Better power efficiency for Epyc and other heavyweight chips is a significant step forward.
AMD has stated that by 2025, it hopes to have increased the energy efficiency of its server chips by a factor of 30. A thirtyfold efficiency improvement in just four years is a seriously ambitious plan for its Epyc processors – the CPUs that go in servers – and AMD GPU accelerators, which are used in AI applications and high-performance computing. AMD ZEN
According to an independent assessment, AMD achieved efficiency gains of more than 31x, but the goal this time is to achieve a similar energy efficiency victory in four years rather than six. AMD admits that meeting the goal by 2025 will be difficult, and that “success is by no means a forgone conclusion.” AMD ZEN
To illustrate, AMD believes that a 30x increase in efficiency would outpace industry energy efficiency performance by 150 percent when compared to the previous five-year period. Understand this with caution, as it involves Red Red teamwork and data capture – as is always the case with PR ads – but it is clear that potential energy savings and a positive impact on the environment could be significant.
According to AMD, the potential savings could amount to “billions of kilowatt-hours of electricity” while “potentially reducing energy use per computation by 97 percent over the next five years.”
Analysis: Epyc progress is vital for many reasons
This new goal for Epyc and AMD Instinct accelerators is clearly important for sustainability and making data centers more environmentally friendly in general, especially at a time when climate change targets are becoming increasingly important.
While this is heavyweight silicon AMD is discussing here, driving improvements in that area, as well as R&D, will undoubtedly have a trickle-down effect on other areas of Team Red’s CPU portfolio, such as consumer chips.
Indeed, we’ve already seen AMD make significant strides in recent years, not only focusing on improving the performance of its Ryzen CPUs but also pushing forward with much better energy efficiency, with impressive results. So there’s no reason to doubt that this will continue as we approach the midpoint of this decade.
