AMD: ‘Big’ Channel Push For New EPYC 4005 CPUs Includes Windows Server Blitz Against Intel

With the latest versions of Windows Server requiring a 16-core license at minimum, AMD says the newly launched EPYC 4005 CPUs will help SMB customers get better utilization and performance-per-dollar than Intel’s Xeon 6 processors for low-cost servers.

AMD said it’s making a “big push” into the channel with its new EPYC 4005 processors that includes positioning the server chips as a way for SMB customers to “fully utilize” Windows Server licenses and get more bang for their buck than what Intel can provide.

Representing the lowest tier in AMD’s server CPU lineup, the EPYC 4005 series features up to two times more cores, up to five times more cache, 40 percent more I/O lanes, 16 percent memory and 50 percent higher maximum memory at significantly lower cost per core compared to Intel’s Xeon E-2400 and Xeon 6300P processors, according to AMD.

Launched on Tuesday, they also come with a full 512-bit data path with support for AVX-512 in contrast to the AVX2 support of the comparable Intel options, which is “really important for running these AI-type workloads efficiently,” said AMD product marketing manager Dennis McQueen in a briefing with journalists that was held last week.

The chips will be supported by major OEMs like Lenovo and Supermicro as well as others such as ASRock Rack, Gigabyte, International Computer Concepts, MSI and MiTAC. They will also be supported by cloud service providers such as Vultr, Scaleway and several others.

Targeted use cases and markets for the chips include general-purpose computing, code development, content creation, web hosting, computer vision, video analytics, e-commerce, retail and AI-enhanced workloads.

With prices spanning from $239 to $699, the six single-socket EPYC 4005 CPUs offer significantly lower cost-per-core in the range of $40 to $44 in contrast to the $53 to $84 dollar-per-core span of the Xeon E-2400 and Xeon 6300P chips, AMD said.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip designer said the EPYC processors also offer competitive performance, with the 6-core EPYC 4245P running 16 percent faster on average than the 8-core Xeon 6369P and the 8-core EPYC 4345P offering an even greater boost of 38 percent.

Like the preceding EPYC 4004 series, the EPYC 4005 chips also stand out for offering models that go beyond the 8-core limit of Intel’s Xeon E-2400 and Xeon 6300P processors with four variants that have 12 or 16 cores, according to AMD. The 16-core EPYC 4565P runs 83 percent faster performance on average than Intel’s 8-core Xeon 63969P, it added.

The thermal design power for these chips spans from 65 watts to 170 watts.

“We just continue to obliterate it from a performance perspective as well as a performance-per-watt and performance-per-dollar perspective,” McQueen said.

EPYC 4005 Chips Key To Expanding AMD’s Channel

Greg Gibby, a senior product manager at AMD, told CRN that the company’s “big push” into the channel for these new EPYC chips includes new tools that will help channel partners track how they’re selling as well as new training through AMD Arena.

“When we look at the route to market for SMB, it is through the channel, and so we have to get better at addressing that space,” he said in the briefing.

As CRN reported last year, AMD’s server CPU business unit has been doubling down on channel partners to fight Intel’s dominance in data centers across the enterprise and, increasingly, the midmarket and SMB segments.

In AMD’s earnings call last week, CEO Lisa Su said that the company is “expanding investments” in its product and technology road maps and go-to-market initiatives, among other things, to seize on the next wave of growth opportunities it sees despite economic uncertainty.

Gibby said this boost in spending applies to AMD’s channel efforts with EPYC.

“When we look at the enterprise, we have a great footprint there, but there’s also a lot of opportunity to continue to grow that footprint, and the 4005 [series] is one of those that is a key for us to expand that channel,” he said.

AMD Sees Big Opportunity To Boost Windows Server Utilization

One area where AMD sees a big opportunity for the channel with the EPYC 4005 series is server licensing, particularly when it comes to Microsoft’s Windows Server operating system.

With Intel’s comparable CPUs providing only up to eight cores, AMD said the EPYC 4005 series’ inclusion of 16-core options makes the lineup more appealing to customers running the 2022 and 2025 versions of Windows Server for their data centers.

That’s because both Windows Server 2025 and Windows Server 2022 require a 16-core license at minimum. As a result, the 16-core EPYC 4005 models allow customers to “fully utilize their licenses” and gives them “headroom as they grow their business,” according to Gibby, who called this a “huge advantage for AMD.”

“I think that’s one of the things that’s going to be a real key differentiator as we begin to get more and more folks in the channel enabled,” he said.

McQueen also pointed out that two of AMD’s16-core EPYC 4005 models cost a little less than Intel’s 8-Core Xeon chips, which he said makes the deal much sweeter.

“So you got to be scratching your head if you’re wondering why I wouldn’t want to take advantage of that,” he said, addressing a customer’s perspective. “Not everybody’s running Windows, but for those who are, this is a big deal.”

EPYC 4005 Series: More Specs And Features

Based on the Zen 5 architecture, the EPYC 4005 series offers a minimum base frequency of 3GHz, a maximum frequency of up to 5.7GHz and up to 64 MB of L3 cache for all but one 16-core model that scales to 128 MB of L3 cache, enabled by AMD’s 3-D V-Cache technology.

Compatible with AMD’s AM5 platform, the chips support two channels of DDR5 memory, memory speeds of up to 5600MHz with error-correcting code and up to 192 GB/s of memory bandwidth via two DIMMs per channel.

The processors include the AMD Secure Processor, which features a dedicated, TrustZone-compatible security subsystem as well as a Trusted Platform Module 2.0, crypto acceleration, secure boot and secure memory encryption.

The processors also feature up to 28 lanes of PCIe Gen 5, a 20G USB Type-C connection, an option for a USB4 add-on as well as ports for DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.0.