If something unites the desktop and server sector is the love at first sight for performance. There are no excuses when a company offers you a faster and cheaper product, in the end we end up buying it. Using this as obvious as intelligent argument, AMD has presented the EPYC 7H12: its fastest server to date for server.
AMD EPYC 7H12 Review
Some time ago we talked about a processor that leaked for the AMD server range, which would have a fairly high TDP and that would be difficult to cool by traditional methods.
Although at that time nothing else was revealed, we did intuit that it would arrive for the high-end AMD within the new EPYC Rome and that it would surely have 64 cores. Months later we can say that we were right – it was not too difficult to get it right – and this new EPYC 7H12 arrives as the top-of-the-range processor of Lisa Su’s for its server platform.
This processor has 64 cores and 128 threads that will be accompanied by 128 PCIe 4.0 lines and an 8-channel DDR4 RAM configuration.
Their speeds, hitherto unknown, will be 2.6 GHz at base frequency and 3.3 GHz at maximum frequency, where as we know AMD does not specify a boost for these processors because they depend on multiple factors, including temperature.
What AMD has revealed is that it will integrate 256 MB of L3 and a surprising 280 watt TDP, which makes us think of a very high Boost frequency and will surely be the fastest processor of Lisa Su’s.
This high consumption has a small consideration: it will only be commercialized for environments that offer liquid cooling solutions, something with total sense if we want to make the most of said processor.
Needless to say, this new EPYC 7H12 is fully compatible with the rest of the Rome series processors.
The server sector in terms of markets and offers is not at all similar to the desktop. Both AMD and Intel in its history have offered more or less complete business solutions, but always of a few parameters and within small markets, sometimes restricted to various customers / manufacturers.
It is clear that EPYC 7H12 is a different CPU than the rest of the Rome range, so the specific needs you need could prompt you to think of these selected markets and sectors as your only destination.
But AMD’s policy has changed in recent years, to the point that it will offer the EPYC 7H12 with general availability, especially for the target market of HPCs with liquid refrigeration.
This enhances the range in general, since any government or company can access all the options that AMD offers and without restrictions (except for its clear cooling).
As a curious fact, AMD published the metrics achieved in LINPACK facing 7H12 and 7742, its two fastest processors. The data were conclusive: the new EPYC 7H12 was 11% faster than the EPYC 7742, which explains the difference of 55 watts in its TDP, since the performance GAP is quite bulky and this is due to its higher frequency in boost
Unfortunately, AMD has not specified the price of this 64-core monster, but we can say that it will exceed the USD 6950 that EPYC 7742 currently costs.