard
They spec a pretty decent low end machine:
Low End System $502.00 Plenty of fun still to be had on the low side.
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This is an interesting development… I wonder if memory encryption like this protects against certain attacks, like the DRAM Row Hammer…
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And it looks like Microsoft is offering an AMD based laptop soon
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