AMD Gave Us Too Much Power | CPU Naming Problems

Steve & Gordon discuss AMD's new laptop CPU naming problem where, after 17 minutes of discussion, we determine that the year is ultimately the problem for AMD's new naming scheme. This was mostly meant to be a fun discussion at an event where we had just been given a decoder wheel for AMD's new CPU names. The wheel is genuinely really cool, but it does indicate a bigger problem -- needing a decoder ring to understand a product name.



TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - If You Need This, There's a Problem
01:51 - Discussion
04:46 - First Name Makes No Sense
06:05 - AMD Selling Old Cores with New Names
07:44 - What They're TRYING to Say
10:43 - Selling Lousy Things to Make Money
17:43 - THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE YEAR
21:00 - A Good Problem to Have

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Hosts: Steve Burke, Gordon Mah Ung
Video: Andrew Coleman

[GamersNexus]

This was just us getting back into 'trade show style' videos and working with someone else on some fun stuff! More normal content and reviews up soon!

[fVNzO]

Just to put it into perspective: AMD had a great naming scheme when zen launched. Just a 1000 for the first gen. Then they inexplicably decided to call their mobile parts for 2000, even though they were in fact 1000 series chips. Everyone thought, well this will cause problems. Their Zen+ chips were called 2000 and Zen 2, 3000. Everything is all good for dekstop. Mobile parts were perpetually one generation behind. And to make matters worse, AMD decided that the desktop APU parts should also adopt this same naming scheme.

So now we had a true generational marker for desktop without graphics, and APU's for dekstop AND mobile with confusing, leapfrogging naming. AMD realised this mistake and their solution was to skip 4000 for desktop and jump straight to 5000. Why? Nobody knows. Maybe to line up with RDNA2? Well, that lasted for one whole generation. It's anyones guess now.

We had some straggling zen 2 parts with 4000 names for a while, but with Zen 3 and the arrival of mobile 5000 parts. Everyone finally lined back up. Zen 3 on desktop, and mobile. Even desktop 5000G. 5K across the board. It took them 4 years to correct their terrible naming mistake.

Now? They decided to release a new mobile Zen 3+ architecture called 6000, and they decided to skip it entirely for desktop. We're out of sync yet again. 7000 is the new rage, somehow. Multibillion dollar company ladies and gentlemen. With no shred of naming competence. Do not get me started on their GPU division. My brother in christ.

[Nareimooncatt]

AMD: First we competed with Intel on price, then we competed on efficiency, then on performance, and now on confusing naming schemes.

[walkir]

That wheel makes me think of the good old Monkey Island copyright protection wheel.

[erkinalp]

Remember, there are two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, off by one errors.

[dangingerich]

I would have no problems with them selling older parts, as long as they were represented as such in the name. I am highly annoyed that I bought two 5700U laptops for my parents thinking they were Zen3 and finding out later they are Zen2. I would have no problem with AMD selling, for example, a Ryzen 2450G as a new part in 2022 that is just a Zen1 APU with some mildly increased compatibility with memory and slightly higher speeds than the old 2400G, for, say, $60. I WOULD have issues if AMD were to sell such a chip as a Ryzen 7150G, even if it is the same $60 price point. Same goes for Intel, or anyone else.

Older designs are still viable for years after the new designs come out, and can be made cheaper, as the design costs are covered after a time and the manufacturing process has matured to reduce defects, so why not make use of them? However, don't misrepresent them as newer designs.

[chadmckean]

18:18 It is just to make OEMs happy, if they can't put bigger numbers on boxes they are not happy, this is why we have ~12 iterations if the gt 430

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Jokes aside, that is a decoding wheel, not an encoding wheel. It is not designed to design a part number, it is designed to look at an actual part and see what is comprised of.

[jimtekkit]

In terms of total CPU combinations, if I counted right then it's 3 x 7 x 5 x 2 x 5 = 1050. That's a lot of CPU names to store in Steve's brain.

[urmensch]

You lost me at "now we are on the same page."

[therealsilens]

"The whole wheel is spinning!"

I'm dead. I just can't 😂

[TheDwarvenDefender]

Could AMD possibly make a digital version of the wheel...?

[Weezedog]

Remember the B550A motherboard AMD made for OEMs that was literally just a B450, but with a 5 as the first digit so OEMs could market it as new? This is the exact same BS. AMD has been doing this for years on laptop CPUs for the OEMs to market them as newer CPUs. It’s all solely for competitive advertising purposes.

[azraelspeaks]

This video is pure "drunk friends in a bar arguing over semantics but actually agreeing on every point" energy and absolute art.

[Ironclad]

This just feels like a convoluted way to hide that they're selling old stock and they don't want you to know what you're getting.

[CadeCraze]

What do you mean I totally understand the difference between the I7-1215eg00fu and i5-102560dynr

[SquintyGears]

The only excuse for this naming setup for old cores is if they're made on a new node as years go forward. So they're somewhat different in power characteristics if not performance. It could matter. But selling zen 1 cores just shouldn't make any economical sense at some point so this naming shouldn't be a real solution to any real problem.

[chemislife]

Someone needs to take all the options from that "decoder" and put it into a web page with a randomize function. Would be fun to see just how ridiculous it can get when it's truly random.

[WooShell]

I wish Intel would put that tool out.. and include the actual CPU name on it.. like all the Lake/Creek/Valley stuff, and a few animals and colors.. "ok, so the next gen i9 will be called.. Red Tiger Valley.."

[demrasnawla]

Very silly naming scheme, you could have a 9520U which is way slower than a 7540U but the average consumer will assume it's faster cos the number is much bigger