By: Jukka Larja (roskakori2006.delete@this.gmail.com), January 2, 2021 7:57 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Gabriele Svelto (gabriele.svelto.delete@this.gmail.com) on January 2, 2021 5:51 am wrote:
> Jukka Larja (roskakori2006.delete@this.gmail.com) on January 1, 2021 9:58 pm wrote:
> > Thanks, that's very nice. However, it doesn't tell me much about why is AMD calling it "unofficial"
> > support. Will 1 in 4 CPU have non-working ECC? 1 in 100? Or will Windows refuse to enable ECC
> > error reporting if support isn't official? Is it the same for new Zen 3 Ryzens?
>
> It works fine on Windows too, I checked and corrected errors are filed in the event log as I would expect.
> Considering motherboard vendors explicitly state that ECC memory is supported I don't think it's likely
> for processors to not support it - unless explicitly stated.
Then why is it unofficial?
> My guess is that
> AMD doesn't really care about self-built ECC rigs. What they care about is that OEMs don't ship ECC-enabled
> systems for businesses without using their "Pro" offerings. That's a form of market segmentation if you
> will, but a rather gentle one compared to Intel's absurd SKU lineup.
I don't buy it. If they have fully working and tested ECC on all their processors, why wouldn't they enable it officially at least for highend models?
> > In most cases, I just rather buy an actual server CPU.
>
> You can't go wrong with that if you don't mind the price difference.
Price is usually much smaller issue than performance and availability. I don't think the Epycs have as high clocks are Threadrippers and according to Wikipedia, there isn't a Ryzen Pro equivalent to Ryzen 9 3950X available.
-JLarja
> Jukka Larja (roskakori2006.delete@this.gmail.com) on January 1, 2021 9:58 pm wrote:
> > Thanks, that's very nice. However, it doesn't tell me much about why is AMD calling it "unofficial"
> > support. Will 1 in 4 CPU have non-working ECC? 1 in 100? Or will Windows refuse to enable ECC
> > error reporting if support isn't official? Is it the same for new Zen 3 Ryzens?
>
> It works fine on Windows too, I checked and corrected errors are filed in the event log as I would expect.
> Considering motherboard vendors explicitly state that ECC memory is supported I don't think it's likely
> for processors to not support it - unless explicitly stated.
Then why is it unofficial?
> My guess is that
> AMD doesn't really care about self-built ECC rigs. What they care about is that OEMs don't ship ECC-enabled
> systems for businesses without using their "Pro" offerings. That's a form of market segmentation if you
> will, but a rather gentle one compared to Intel's absurd SKU lineup.
I don't buy it. If they have fully working and tested ECC on all their processors, why wouldn't they enable it officially at least for highend models?
> > In most cases, I just rather buy an actual server CPU.
>
> You can't go wrong with that if you don't mind the price difference.
Price is usually much smaller issue than performance and availability. I don't think the Epycs have as high clocks are Threadrippers and according to Wikipedia, there isn't a Ryzen Pro equivalent to Ryzen 9 3950X available.
-JLarja