When Will DDR5 Be Available for Data Centers? AMD Rome, Milan & Genoa vs Intel Ice Lake, Sapphire Rapids & Granite Rapids
When will DDR5 be available for data centers?
Data Centers everywhere are wondering this exact question. When can they get their hands on DDR5 servers? Unfortunately, the answer is longer than they would like to hear, especially for Intel enthusiasts. DDR5 has technically been manufactured. We are waiting on the processors and motherboards to support them. Which means we are waiting on the race between Intel and AMD. Who will bring processors to market first that will support DDR5 server DIMMs? Answer is AMD. Yet, there is still some debate about the exact release date. AMD is projecting summer of 2022. We believe it will be closer to Q1 of 2023. Intel we estimate will be Q1 of 2024. To get a more accurate idea, we have built out a detailed roadmap for what we foresee will happen. AMD is much further ahead, and you will see that Intel’s best hopes for catching up are early 2024. Is there a new enterprise CPU King in town? How long can AMD hold the throne? For years we have always touted Intel as the best in class brand for processors. However, AMD enterprise CPUs currently provide superior performance, and we believe they will be for at least the next 3 years.
The Key Detail
AMD 7NM vs Intel 10NM is the most crucial aspect of all. AMD hit 7NM in 2019. Intel is struggling at 10NM in 2021. This may not sound like much, but this small difference has massive implications. Each CPU contains billions of transistors. Smaller transistors are more power efficient and produce less heat. Data Centers work very hard to reduce power consumption and keep their facilities cool. Less power and less heat is music to the ears of any data center manager. AMD is pushing towards 5nm by 2023. Intel is hoping for 7nm+ by 2023. The race is on and it appears AMD has the lead.
AMD Rome vs Intel Ice Lake
AMD Rome has been out since August of 2019. Intel is hoping to get Ice Lake out this summer, but we think it will shape up to be Q3 2021. That will be 2 years after AMD. Rome also has a superior transistor size over Ice Lake. 7NM vs 10NM+. Both support DDR4 memory and PCIe 4.0. Will be interesting to see where the Ice Lake truly benchmarks versus Rome. Intel is claiming 20-30% faster benchmarks depending on CPU comparison. Ironically, it will be AMD Milan vs Intel Ice Lake because Milan will likely arrive to market before Ice Lake. Leaving Intel basically 2 generations behind.
AMD Milan vs Intel Sapphire Rapids
Once again, AMD’s product will be released before Intel. Milan is expected to hit the market sometime in Q1 of 2021. We believe it will be in March. Sapphire Rapids is a bit trickier to identify the exact release date. Intel is saying Q2 of 2022. However, we believe Sapphire Rapids will not be available until summer for 2023. Over a full year after AMD Milan is unveiled. Milan will be 7nm+ utilizing DDR4 and PCIe 4.0. Sapphire Rapids will be 10nm Superfin and we are not 100% on the memory and PCIe. We have heard rumors it will be DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. However, we think only 1 or the other will be supported. Milan will actually be competing with Ice Lake since the release date is so far ahead of Sapphire Rapids. Not the best news for Intel. Milan vs Ice Lakes means Intel is still a full generation behind.
AMD Genoa vs Intel Granite Rapids
AMD projects Genoa to be released in the summer of 2022. Cloud Ninjas believes that it will actually be Q1 of 2023. Intel’s Granite Rapids release date is late 2023 and we think that it will be closer to Q1 of 2024. AMD will be roughly a year ahead of Intel. Best case scenario (for Intel) based on current roadmaps with no hiccups along the way… Intel catches up in 2024. AMD will have something after Genoa. And we are very excited to see what this will be. Genoa is now down to 5nm. Another amazing advancement for AMD. Granite Rapids is at 7nm+ which finally gets Intel into the 7nm realm. Unfortunately for them, AMD will be at 5nm over a year before Intel gets to 7nm. Both will support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. No benchmark comparison are available at this time. AMD Genoa will have a period of time competing with Intel Ice Lake and Sapphire Rapids. That will be a great period of time for AMD.
We have always been Intel Enthusiasts here at Cloud Ninjas. ‘Hats off’ to AMD. You have everyone in the markets attention. Once AMD drops Genoa, then DDR5 servers will officially be available for data centers around the world. We anticipate seeing DDR5 in early 2023 for AMD and early 2024 for Intel based servers. Until then, DDR4 servers will be best available option to data centers. Contain your excitement. We still have another 2 years before DDR5 is live.