16 CORE RYZEN CPU!! WAN Show May 19, 2017

The WAN Show episode from May 19, 2017 covers a wide range of AMD and tech topics, starting with Linus and Luke catching up after a trip and diving into the week’s big headlines. They discuss AMD’s Thread Ripper, a family of high core count processors that push into the 16-core territory, and speculate on naming conventions and socket compatibility. The conversation delves into Naples, the server/enterprise processor, which later gets rebranded as Epic, and they compare it to Intel’s Xeon lineup in terms of features like PCIe lanes and memory bandwidth. Vega Frontier Edition graphics cards are analyzed for performance and architectural innovations, including memory bandwidth and potential usage in professional workloads, with comparisons to Nvidia’s Quadro line. Ryzen Mobile and Ryzen Pro announcements broaden the scope to laptops and business-focused chips, highlighting AMD’s push beyond consumer desktops. Throughout, the hosts evaluate what these developments mean for the market, competition with Intel, and the practical implications for builders, data centers, and enthusiasts. They also touch on related industry topics like first-party software support, benchmarks like Cinebench, and the realities of stock and earnings in the wake of AMD’s strategic shifts. The show blends humor and industry insight, with ad breaks for FreshBooks and Savage Jerky, and a teaser for Floatplane and Scrapyard Wars. The hosts brainstorm potential project ideas enabled by high core counts, including multi-GPU servers, virtualization improvements, and scalable transcoding, while weighing the tradeoffs of technology debt, power, and cost. They acknowledge that real-world workloads may favor more modest core counts for desktop usage, but emphasize that AMD’s pressure could drive Intel to innovate more aggressively. The conversation ends with reflections on branding choices like the Epic name, the challenges of marketing enterprise hardware to broader audiences, and a forward-looking note on how AMD’s roadmap might shape pricing and performance in the near term. Overall, the episode blends hands-on tech commentary with strategic market analysis, offering a snapshot of a pivotal moment in CPU and GPU architecture exploration. The show remains accessible to enthusiasts while providing context for professionals watching AMD’s evolving product stack. The hosts also tease future content and collaborations, signaling ongoing coverage of high-end hardware and industry dynamics. The tone remains optimistic about competition driving better performance and value for builders and researchers alike. Finally, the episode reinforces the value of benchmarking context, careful interpretation of claims, and the importance of understanding how new hardware translates to real-world workflows.

Topics · technology · computing · industry · science_and_technology