Trying to compile a Frequently Asked Questions for Zen+ to include in our launch coverage.
What are some frequently asked questions you have about Zen+? We can include in our videos/articles for the website, once we know more ourselves.
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Maybe just generally how sensitive the CPU is to throttling, like can it keep say 2 cores turboed for extended periods under extreme load or does everything plummit?
Or can it keep all cores turboed no problem?
Very curious about StoreMI and how it works (or even if it works well). I assume it’s part of 400-series chipsets, but still curious.
Summary
For example, my mom could probably use a new PC within the next year, and I want to build her a tiny SFF 2200G-based system, but not have her worry about which device to throw stuff on. Can I get a M.2 to work with a 1TB drive and appear seamless, and have it actually work well and be snappy enough that she’s happy with it?
Is memory scaling still as big an issue, and how much does it affect the IF speeds this time around?
Have safe voltage limits changed? (this one would likely have to be directed at AMD directly I’d imagine)
How well do stock boosts work this time around? Maybe run light and heavy threaded tests to see how the CPU responds, and how consistent it is.
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My largest question is, is there any real performance increase other than the small clock speed bump? I know the process shrink is not a huge step and it grants a little bit of room for improvement, most if all because it’s just optical shrink, but still. I am most interested in the performance. Will they redesign anything or it’s just a small clock bump and refinements, Polish and stuff…
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Shouldn’t it have been Zen++ ?
Like others have said. Memory.
Previously Fast memory shows notable bumps for game performance. Faster memory = higher frames. This new version can utilise 3600+ speed ram. Does it show the same bumps over stock 2xxx speed and even the previous 3200 speed.
Motherboard compatibility. It is said the new Zen+ works on x370 boards as well as the new x470 boards. What is then impact of using then previous line over the newer ones should one go that route.
Temp off sets? Do they exist this time too? Or have they got it right out of the box.
On temps these are higher tdp parts I think, is the heat output much higher.
Do they over clock better than the last line? More headroom compared to previous zen?
Related to both the motherboard question and the ram speed one.
New zen can support higher speed ram but would new zen in old boards support faster ram or is it partly the boards and their bios that caused problems.with memory speed last time.
Can you run Zen+ in x370 boards with 3600+ speed ram stable?
Like this too, does Zen 1 gain eny memory speed benefits if you put it in an X470 board. Can the old cpus push past 3200 easier in a newer board?
Last time round certain CPUs came without coolers. What’s the situation this time.
What is the state of linux support and the PCI situation for pass through?
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You can put the 2000 series in the x370 boards… but can you put 1000 series in the x470 boards?
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Is it worth upgrading, for example, from a R5 1600 to an 2700x? Is it noticeable the difference between the 8700k and the 2700x? Which one do you recommend (for gaming in 1440p)?
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Is it true that Ryzen has 32 PCIe lanes … but the motherboards usually only use about 24-28 lanes?
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Based on what you may or not be seeing with zen+ on the 2000 series… what might we expect when threadripper gets refreshed?
You can edit your post to add more questions you know 
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- How does a Gen1 Ryzen CPU behave on an X470 mainboard.
a. RAM speeds in particular,
b. but also is there any effect on Overclocking, Voltages, Temperatures and all the Funny Bugs. - How does a Gen2 Ryzen CPU behave on an X370 mainboard.
- How are the Box Coolers performing and how far can one take them?
- What’s the VRM look like and can we get high resolution board photographs?
- How has system power draw changed versus Ryzen Gen1 at the same clocks.?
- The performance change vs Ryzen Gen 1 at the same clockrate?
- Can I get a full CPUID dump and what’s the Microcode version and Chip Batch Number?
- Some poking at XFR 2 and Precision Boost 2?
- How well does StoreMI really work?
- Any PCI-e bugs (ASPM) under heavy load in Linux (Particularly with Dual GPU setups)
a. Can you find any sleep or / C state related bugs.
There’s probably A few more points I’ll come up with later 
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Does it come with Spectre mitigations? How does IPC performance compare with OG Zen without Spectre mitigations installed?
This I can already answer: It doesn’t have silicon workarounds. And nothing for the foreseeable future will really have a silicon fix.
It has a microcode workaround just like Ryzen Gen 1 does in the form of new modes of execution which are controlled by the code flow. This means set by OS / compiled into the software.
Why would that stuff necessarily apply to unreleased product? I know the rumors are that Zen+ is just OG Zen die-shrunk and clocked a bit higher, but they could have sneaked some changes in, no?
Because the new Chip has already been in development for years to get up to this stage.
It’s much too late for anyone to change a fundamental aspect of the x86 fetch - decode - execute cycle. Specifically how speculative instruction fetching, decoding and execution is handled. Something that affects the entire pipeline and would require extensive rework, testing and modelling to prove formally correct.
By the time Spectre was discovered Zen+ was already way to far along for any big changes to be made
But lets not hijack this thread further.
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That’s why we call them mitigations rather than fixes; the first pass makes Spectre more difficult to pull off and/or reduces the performance impact of avoiding it. The next pass, which I agree will be a huge amount of work, will actually address the root cause.
Anyway, I think you’re probably right, but would like confirmation. I can live with Spectre. Meltdown not so much.
The board maker would need to update the bios. Other than that there shouldn’t be a reason not to be able to.
Why would you need to update a BIOS for a newer board? wut
1000 series Ryzen parts should work in X470 with no issues.
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