AMD unveils affordable Epyc 4004 desktop CPUs for small businesses

AMD has launched a bunch of new entry-level Epyc CPUs for small businesses. Dubbed as the Epic 4004 series, it consists of 8 SKUs with core counts ranging between 4 and 16 and TDP between 65 and 170 Watts. They include the bells and whistles of higher-end Epyc offerings, such as 3D V Cache and use Zen 4 cores instead of Zen 4c cores found on the Epic 8004 series.

The company has a new naming scheme for the Epyc 4004 series. The first number denotes the lineup, followed by the core count, performance and generation (Zen 4 in this case). Lastly, the letter "P" is for SKUs that are restricted to a 1P configuration and variants with 3D V Cache get an X at the end. 

The top-spec Epyc 4564P features 16 cores, 32 threads, 64 MB of L3 cache, 170 Watt TDP, a base/boost clock of 4.5/5.4 GHz and an MSRP of $699. Alternatively, those looking to trade some power headroom for extra L3 cache can opt for the Epyc 4584PX, which has the same core/thread count, 128 MB L3 cache, 120 Watt TDP, base/boost clocks of 4.4/5.7 GHz and the same MSRP. 

Epyc 4004 series of CPUs support up to 192 GB of dual-channel DDR5 5,200 MT/s ECC memory, 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes, 20 Gbps USB C, USB 4.0, DisplayPort 2.0, HDMI 2.1. ISAs such as AVX-512, VNNI and BFloat 16 are also supported. It is based on the AM5 socket and will work with motherboards from partners like Supermicro, Asrock Rack, Lenovo and more. 

Compared. to the 8-core Intel Xeon E-2488, the Epyc 4364p is 1.2x faster in "general purpose" performance, 1.1x faster in video encoding, 2.6x in OpenSSL throughput, and 1.5x faster in cryptography and cryptocurrency mining. AMD's offering costs just $399, with the Xeon E-2488 costing nearly double.