AMD Zen Discussion Thread

Redfox25 · 19-06-2020 12:54pm

.G. wrote: »

How are Gigabyte for BIOS updates and stability etc? I'm going to do a build with the spare 3600 I have but I've always used Asus on my builds and MSI on many others. I like some of the Aorus offerings in B550.

Im on my second board now with them and they have been fine.
Bios might be a less polished than some of the other manufacturers but neither board (Intel and now AMD) gave me any issues.

.G. · 19-06-2020 12:58pm

IO bought one for my son's first PC a few years back and it was DOA so I've never gone back

wotzgoingon · 19-06-2020 1:03pm

I have a Gigabyte X570 and had a Gigabyte X58 board for 10 years and never had any issues with either.

The X570 has had many bios updates with mostly memory compatibility updates even another 2 days ago for the new XT CPU's.

BloodBath · 19-06-2020 6:48pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

You would have to imagine that their are performance benefits gen 4 outside of pure bandwidth figures. Eg, their is a small performance hit in gen 3 cards in a gen 2 x16 slot, even though its equivalent to a gen 3 x8 slot in bandwidth alone.

It seems like in a latency sensitive setting like graphics computing, having half the latency could be the difference in finishing the frame in time.

I would imagine the memory system would be a limiting factor there as well. You're only as fast as your weakest link.

fguinan · 19-06-2020 7:07pm

fguinan wrote: »

Cheers - I just ordered a B550 taichi. Guess I'll have to build a desktop!

Caseking.de just cancelled my order.

19-06-2020 7:36pm

fguinan wrote: »

Caseking.de just cancelled my order.

Me too. Just got a refund into my Paypal account.

Samuel T. Cogley · 19-06-2020 8:26pm

Sorry Guys

seraphimvc · 19-06-2020 11:12pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Me too. Just got a refund into my Paypal account.

refunded today

Joshua J · 20-06-2020 8:59pm

.G. wrote: »

I returned a motherboard after 6 months, I know now it wasn't faulty but I didn't know at the time but they just took my word for it. Full refund no questions asked. Its a massive reason to buy from them IMO. RMA is second to none. If its sold by someone but fulfilled by Amazon you might be ok. Otherwise I'm not sure.

On the flip side I returned a known faulty CPU to OCUK, they tested it, confirmed it to be faulty but still sent it to AMD for them to try fix it before sending me a brand new one a month later. I'd bought a replacement from Amazon before I sent it back. Just as well, 4 weeks without a CPU otherwise!

Sort of in the same boat atm with a 5600XT sent back to OC. OC received it on the 27/05 and sent it on to AMD the same day for "repair or replacement". Thats the last I heard, sent a webnote to OC last week was told could take 28 days. Even giving for postage etc AMD have had my card for 2 weeks now, its either repairable or its not. If I get a refund I think I'll go Nvidia, be a month next week without a GPU which seems excessive to me.

Samuel T. Cogley · 20-06-2020 9:15pm

Under EU Law, to which I believe the UK is still bound until they put new laws in place, repairs etc. cannot cause 'significant inconvenience' to the consumer. You might want to remind OCUK of their obligations.

.G. · 21-06-2020 10:23am

Joshua J wrote: »

Sort of in the same boat atm with a 5600XT sent back to OC. OC received it on the 27/05 and sent it on to AMD the same day for "repair or replacement". Thats the last I heard, sent a webnote to OC last week was told could take 28 days. Even giving for postage etc AMD have had my card for 2 weeks now, its either repairable or its not. If I get a refund I think I'll go Nvidia, be a month next week without a GPU which seems excessive to me.

Yeah its not great but people sing their praises all the same. I'll stick to Amazon for all major tech purchases from now. Unlikely you'll get a refund too. They'll send you the repaired one or a brand new one of the same card. I wasn't given any choices for the faulty 3600. Just got sent a new one I didn't need.

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Under EU Law, to which I believe the UK is still bound until they put new laws in place, repairs etc. cannot cause 'significant inconvenience' to the consumer. You might want to remind OCUK of their obligations.

Yeah once they had confirmed it as faulty themselves I would have expected some contact to ask me what I want to do or just send a replacement from their own inventory and they then take it up with AMD to have their inventory replenished.

Homelander · 21-06-2020 10:32am

You should use their actual online forum for queries like this rather than email. They have actual reps that respond quickly enough on the customer query section and can look into your case properly.

I've had to RMA a few things with them and have only ever used the forum to process RMA's/deal with issues/make order changes/get a resolution.

I've never been left waiting anywhere near that long thankfully and I had no problems swapping a 5700XT for a 2070 Super using this method - it wasn't faulty as such, just terrible driver issues, they just took it back without question and charged me the difference on my card for the 2070S.

.G. · 21-06-2020 10:38am

Not sure why that should make a difference to be honest. I had emails back and forth with their customer service, its the same people from the same company the service should be the same regardless of contact method.

I don't see a CS section on their forums though?

Homelander · 21-06-2020 10:47am

Honestly I'm not saying it does or should, but just my experience - I've always used their forum guys for issues, changes, RMA's, etc and never really had any big problems or delays getting stuff sorted.

And definitely never was automatically sent a replacement, never had any issue getting something else instead through those guys. Sometimes even got good discounts or offers too!

I remember when I got my 980Ti it was after some far cheaper card went faulty, I had zero intention of getting one but I asked what's the best deal they could do...he went off to check and came back a few hours later with a price £100 cheaper than the website price. Couldn't say no!

Their interactivity and the fact they can keep in good touch with you through the forums is the reason I like them, so much better than any other company.

Though that said it's probably been almost 2 years since I've had to get in touch via their forums at this stage so maybe it's changed.

You have to be logged in to use the CS forums, no-one can see your threads except you and them.

The general OCUK forums are really good as well.

.G. · 21-06-2020 12:26pm

Didn't know that. Shame. They always seem to get stock before anyone else in the UK which is one of the good reasons to use them. And the Haribo. I thought the replacement 3600 had been packed with bubble wrap inside the outer box, turned out it was loads of packets of Haribo

savemejebus · 21-06-2020 12:47pm

Their forum is also where special offers etc will be announced first. Some great deals from there over the years ðŸ˜

Joshua J · 21-06-2020 2:42pm

Homelander wrote: »

You should use their actual online forum for queries like this rather than email. They have actual reps that respond quickly enough on the customer query section and can look into your case properly.

I've had to RMA a few things with them and have only ever used the forum to process RMA's/deal with issues/make order changes/get a resolution.

I've never been left waiting anywhere near that long thankfully and I had no problems swapping a 5700XT for a 2070 Super using this method - it wasn't faulty as such, just terrible driver issues, they just took it back without question and charged me the difference on my card for the 2070S.

I'll give this a try tomorrow.

K.O.Kiki · 22-06-2020 3:51pm

B450/B550/X570 VRM testing with Ryzen 9 3900X (PBO & Auto-OC).

Yikes, guess I should sell my premium B450 Gaming Pro Carbon if I want to go past 8 cores.
Or just place a fan over the VRMs.

seraphimvc · 22-06-2020 4:18pm

^is a good video he actually tested the vram against other boards and he might do a follow-up on that after he got other B550 boards. nice.

and yup more or less alot of reviews since last week basically saying the vram is 'overkilled' on b550 - the high-end B550 boards are on-par with X570 (or even better). The design and heating on B550 are much more 'streamlined' than the 1-year old X570 that was rushed out back then.

It all comes down to how many PCIe4 slots that you need - to me, unless i am going serious on VR capability (which i won't lol), B550 can definitely last me for a long time.

BloodBath · 22-06-2020 9:20pm

Jesus I thought the B450 Tomahawk was supposed to be good in this area.

Struggling with only 12 cores is not what I expected when buying it.

Cuddlesworth · 23-06-2020 2:45pm

BloodBath wrote: »

Jesus I thought the B450 Tomahawk was supposed to be good in this area.

Struggling with only 12 cores is not what I expected when buying it.

Am I missing something here? They are using a open air test bed with a AIO cooler. In a case, it was around 90 degrees under load which is perfectly fine. You slap a actual air cooler in there and it will get lower.

BloodBath · 23-06-2020 3:40pm

Nah it's me missing something. I skimmed through it to see graphs. Missed the details.

K.O.Kiki · 23-06-2020 3:41pm

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

Am I missing something here? They are using a open air test bed with a AIO cooler. In a case, it was around 90 degrees under load which is perfectly fine. You slap a actual air cooler in there and it will get lower.

It's close to the throttling temperature in an air-conditioned room; and comparatively, B550 worst-case scenario (open-air, no fan) matches B450 best-case (120mm downdraft).

Also I think you're overselling tower cooler's affect on VRMs; it's entirely down to the cooler itself.
e.g. in GN's testing, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II AIO had VRMs in the mid-30s, (above ambient) slightly beating a Noctua NH-D15.
However, the Deepcool Assassin III was as bad as NZXT Kraken AIO, and the Corsair A500 was worse than any AIO.

Also, the above tests are with the 12core 3900X - if those VRMs are @ 90C, then a 16core 3950X probably fails/throttles.

Cuddlesworth · 23-06-2020 4:29pm

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

It's close to the throttling temperature in an air-conditioned room; and comparatively, B550 worst-case scenario (open-air, no fan) matches B450 best-case (120mm downdraft).

I'm not saying the b550 wasn't better(they are clearly planning for higher core counts in the future), I am saying the b450 results are fine for what they are.

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Also I think you're overselling tower cooler's affect on VRMs; it's entirely down to the cooler itself.
e.g. in GN's testing, the Arctic Liquid Freezer II AIO had VRMs in the mid-30s, (above ambient) slightly beating a Noctua NH-D15.
However, the Deepcool Assassin III was as bad as NZXT Kraken AIO, and the Corsair A500 was worse than any AIO.

I mean you can use your brain on that. Stock coolers aim down towards the board, OEM systems usually aim down towards the board or have directed airflow across the board.

I googled the A500 and wasn't surprised that vrm temps would suffer, its miles away from pushing any air over them and would be as bad if not worse then a AIO. At least the AIO wouldn't push Standard top and back mounted fans have a effect on VRM temperatures and boards designers are planning for that.

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Also, the above tests are with the 12core 3900X - if those VRMs are @ 90C, then a 16core 3950X probably fails/throttles.

Don't think so, Zen power draw seems to scale per chiplet. So the 3900x and 3950 are very similar in power draw.

Joshua J · 24-06-2020 4:19pm

Homelander wrote: »

You should use their actual online forum for queries like this rather than email. They have actual reps that respond quickly enough on the customer query section and can look into your case properly.

I've had to RMA a few things with them and have only ever used the forum to process RMA's/deal with issues/make order changes/get a resolution.

I've never been left waiting anywhere near that long thankfully and I had no problems swapping a 5700XT for a 2070 Super using this method - it wasn't faulty as such, just terrible driver issues, they just took it back without question and charged me the difference on my card for the 2070S.

Tried this yesterday got the "Still at the manufacturer we'll email you when we hear from them." Will probably go Amazon for hardware purchases in future beyond a joke now.

Samuel T. Cogley · 24-06-2020 5:11pm

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

B450/B550/X570 VRM testing with Ryzen 9 3900X (PBO & Auto-OC).

Yikes, guess I should sell my premium B450 Gaming Pro Carbon if I want to go past 8 cores.
Or just place a fan over the VRMs.

Changed their tune a bit from what they were saying about a year ago about B450. I like HWU but they can be a bit flakey.

K.O.Kiki · 24-06-2020 5:25pm

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Changed their tune a bit from what they were saying about a year ago about B450. I like HWU but they can be a bit flakey.

No.

Their findings are very similar to their B450 tests from 2018, however B550 boards are simply much MUCH better, to the point it would be prudent to spend a bit extra for a 30 degree reduction in temperatures.

Samuel T. Cogley · 24-06-2020 5:51pm

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

No.

Their findings are very similar to their B450 tests from 2018, however B550 boards are simply much MUCH better, to the point it would be prudent to spend a bit extra for a 30 degree reduction in temperatures.

The findings are to within a degree of what they found the last time, the sentiment has totally changed.

seraphimvc · 26-06-2020 9:04am

Another interesting review on b550 (this is my board and it should arrive next weeekkk). i am surprised to see buildzoid works with nexus, I like both channels.

26-06-2020 9:46am

Any time i hear Buildzoid speak i think of Kermit The Frog. :pac:

AMD Zen Discussion Thread

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