Dr. Lisa Su proudly proclaimed that her team managed a 15% IPC uplift for Zen 2-based Ryzen processors during her Computex keynote. Slides from MSI, however, indicate only a 13% uplift. Naturally, that sparked a little bit of controversy as to what the truth was.
“The slide that was presented to MSI showcased a 13% IPC improvement, which is still a decent uptick and nothing to complain about. But was it a disconnect? Was it planned in case of a leak so that if it had leaked then people would anticipate a 13% IPC uplift then have their expectations subverted when the 15% slide was shown publically? It is always possible that the 13% slide shown to MSI was a much earlier revision prior to final performance tuning and nothing to panic over.
Senior Technical Marketing Manager Robert Hallock has addressed this inconsistency in a tweet. Hallock explains that AMD’s original plan was to use a Cinebench 1T-derived IPC figure, which was 13%. The company later decided to go with the SPECint-derived figure of 15%.
Clarification on 13% or 15%:
— Robert Hallock🌹 (@Thracks) May 30, 2019
Prior to presenting onstage @ Computex , we planned to use a Cinebench 1T-derived IPC figure. That is 13%. Slides were made and shared.
In the end, we decided it would be best to use a more rigorous SPECint-derived figure. That is 15%.