New benchmarks of AMD's upcoming Milan-X flagship, the EPYC 7773X CPU, have been submitted to the OpenBenchmarking software suite.
AMD EPYC 7773X Milan-X CPUs With Up To 1.6 GB of Total CPU Cache Benchmarked In Dual Socket Server Platform
The benchmarks were spotted within the OpenBenchmarking database and consist of two AMD EPYC 7773X Milan-X CPUs which were recently announced by the red team during their keynote comprising of data center innovations. The dual CPUs were tested on the Supermicro H12DSG-O-CPU motherboard which features dual LGA 4096 SP3 sockets. Additional specs on the platform included 512 GB of DDR4-2933 (16 x 32 GB) system memory, a 768 GB DAPUSTOR storage system and performance was evaluated on the Ubuntu 20.04 OS.
AMD EPYC 7773X Milan-X Flagship CPU Specifications:
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.
Dual AMD EPYC 7773X 'Milan-X' vs Dual AMD EPYC 7763 'Milan CPUs:
| Benchmark (OpenBenchmarking) | 2 x AMD EPYC 7773X 'Milan-X' | 2 x AMD EPYC 7763 'Milan' |
|---|---|---|
| High Performance Conjugate Gradient (GFLOPs / Higher is Better) | 35.38 | 36.8 |
| NAMD (Days/ns / Lower is Better) | 0.275 | 0.24 |
| LAMMPS (Molecular Dynamics / 20K Atoms Model / Higher is Better) | 31.54 | 35.7 |
| LAMMPS (Molecular Dynamics / Rhodopsin Protein / Higher is Better) | 27.87 | 30.6 |
| GROMACS (Ns Per Day / Higher is Better) | 10.16 | 9.99 |
In the benchmarks above, you can see that the AMD EPYC 7773X Milan-X dual CPU configuration has been compared to the AMD EPYC 7763 Milan dual CPUs. The standard Milan offerings offer slightly better performance but with launch approaching in Q1 2022, we should expect more work loads to take advantage of the behemoth of cache that these chips pack. There are going to be a ton of workloads that will utilize the increased cache for more performance as demonstrated by Microsoft in their Azure HBv3 VM performance metrics.
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 |
A single 3D V-Cache stack would incorporate 64 MB of L3 cache that sits on top of the TSV's already featured on existing Zen 3 CCD's. The cache will add upon the existing 32 MB of L3 cache for a total of 96 MB per CCD. AMD also stated that the V-Cache stack can go up to 8-hi which means a single CCD can technically offer up to 512 MB of L3 cache in addition to the 32 MB cache per Zen 3 CCD. So with a 64 MB of L3 cache, you can technically get up to 768 MB of L3 cache (8 3D V-Cache CCD stacks = 512 MB) which will be a mammoth increase in cache size.
3D V-Cache could just be one aspect of the EPYC Milan-X lineup. AMD might introduce faster clocks as 7nm continues to mature and we can see much faster performance from these stacked chips. 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.
AMD has announced that Milan-X will have broad platform availability through their partners such as CISCO, DELL, HPE, Lenovo, and Supermicro while the launch is planned for Q1 of 2022.
