Huge Gains! – 5+ GHz AMD Zen 6 EPYC CPUs confirmed by Microsoft
Microsoft confirms significant gains in single-threaded performance for AMD’s new Zen 6 EPYC CPUs
Microsoft has confirmed that it’s using AMD hardware to build its newest Azure AI/HPC infrastructure, confirming that its new HXv2 virtual machines will use Zen 6 EPYC processors. With this announcement, Microsoft confirmed 5+ GHz maximum clock speeds for AMD Zen 6 EPYC CPUs. This gives AMD’s next-generation CPUs significant improvements to single-threaded performance.
Microsoft’s HXv2 VMs will feature 6th Generation AMD EPYC CPUs with clock frequencies in excess of 5 GHz, AMD’s L3 V-Cache technology, and VM sizes with nearly 2TB and 4TB of memory. Each VM will feature 176 AMD CPU cores.
HXv2 virtual machines build on and extend the strengths of HX. They both continue the differentiation Azure offers for RTL simulation workloads by again employing 3D V-cache technology, while offering significant improvements to single threaded performance and memory. HXv2 VMs will feature 176 AMD 6th Gen EPYC CPU cores with a clock frequency of more than 5 GHz, 50% more addressable cache per core and VM sizes with nearly 2 or 4 terabytes of RAM, helping customers optimize their workloads to memory needs.
– Microsoft
HUGE clock speed gains for EPYC
While 5+ GHz clock speeds aren’t insane within the desktop CPU space, they are for high-core-count CPUs. For context, AMD’s current EPYC flagship, the Zen 5 AMD EPYC 9965 192-core CPU, has a maximum boost of just 3.7 GHz. Its maximum all-core boost is 3.35 GHz. Achieving 5+ GHz clock speeds is an insane feat for AMD Zen 6 EPYC. Note that a 5GHz clock speed is 30% higher than the 3.7 GHz maximum speed of AMD’s EPYC 9965 CPU.
If Microsoft’s press release is correct, AMD’s Zen 6 architecture could deliver strong single-threaded performance gains across all product lines. This would be great news for desktop users, as higher clock speeds can enable snappier PCs, faster workload completion, and higher gaming frame rates.
There are rumours that AMD is targeting 7 GHz speeds for its fastest Zen 6 desktop CPUs. If AMD has achieved 5+ GHz speeds with EPYC, much higher speeds with desktop Ryzen CPUs should be possible. 7 GHz Zen 6 CPUs are suddenly not feeling that outlandish anymore.
You can join the discussion on Microsoft’s confirmation of 5+ GHz AMD EPYC processors on the OC3D Forums.
