During its CES 2021 keynote, AMD demonstrated the performance of its 3rd Generation EPYC Milan CPUs based on the Zen 3 core architecture versus Intel's Xeon chips based on the Cascade Lake design. The performance was demoed in WRF which is a climate research and weather forecast tool used by HPC to simulate weather and is used by 185 countries for that specific purpose.
AMD's 3rd Gen EPYC Milan Server CPUs Demoed, Up To 68% Faster Than Competing Intel Xeon Gold Cascade Lake CPUs
AMD's CEO stated that the two Intel Xeon Gold 6258R CPUs they pitted against their own EPYC Milan CPUs are comparably configured. We know that the Xeon Gold 6258R features a total of 28 cores and 56 threads and has a boost clock of up to 4.00 GHz. It comes with a TDP of 205W and priced at $3950 US. No specifications for the 3rd Gen EPYC Milan CPU which was tested were listed aside from their core count which is 32 cores and 64 threads.
The AMD 3rd Gen EPYC Milan (2P) CPUs were able to complete the weather forecast simulation of the United States much faster than their competitor. AMD stated that the performance difference is about 68% which is literally insane for the Zen 3 powered EPYC lineup. At the same time, we can use these results to guesstimate where Milan lands against Intel's Ice Lake-SP processors. We know that Ice Lake with Sunny Cove cores offers an 18% IPC increase. Considering that we will see Xeon CPUs with Ice Lake-SP featuring these brand new cores and also upgrades to cache and clocks, the Intel Xeon Ice Lake-SP chips will end up much faster than Cascade Lake-SP but at the same time, it wouldn't be enough to outperform 3rd Gen EPYC.
In fact, AMD will retain their leading position in the server platform, offering nearly 30-40% better performance versus Intel Ice Lake CPUs. The only saving grace for Intel will come in the form of the AVX-512 instruction set which offers just marginally better performance compared to EPYC Rome CPUs as Intel previewed a while back. But in terms of overall efficiency and standard performance, AMD's EPYC lineup will dominate Intel in every benchmark.
So in apples to apple comparison, the AMD EPYC Milan CPUs will have a tremendously higher lead and we are just taking general performance without mentioning the better performance/value and perf per watt which would translate to lower TCO when building a Milan server.
Here's Everything We Know About AMD's 3rd Gen EPYC Milan 'Zen 3' CPU Family
The AMD EPYC Milan processors would succeed the current EPYC Rome lineup. The fundamental change for the EPYC Milan lineup would be the new Zen 3 core architecture which will be based upon an advanced 7nm process node. From what we know and what AMD has officially shown, the AMD Zen 3 based EPYC Milan processors would focus primarily on overall performance per watt enhancements but that doesn't mean we won't be looking at core updates.
The AMD EPYC Milan CPUs featuring the Zen 3 core architecture will not only feature a brand new chip architecture but also feature a 19% increase in IPC over Zen 2 processors and a 40% jump in performance per watt based on what we have seen on the consumer level chips. The higher single-core performance jump will put AMD on par with Intel's next-generation Xeon CPUs while taking the multi-threaded lead even further.
In a previous slide, AMD showed their Zen 3 based 7nm processors offering better performance per watt than Intel's 10nm Ice Lake-SP Xeon chips. As for the new features, other than featuring its Zen 3 core design, Milan would offer socket compatibility with SP3 platforms, would feature support for DDR4 memory, PCIe 4.0 interface, and is stated to offer 64 cores and 2x the threads (128 threads). The chips will have a TDP rated at 120-225W which is similar to existing Rome parts.
So summing everything up for EPYC Milan, we are looking at the following main features:
- Advanced 7nm Zen 3 cores (64 core / 128 thread)
- Pin Compatible With SP3 Socket
- 120W-280W TDP SKUs
- PCIe 4.0 Support
- DDR4 Memory Support
- Launch in Q1 2021
AMD has confirmed that their 3rd Gen EPYC Milan CPUs will be available this quarter in various SKUs and configurations. Some of these SKUs have already been leaked out by Twitter fellow, Patrick Schur and can be seen in the table below:
AMD EPYC Milan 3rd Gen Server CPU Lineup:
| CPU Name | Cores / Threads | Base Clock | Boost Clock | L3 Cache | L2 Cache | TDP | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD EPYC 7763 | 64 / 128 | 2.45 GHz | 3.500 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 280W (cTDP 225W Down / 280W Up) | $7890 US |
| AMD EPYC 7713 | 64 / 128 | 2.00 GHz | 3.675 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $7060 US |
| AMD EPYC 7713P | 64 / 128 | 2.00 GHz | 3.675 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $5010 US |
| AMD EPYC 7663 | 56 / 112 | 2.00 GHz | 3.500 GHz | 256 MB | 24 MB | 240W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $6366 US |
| AMD EPYC 7643 | 48 / 96 | 2.30 GHz | 3.600 GHz | 256 MB | 24 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $4995 US |
| AMD EPYC 75F3 | 32 / 64 | 2.95 GHz | 4.000 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 280W (cTDP 225W Down / 280W Up) | $4860 US |
| AMD EPYC 7543 | 32 / 64 | 2.80 GHz | 3.700 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $3761 US |
| AMD EPYC 7543P | 32 / 64 | 2.80 GHz | 3.700 GHz | 256 MB | 32 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $2730 US |
| AMD EPYC 7513 | 32 / 64 | 2.60 GHz | 3.650 GHz | 128 MB | 16 MB | 200W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $2840 US |
| AMD EPYC 7453 | 28 / 56 | 2.75 GHz | 3.450 GHz | 64 MB | 16 MB | 225W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $1570 US |
| AMD EPYC 74F3 | 24 / 48 | 3.20 GHz | 4.000 GHz | 256 MB | 12 MB | 240W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $2900 US |
| AMD EPYC 7443 | 24 / 48 | 2.85 GHz | 4.000 GHz | 128 MB | 12 MB | 200W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $2010 US |
| AMD EPYC 7443P | 24 / 48 | 2.85 GHz | 4.000 GHz | 128 MB | 12 MB | 200W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $1337 US |
| AMD EPYC 7413 | 24 / 48 | 2.65 GHz | 3.600 GHz | 128 MB | 16 MB | 180W (cTDP 165 Down / 200W Up) | $1825 US |
| AMD EPYC 73F3 | 16 / 32 | 3.50 GHz | 4.000 GHz | 256 MB | 16 MB | 240W (cTDP 225W Down / 240W Up) | $3521 US |
| AMD EPYC 7343 | 16 / 32 | 3.20 GHz | 3.900 GHz | 128 MB | 8 MB | 190W (cTDP 165W Down / 200W Up) | $1565 US |
| AMD EPYC 7313 | 16 / 32 | 3.00 GHz | 3.700 GHz | 128 MB | 16 MB | 155W (cTDP 155W Down / 180W Up) | $1083 US |
| AMD EPYC 7313P | 16 / 32 | 3.00 GHz | 3.700 GHz | 128 MB | 16 MB | 155W (cTDP 155W Down / 180W Up) | $913 US |
| AMD EPYC 72F3 | 8 / 16 | 3.70 GHz | 4.100 GHz | 256 MB | 4 MB | 180W (cTDP 165 Down / 200W Up) | $2468 US |
