Monday, May 25th 2020
Linus Torvalds Upgrades to AMD Threadripper After 15 Years with Intel
Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds revealed that he upgraded to an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X processor powered machine after 15 years of upgrading among Intel processors. This is likely his main machine from which he does pioneering work on the future of Linux and his other creations. His May 24 dated "State of the Kernel" blog post reveals that his hardware upgrade was the most exciting piece of news to share among the community.
"In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I, upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window," he stated. What makes this story big is the fact that the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and a processor with a similar multi-core architecture to AMD's EPYC enterprise processors, is now being used by the creator of the most popular enterprise operating system.
Sources:
Linux Kernel blog, The Register
"In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I, upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window," he stated. What makes this story big is the fact that the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and a processor with a similar multi-core architecture to AMD's EPYC enterprise processors, is now being used by the creator of the most popular enterprise operating system.
30 Comments on Linus Torvalds Upgrades to AMD Threadripper After 15 Years with Intel
I'd have jumped on the TR3000 as soon as it launched.
My last AMD desktop CPU was something from socket 939 (Venice or Winchester). Before that, Barton 2800 + Abit NF7.
Had some AMD CPUs in my laptops and HTPCs over the years. But I mostly use my Intel workstation(s).
Next processor is going to be AMD again. Don't like companies that restrict overclocking to select SKUs and chipsets.
My 5500XT on the other hand, is... kinda disappointing. I didn't do my homework, I though that all the tensor flow and tensor cores were already supported on AMD GPU.
Well, ML is supported on OpenCL but not even close to what nvidia cores can handle. And I was looking at the Nvidia cards, you know, for a replacement, and I started to like the 1650 super and such, but it happens they don't have tensor cores either. I mean, c'mon nvidia....
I understand him skipping 1st gen Ryzen (they really had unfixable Linux issues), but now there is no excuse.
I like my 8-core Intel but if I could afford a threadripper, I'd be all over that. Believe it or not, I'm only on this because someone else got out and I got it on a deal. It's good for the money I spent, but far better exists and I know it.
Did he use a Pentium back in 2005 ?
it's just that.. it wasn't the best but hell at 329 at launch for an 8 core 16 thread it was who doesn't want one for such uses ?
Zen+ still wasn't the best other than TR platform which was superior and zen2 it's a no question kinda deal.