AMD Extends 3rd Gen EPYC 'Milan' Availability, Adds New Models

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD's 4th Generation EPYC 'Genoa' and 'Bergamo' processors boast formidable performance, core counts, and expandability, but they're inherently more expensive than the company's 3rd Generation EPYC 'Milan' CPUs and platforms due to DDR5 memory, PCIe Gen5 support, and other factors. More critically, there are customers who need cheaper machines and/or already run hundreds or thousands of 3rd Gen EPYC-based machines and do not want to upgrade. AMD on Thursday extended Milan availability to 2026 and added six new SKUs to address these clients.

AMD's EPYC 7003-series processors are based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture and feature up to 64 cores, an eight-channel DDR4 memory subsystem, and 128-lane PCIe 4.0 connectivity. These CPUs provide a good value since DDR4 is still considerably cheaper than DDR5 and Milan-powered machines only need up to eight modules per socket. It's also easier to achieve great signal integrity with PCIe 4.0 connectivity without using expensive retimers, which lowers the cost of motherboards. Combined, the net result is much more affordable servers.

Apparently, for many of AMD customers, 64 cores, DDR4 memory, and PCIe 4.0 connectivity is good enough. That's why AMD is extending availability of Milan to 2026 and adding six new processors with 8, 16, 48, and 56 cores (with double the number of threads).

"Today's CIOs and IT decision makers leveraging aging data center infrastructure need a straightforward, seamless upgrade path toward next-generation technologies at a pace that meets their needs," said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, AMD. "We have seen a clear opportunity to give our customers more options that bring the leadership performance and efficiency of EPYC to less technically demanding but still business critical workloads. Servers powered by 3rd Gen AMD EPYC CPUs deliver impressive price-performance on widely deployed, cost effective and proven mainstream technologies."

AMD EPYC 7003 (Milan) Specifications

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ModelLaunch DateCoresThreadsBase Clock (GHz)Boost Clock (GHz)L3 Cache (MB)1kU PricingSocket CountPCIe 4.0 LanesTDP (W)cTDP (W)
EPYC 776303/15/2021641282.453.500256 $7,890 1P/2P128280225-280
EPYC 7713P03/15/2021641282.003.675256 $5,010 1P128225225-240
EPYC 771303/15/2021641282.003.675256 $7,060 1P/2P128225225-240
EPYC 7663P09/05/2023561122.003.500256 $3,139 1P128240225-280
EPYC 766303/15/2021561122.003.500256 $6,366 1P/2P128240225-240
EPYC 7643P09/05/202348962.303.600256 $2,722 1P128225225-240
EPYC 764303/15/202148962.303.600256 $4,995 1P/2P128225225-240
EPYC 75F303/15/202132642.954.000256 $4,860 1P/2P128280225-280
EPYC 7543P03/15/202132642.803.700256 $2,730 1P128225225-240
EPYC 754303/15/202132642.803.700256 $3,761 1P/2P128225225-240
EPYC 751303/15/202132642.603.650128 $2,840 1P/2P128200165-200
EPYC 745303/15/202128562.753.45064 $1,570 1P/2P128225225-240
EPYC 74F303/15/202124483.204.000256 $2,900 1P/2P128240225-240
EPYC 7443P03/15/202124482.854.000128 $1,337 1P128200165-200
EPYC 744303/15/202124482.854.000128 $2,010 1P/2P128200165-200
EPYC 741303/15/202124482.653.600128 $1,825 1P/2P128180165-200
EPYC 73F303/15/202116323.504.000256 $3,521 1P/2P128240225-240
EPYC 734303/15/202116323.203.900128 $1,565 1P/2P128190165-200
EPYC 7313P03/15/202116323.003.700128 $913 1P128155155-180
EPYC 731303/15/202116323.003.700128 $1,083 1P/2P128155155-180
EPYC 7303P09/05/202316322.403.40064 $594 1P128130120-150
EPYC 730309/05/202316322.403.40064 $604 1P/2P128130120-150
EPYC 72F303/15/20218163.704.100256 $2,468 1P/2P128180165-200
EPYC 7203P09/05/20238162.803.40064 $338 1P128120120-150
EPYC 720309/05/20238162.803.40064 $348 1P/2P128120120-150

When AMD released the EPYC 7003-series CPU platform in 2021, it positioned it for a wide range of applications, from general cloud servers and to high-performance computing machines. Moving forward, AMD will position the platform and processors as being fit for essential business infrastructure, value servers that still offer quite formidable performance and functionality.

AMD said that OEMs including Cisco, Dell, Gigabyte, HPE, Lenovo, and Supermicro will offer solutions tailored for new realities, which are going to be cheaper than original servers based on Milan. Those should all become available in the coming months.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • Order 66
    I understand that these are server chips, but I just don't understand why the EPYC 7203 exists, considering that a 7700x will be cheaper and faster, the only thing I can think of would be if you absolutely need the PCIe lanes, but a fast GPU and lots of fast storage won't do you much good if the CPU can't keep up.
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