We missed this one. At some point, AMD launched a new 8 core EPYC “Naples” generation CPU. The AMD EPYC 7261 is an 8 core / 16 thread CPU, much like the EPYC 7251. You can read about the AMD EPYC 7251 Linux Benchmarks and Review the Entry EPYC. Where the new AMD EPYC 7261 differentiates itself is in the cache size. Unlike the AMD EPYC 7251, the AMD EPYC 7261 has a full 64MB L3 cache. That is absolutely an enormous figure. It means that there is a full 8MB L3 cache per core, or over 3x what a mainstream Intel Xeon Scalable 8 core (e.g. the Intel Xeon Silver 4110) has in L2+L3 caches. It is also about twice the L2+L3 caches of higher clock/ cache parts like the Intel Xeon Gold 6134. The clock speed is raised from a 2.1GHz base on the AMD EPYC 7251 to a 2.5GHz base on the AMD EPYC 7261. Along with the additional cache is a 155W/ 170W TDP. Memory speeds also move from DDR4-2400 to DDR4-2666 which is a major improvement as we showed in AMD EPYC Infinity Fabric Latency DDR4 2400 v 2666: A Snapshot.

AMD EPYC 7261 in the AMD EPYC Line-up

Since the AMD EPYC 7261 is not a “P” series part, it can run in single or dual socket servers. Here is the chip added to the “Naples” lineup. You can see that it provides an intriguing option for someone who wants to stick to lower core counts and yet higher clock speeds and more cache.

This chip quietly launched in June 2018, but we missed it since there was no announcement of the part. We have seen it available from major OEMs such as Dell EMC, HPE, and Supermicro. Pricing wise, we are still looking to get the official figure, but it seems to be a ~$150 price increase on most configurators over the EPYC 7251 which would put it about in the price range of the AMD EPYC 7281 16 core 32MB part. Here is a link to the product page.