News AMD locks Zen 2, Navi launches down to Q3 2019

No do I buy RAM now or wait until it's out?

 

I think you meant to write 'to have'.

 

This is my predicament - My plan when I sold my old Kaby Lake rig was to fight the urge to replace it immediately with a Ryzen 1 setup, use the fact I have very little spare time to go all in on Zen+, and hold out for Zen 2 with the plan of building a rig I will be happy to keep long term like I did with Sandy Bridge. X570 looks like it'll have a good amount of staying power, with PCI-E 4, native USB 3 Gen 2 and plenty of bandwidth for fast storage.

So...

Do I start picking up bits now while waiting? (RAM, case, storage etc) Or wait to see if prices continue to fall?? Or will they go up in anticipation of new hardware launches?!

 

We know you only do it for attention G, you big ol' softy.

 

Phew! Panic over, i read the title and assumed the worst, that AMD had locked Zen2 frequencies and were going to block overclocking.

Personally I'm going to wait as even though there's a risk of RAM prices going back up there's not enough know about how the new layout is effected by RAM speeds, and how the rumors of 4-5Ghz being a 'supported' DDR speed with the use of a 1/2 divider.

 

I heard that rumour but also that using the divider would be detremental to gaming, but not for other instances. Would like to know more about that.

Come to think of it, what is the maximum speed RAM infinity fabric can handle before it would need to use a divider (I know RAM is halved anyway as it stands)?

 

I think using a divider would increase throughput and latency to the RAM, throughput would go up because you're running higher clockspeed RAM and latency would go up because data going too and from the RAM has to wait a short time to match the timing of the other bus, that's just my theory though so I'd welcome further input.

The maximum speed RAM infinity fabric can handle before it needs to use a divider is a bit unknown as we can't be sure what was holding it back with Zen(+) IF and the memory controller shared the same clock domain, i would guess it was the memory controller holding things back as with Zen2 they've more than doubled the IF bandwidth.

 

What i'm hoping for is 8c/16t Ryzen 5 3600(/X) that does 4.2-4.5Ghz all core OC, matches Kaby/Coffee Lake for IPC, but undercuts it on price (per core).

My wishful thinking, going off previous AM4 board launches, is a decent selection of ITX boards from the get go (we all remember the MONTHS is took for the first AM4 ITX boards to actually become available).

If this happens around the same time as RAM and storage prices bottom, i'll be all over it.

With regards to Navi, I don't need all the bells and whistles at 4K/400Hz - i'd be happy with RTX2060 performance for 1660 Ti prices.

 

If it’s Q3, that could be as soon as July or as late as September. I think they aren’t fully satisfied with the capabilities and are holding on just a little longer. Alternatively, they’re building a mass supply so that there’s no shortfall.

 

But I want my upgrade now...

Well, the 3770K has to last a little longer, I guess.

 

Or waiting for Asus, MSI, AsRock etc to get off their lazy butts so we don't end up with the same debacle as we had with the Ryzen 1xxx / 2xxx launches (mobos only in stock like a month after launch, AMD having to give away loaner CPUs to enable bios updates on the old mobo stock).

 

Snap (minus the K).

Although i'll be pretty busy unitl September anyway so that's kinda handy

 

You ideally want ram optimised for your cpu/motherboard, will the current Ryzen optimised ram chips still be optimal - who knows?

 

I would guess (expect? Hope?!) memory compatibility will only broaden with Zen+... I mean, it was a genuine lottery with gen 1 chips, gen 2 was more about "optimal" performance and maxing OC headroom.

 

True enough, like @Wakka says though I hope the improvements from Zen to Zen+ in compatibility improves still further.

I'd still like to know what speed ram the infinity fabric can handle before the new divider on Zen2 comes into play.

 

So every leaked X570 board so far has featured a fan... that does not excite me. :/

 

Especially with how integrated the chipset coolers are into the general stick on tat on modern mobos... going to be a pain to replace with a watercooler.

 

Found my answer courtesy of reddit and a Forbes AMD image:



3600 cl16 best price/performance for 1:1 ratio latency, 3733 cl17 the topspeed at 1:1, above that the divider comes into play and latency increases.