AMD Ryzen 7 3700X : Hands On + Key Features
Contents
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Up Close!
The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has eight Ryzen processor cores, with a 3.6 GHz base clock, and a 4.4 GHz boost clock.
It supports SMT (simultaneous multi-threading), and can therefore handle 16 threads simultaneously.
Like the previous generations, it has 512 KB L2 cache per core, with a total L2 cache size of 4 MB. But thanks to a larger transistor budget, it has a very large 32 MB L3 cache – twice that of the last-generation 2nd Gen Ryzen processors!
Despite the changes in the design philosophy, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X still uses the AMD AM4 socket. In fact, it is backward compatibility with existing AM4 motherboards!
As long as your AM4 motherboard has an updated BIOS, you can just replace your old Ryzen processor with a brand-new Ryzen 7 3700X processor!
New Zen 2 Microarchitecture
Codenamed Matisse, the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors are based on the new AMD Zen 2 microarchitecture, which delivers 15% better instructions per clock through these improvements :
- 256-bit single-op floating point (AVX-256) for notably stronger performance in creative workloads.
- Doubled Micro-Op cache size (now 4K) to increase throughput by preventing re-decode of operations.
- New TAGE branch predictor, with larger L1 and L2 BTBs, to increase throughput by reducing stalls from mispredicts.
- A third address generation unit (AGU), which keeps the execution engine more reliably fed with data in DRAM.
- Improved load/store bandwidth throughout the device, which increases throughput by keeping more data on-chip.
- A doubled L3 cache size to 32MB per CCD, which reduces effective memory latency by up to 33ns — excellent for games.
- Improved fetch and pre-fetch capabilities, arming the execution engines more readily with needed data.
- Improved SMT fairness for ALU and AGU schedulers, reducing thread contention and throughput.
- A larger 180-entry register file, providing the CPU more immediate access to more working data.
- New hardware mitigation against speculative store bypass (Spectre V4), expanding the strong security profile of “Zen(+).”
New Chiplet Design
Unlike the previous Zen and Zen+ microarchitectures, Zen 2 uses a chiplet design that combines separate CPU chiplets with an I/O chiplet, using Infinity Fabric to connect them.
This chiplet design allows the performance-critical CPU chiplet to be fabricated on the 7 nm TSMC process, while the I/O functions are fabricated on the less expensive 12 nm GlobalFoundries process.
The new I/O chiplet adds PCIe 4.0 support, offering 24 lanes that can be increased to 40 lanes, when paired with the new AMD X570 motherboard.
For more details on what’s new in these 3rd generation Ryzen processors, we recommend reading The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Tech Briefing!
Don’t forget to watch the full video briefing by AMD’s Robert Hallock!
Recommended : The AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen Deep Dive Tech Briefing!
Next Page > AMD X570 Chipset, AMD Wraith Prism Cooler, Benchmarking Notes
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