AMD Genoa-X 96-Core CPU With 1.1 GB of L3 Cache Listed For $1,300 on Grey Market
AMD’s EPYC Genoa-X server processors with 3D V-Cache are expected to arrive later this year. A purported engineering sample (ES) of the EPYC 9684X he put up for sale on a Chinese pre-sale platform for $1,300.of Goofish (opens in new tab) The seller claims the processor uses 96 cores and 1,152MB of L3 cache.
Powered by TSMC’s 5nm process node, Genoa-X is the follow-up to AMD’s previous EPYC Milan-X chips. Upcoming Genoa-X chips will continue to leverage AMD’s Zen 4 cores just like the vanilla Genoa parts, topping out at 96 cores and 192 threads. The implementation boosts Genoa-X’s L3 cache to over 1GB.
A photo of the EPYC 9684X reportedly shows that the chip is related to the EPYC 9004 series lineup. Additionally, the “110.10 SP5” markings and a photo of the back of the processor seem to confirm that it is at least his EPYC chip, which plugs into socket SP5 (LGA6096).hardware leaker YuuKi_AnS (opens in new tab) The chip is there as we mentioned the EPYC 9684X as the flagship Genoa-X SKU. Unfortunately, the seller has not shared any screenshots of his EPYC 9684X.
AMD Genoa-X Specifications*
| processor | core | thread | L3 Cache (MB) | TDP (width) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPYC 9684X | 96 | 192 | 1,152 | 400 |
| EPYC 7773X | 64 | 128 | 768 | 280 |
| EPYC 9384X | 32 | 64 | 1,152 | 320 |
| EPYC 7573X | 32 | 64 | 768 | 280 |
| EPYC 9284X | twenty four | 48 | 1,152 | 320 |
| EPYC 7473X | twenty four | 48 | 768 | 240 |
| EPYC 9184X | 16 | 32 | 1,152 | 320 |
| EPYC 7373X | 16 | 32 | 768 | 240 |
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
However, given the merchant’s claim that the EPYC 9684X has 96 Zen 4 cores, it could be the flagship SKU in the Genoa-X lineup. There is also reportedly 1,152MB of L3 cache. This is a significant improvement over Milan-X. Milan-X has 768MB of L3 cache. Genoa-X therefore represents a whopping 50% increase. The cache layout also consists of 96MB of L2 cache and 3MB of L1 cache. Taking all caches into account, Genoa-X has a total of 1,251MB of cache per chip.
We know that a regular Genoa has a maximum L3 cache of 384MB. 3D V-Cache occupies the remaining 768MB of Genoa-X. What AMD has done with Genoa-X is very impressive. Genoa-X’s 3D V-Cache alone is equivalent to Milan-X’s total L3 cache.
AMD released four SKUs at Milan-X: EPYC 7773X (64 cores), EPYC 7573X (32 cores), EPYC 7473X (243 cores), and EPYC 7373X (16 cores). Assuming YuuKi_AnS’s insider info is accurate, Genoa-X should follow the same model and arrive with a similar core count with his L3 cache of 1,152MB.
Genoa boosted the core count from Milan’s 64 cores to 96 cores. Logically, the TDP will also be higher. Genoa’s TDP is up to 360W, 29% higher than Milan. It’s reasonable to speculate that Genoa-X could land with a higher TDP rating. According to Genoa-X leaks, AMD may keep the flagship EPYC 9684X at his 400W and other chips at his 320W.
So the EPYC 9684X’s TDP is only 11% higher than the regular 96-core EPYC 9654. However, compared to his previous EPYC 7773X, we see a 43% increase. Additionally, TDP increments vary by SKU. For example, the EPYC 9384X appears to have a 14% higher TDP than the EPYC 7573X, while the EPYC 9284X and EPYC 9184X have a 33% higher TDP than the EPYC 7473X and EPYC 7373X.
Genoa offers excellent performance to AMD’s data center customers thanks to its massive Zen 4 cores. Genoa-X definitely builds on top of that, providing extra firepower for latency-sensitive workloads. Genoa-X will launch in 2023, but AMD has not revealed when it will launch.
